Coyote Control Now Has Support
Among Liberal Austin Urbanites
By John Bradshaw
AUSTIN — Urbanites are usually the ones leading the charge against predator control, but it turns out that most change their tune when their pets become the prey.
It is even more surprising when those urbanites live in Texas' most liberal city. But Austin has an urban coyote problem, and several years ago people got fed up enough to do something about it.
Travis County and the City of Austin entered into an agreement with Wildlife Services, and since 2005, Randy Farrar, a wildlife damage management biologist, has been the city's urban coyote trapper.
The situation has improved significantly since 2005, though problems remain and Farrar has been busy lately. Coyotes roam the streets both night and day, kill deer in people's yards, and wreak havoc on cats and dogs. The more aggressive coyotes take dogs off leashes and even chase joggers, bicyclists and lawnmowers.
Governor Rick Perry received a lot of attention last year when his dog was attacked while accompanying Perry on a jog in southwest Austin. Perry was packing heat, though, and dispatched the coyote himself.
Fat housecats are easy prey for coyotes. Farrar said when coyotes become a problem in a particular neighborhood it is obvious because the cats begin sleeping on top of houses and cars. When the coyotes get really bad, the cats disappear altogether.
Coyote attacks on humans are not as rare as once thought. California, which has a large urban coyote problem, has documented many attacks on both children and adults. In late 2009 a woman hiking in Canada was killed by two coyotes.
Several years ago two small children were attacked and injured in Bee County, and Farrar said there are numerous unverified accounts from around the state.
In Austin there have been many attacks, though all but one are what Farrar classifies as provoked. The single unprovoked attack involved a teenager who was bitten while sitting on his back porch. The young man had to receive rabies shots.
A provoked attack is when the human places himself into the situation, such as cornering a coyote or intervening in a pet killing.
One memorable provoked attack happened when a resident heard a coyote attacking his cat. The man went outside and grabbed the coyote by the scruff of the neck. The coyote, of course, bit the man, but the cat rescuer still did not let go. He yelled for his sister to bring him a knife, and when she did, the man stabbed the coyote.
When Farrar arrived, there was blood everywhere, a Bowie knife bloody to the hilt, and no coyote. He suspects the coyote died soon after, considering the size of the knife and the amount of blood.
A woman once called Farrar on the phone, frantic because there was a coyote in her garage, trying to come on into the house. People often leave their garage doors cracked open so their cats can come and go as they please, and the coyotes often chase the cats into the garages.
This particular coyote had chased the cat into the garage, but the cat continued through a cat door into the house. The coyote tried to follow but couldn't quite fit.
"It's a good thing," Farrar said. "I can only imagine what would have happened then."
During the frantic phone call, the coyote was still in the garage. Farrar advised the homeowner to open the garage door and let the coyote leave.
The coyotes haven't taken Austin by siege. Walkers, joggers and bicyclists still fill the streets and parks. A few carry golf clubs now, though.
The problem, said Farrar, is that the coyotes have become habituated to people and no longer fear them. First they become bold, and then some become aggressive.
"It all has to do with whether they are afraid of you," Farrar said.
Part of Farrar's job is educating the public. He often gives speeches at homeowners associations and other events. He tries to educate the people about coyotes, and what they can do to help keep them out of their neighborhoods.
He is constantly telling people to quit leaving pet food outside, and in some cases he advises them not to even leave the cats outside.
"We tell them, 'If you're leaving your cats outside, you're just inviting the coyotes in,'" Farrar said.
He tells homeowners to harass troublesome coyotes by yelling or throwing things, but he admitted that once the coyotes get past a certain point in the habituation process, they don't scare easily. They stand their ground.
"If you're just yelling at them, they'll just sit down and look at you," he said.
Easy meals like pet food and trash cans bring the coyotes in, but Farrar said the worst thing some people do is to intentionally feed the coyotes. Children especially like to do this, and schoolchildren have been caught sharing their lunches.
Farrar has heard of children in California feeding coyotes by hand, but the Austin kids place the food in certain spots each day. He told of one elementary school where the kids left food on a big rock in the playground.
"That was the first time I ever got on to a principal," Farrar said.
He had to get stern with school administrators because the coyotes were hanging around the playground during the day, watching the children.
Most of the cases in which coyotes attack dogs, whether the dogs are loose or on a leash, Farrar said, are because the coyotes are defending their territory. Wild coyotes will challenge dogs from a distance, but the habituated city coyotes are bold enough to fight, even if a person is nearby.
"Any time you've got coyotes and you start walking your dog, they're going to let you know they're around," Farrar said.
A walking trail along Shoal Creek is bordered by brush. Coyotes have leapt out of the brush and right onto leashed dogs. The coyotes are not afraid of big dogs, either.
Austin began collecting data on coyote encounters several years before Wildlife Services ever came in. They still have a 311, non-emergency call number for reporting coyote incidents.
The city only wants Farrar to remove coyotes that have become too bold or aggressive. He does not proactively hunt and trap all coyotes. His job is more reactive.
"The city doesn't want us to go out and preventively remove coyotes. They're not really interested in that," Farrar said.
Part of that thinking, he said, is that the coyotes might balance the high deer numbers in town. He does not really believe that will ever happen, and though he doesn't completely agree with the reactive-not-proactive approach, he follows it.
"They may not be killing something now, but they will be," he said.
Austin is a different kind of place, he admitted, and just goes with the flow. There has been some opposition to the program, but not much. And while the city only wants him to take problem coyotes, he said the cat owners want him to kill them all.
Reported coyote encounters are categorized on a scale, and this is used to determine which areas require removal of coyotes. Even the behaviors that rate low on the scale likely seem outrageous to people accustomed to wild coyotes.
The scale runs from zero through seven, with a zero signifying normal coyote behavior that includes avoiding humans. A number one signifies coyotes on the streets or yards at night. Twos involve coyotes approaching adult humans or taking pets at night or in the presence of humans.
Number three behavior happens when coyotes are seen in the morning or evening. Coyotes attacking pets during the daytime receive a number four.
Number five happens when coyotes take pets off leashes or in close proximity to people, or actually chase people. Sixes are when coyotes hang around playgrounds or parks during midday. Last, number seven, is when coyotes are aggressive toward adults at midday.
Austin's coyotes are upscale, and they prefer the west side of town and its fancy neighborhoods. There are plenty of parks, golf courses, greenbelts and mitigation lands for them to thrive in.
The coyotes first inhabit the open areas, such as golf courses, parks and cemeteries. Farrar said once they set up shop there, they begin spreading out. When the pups get kicked out of the nest, there is nowhere to go but further into town. And because there is so much food available, coyotes can live in much smaller areas.
Controlling coyotes in town is much the same, and much different, than the same work done in the country. Farrar has to fight traffic to get to his trapline, which he must check daily. He cannot use M-44s, but he still sets leg traps and snares, and he calls and shoots, all within the city limits.
He works on both public and private land. He tries to find empty space, even if it is only a few acres. Nearly everyone has a cell phone camera these days, and he had just as soon not be photographed doing his job.
The first thing on his priority list is public safety, followed by the goal of staying off the evening news. He tries to keep out of the public eye. Catching coyotes is last on the priority list.
During the six years he has been working the city, Farrar has taken 63 bold or aggressive coyotes. He said if the city wanted, he could get 200 per year. Toward the beginning of the program, when things were worse, in one small area he quickly caught 11 coyotes that were especially troublesome. He believes there may have been some dog bred into that bunch, because one was black in color and the biggest weighed 42 pounds.
Because of the urban setting, trapping is a little different. His leg traps are padded, and his snares have stops to ensure they are non-lethal. He always checks his traps daily, and in some very public places he checks them twice a day. He removes the traps every weekend because of the increased human activity.
"So the traps are only set four nights out of seven. That hurts our efficiency," he said.
Farrar has often gone back after the weekend and found sign that coyotes went right through the area. He just has to wait for them to come back, and hope it is during the week.
One particularly difficult location was a small park far from the outskirts of town, where two coyotes were hanging around children during the daytime. The park was almost closed because of it. Farrar trapped the first coyote on private property nearby, during the day and within one hour. The other would sit along the edge of the brush and bark. He never caught it, but it finally left the area.
He never uses bait; he just uses trail sets, generally on faint trails off the main trail.
Farrar uses pan-tension devices on his leg traps, so that only animals weighing 25 pounds or heavier will set them off. He puts up signs warning people that traps are set in the area.
There has only been one non-target capture during the entire program. A dog was trapped in a creek bed, but the padded trap didn't hurt the dog, and it was back to normal by that evening.
Coyotes that are trapped in a public-type area are sedated, and then either Farrar or animal control takes them to Town Lake Animal Shelter for euthanasia.
If a coyote is caught in a secluded spot, Farrar shoots it in the trap with his suppressed Ruger .22.
"To me that's the humane thing. The drugging and hauling, that stresses them out. The quicker you can get it done, the better it is for the animal," he said.
When Farrar shoots a coyote, he bags the carcass. Everything is done out of sight.
"Even if people are supportive of the program, they don't want to see," he explained.
The coyotes are all euthanized, though technically they could be relocated up to 10 miles. Farrar said they would come right back, though.
In addition to trapping, Farrar does a good bit of calling and shooting. Most of the places he hunts require him to use a shotgun, because of both the terrain and proximity to people.
Farrar carries a radio, and he always calls police dispatch before he carries a gun around outside. He does not want the police to get a call informing them that someone is carrying a gun around a greenbelt. He said a dozen cop cars would soon be there.
"And I don't need some cop drawing down on me," Farrar said.
Even though all this happens inside the city, Farrar isn't trapping and shooting right on people's lawns. The area is full of hills, parks and greenbelts. There are many places he can get away from people, by Austin standards, at least.
http://www.livestockweekly.com
Among Liberal Austin Urbanites
By John Bradshaw
AUSTIN — Urbanites are usually the ones leading the charge against predator control, but it turns out that most change their tune when their pets become the prey.
It is even more surprising when those urbanites live in Texas' most liberal city. But Austin has an urban coyote problem, and several years ago people got fed up enough to do something about it.
Travis County and the City of Austin entered into an agreement with Wildlife Services, and since 2005, Randy Farrar, a wildlife damage management biologist, has been the city's urban coyote trapper.
The situation has improved significantly since 2005, though problems remain and Farrar has been busy lately. Coyotes roam the streets both night and day, kill deer in people's yards, and wreak havoc on cats and dogs. The more aggressive coyotes take dogs off leashes and even chase joggers, bicyclists and lawnmowers.
Governor Rick Perry received a lot of attention last year when his dog was attacked while accompanying Perry on a jog in southwest Austin. Perry was packing heat, though, and dispatched the coyote himself.
Fat housecats are easy prey for coyotes. Farrar said when coyotes become a problem in a particular neighborhood it is obvious because the cats begin sleeping on top of houses and cars. When the coyotes get really bad, the cats disappear altogether.
Coyote attacks on humans are not as rare as once thought. California, which has a large urban coyote problem, has documented many attacks on both children and adults. In late 2009 a woman hiking in Canada was killed by two coyotes.
Several years ago two small children were attacked and injured in Bee County, and Farrar said there are numerous unverified accounts from around the state.
In Austin there have been many attacks, though all but one are what Farrar classifies as provoked. The single unprovoked attack involved a teenager who was bitten while sitting on his back porch. The young man had to receive rabies shots.
A provoked attack is when the human places himself into the situation, such as cornering a coyote or intervening in a pet killing.
One memorable provoked attack happened when a resident heard a coyote attacking his cat. The man went outside and grabbed the coyote by the scruff of the neck. The coyote, of course, bit the man, but the cat rescuer still did not let go. He yelled for his sister to bring him a knife, and when she did, the man stabbed the coyote.
When Farrar arrived, there was blood everywhere, a Bowie knife bloody to the hilt, and no coyote. He suspects the coyote died soon after, considering the size of the knife and the amount of blood.
A woman once called Farrar on the phone, frantic because there was a coyote in her garage, trying to come on into the house. People often leave their garage doors cracked open so their cats can come and go as they please, and the coyotes often chase the cats into the garages.
This particular coyote had chased the cat into the garage, but the cat continued through a cat door into the house. The coyote tried to follow but couldn't quite fit.
"It's a good thing," Farrar said. "I can only imagine what would have happened then."
During the frantic phone call, the coyote was still in the garage. Farrar advised the homeowner to open the garage door and let the coyote leave.
The coyotes haven't taken Austin by siege. Walkers, joggers and bicyclists still fill the streets and parks. A few carry golf clubs now, though.
The problem, said Farrar, is that the coyotes have become habituated to people and no longer fear them. First they become bold, and then some become aggressive.
"It all has to do with whether they are afraid of you," Farrar said.
Part of Farrar's job is educating the public. He often gives speeches at homeowners associations and other events. He tries to educate the people about coyotes, and what they can do to help keep them out of their neighborhoods.
He is constantly telling people to quit leaving pet food outside, and in some cases he advises them not to even leave the cats outside.
"We tell them, 'If you're leaving your cats outside, you're just inviting the coyotes in,'" Farrar said.
He tells homeowners to harass troublesome coyotes by yelling or throwing things, but he admitted that once the coyotes get past a certain point in the habituation process, they don't scare easily. They stand their ground.
"If you're just yelling at them, they'll just sit down and look at you," he said.
Easy meals like pet food and trash cans bring the coyotes in, but Farrar said the worst thing some people do is to intentionally feed the coyotes. Children especially like to do this, and schoolchildren have been caught sharing their lunches.
Farrar has heard of children in California feeding coyotes by hand, but the Austin kids place the food in certain spots each day. He told of one elementary school where the kids left food on a big rock in the playground.
"That was the first time I ever got on to a principal," Farrar said.
He had to get stern with school administrators because the coyotes were hanging around the playground during the day, watching the children.
Most of the cases in which coyotes attack dogs, whether the dogs are loose or on a leash, Farrar said, are because the coyotes are defending their territory. Wild coyotes will challenge dogs from a distance, but the habituated city coyotes are bold enough to fight, even if a person is nearby.
"Any time you've got coyotes and you start walking your dog, they're going to let you know they're around," Farrar said.
A walking trail along Shoal Creek is bordered by brush. Coyotes have leapt out of the brush and right onto leashed dogs. The coyotes are not afraid of big dogs, either.
Austin began collecting data on coyote encounters several years before Wildlife Services ever came in. They still have a 311, non-emergency call number for reporting coyote incidents.
The city only wants Farrar to remove coyotes that have become too bold or aggressive. He does not proactively hunt and trap all coyotes. His job is more reactive.
"The city doesn't want us to go out and preventively remove coyotes. They're not really interested in that," Farrar said.
Part of that thinking, he said, is that the coyotes might balance the high deer numbers in town. He does not really believe that will ever happen, and though he doesn't completely agree with the reactive-not-proactive approach, he follows it.
"They may not be killing something now, but they will be," he said.
Austin is a different kind of place, he admitted, and just goes with the flow. There has been some opposition to the program, but not much. And while the city only wants him to take problem coyotes, he said the cat owners want him to kill them all.
Reported coyote encounters are categorized on a scale, and this is used to determine which areas require removal of coyotes. Even the behaviors that rate low on the scale likely seem outrageous to people accustomed to wild coyotes.
The scale runs from zero through seven, with a zero signifying normal coyote behavior that includes avoiding humans. A number one signifies coyotes on the streets or yards at night. Twos involve coyotes approaching adult humans or taking pets at night or in the presence of humans.
Number three behavior happens when coyotes are seen in the morning or evening. Coyotes attacking pets during the daytime receive a number four.
Number five happens when coyotes take pets off leashes or in close proximity to people, or actually chase people. Sixes are when coyotes hang around playgrounds or parks during midday. Last, number seven, is when coyotes are aggressive toward adults at midday.
Austin's coyotes are upscale, and they prefer the west side of town and its fancy neighborhoods. There are plenty of parks, golf courses, greenbelts and mitigation lands for them to thrive in.
The coyotes first inhabit the open areas, such as golf courses, parks and cemeteries. Farrar said once they set up shop there, they begin spreading out. When the pups get kicked out of the nest, there is nowhere to go but further into town. And because there is so much food available, coyotes can live in much smaller areas.
Controlling coyotes in town is much the same, and much different, than the same work done in the country. Farrar has to fight traffic to get to his trapline, which he must check daily. He cannot use M-44s, but he still sets leg traps and snares, and he calls and shoots, all within the city limits.
He works on both public and private land. He tries to find empty space, even if it is only a few acres. Nearly everyone has a cell phone camera these days, and he had just as soon not be photographed doing his job.
The first thing on his priority list is public safety, followed by the goal of staying off the evening news. He tries to keep out of the public eye. Catching coyotes is last on the priority list.
During the six years he has been working the city, Farrar has taken 63 bold or aggressive coyotes. He said if the city wanted, he could get 200 per year. Toward the beginning of the program, when things were worse, in one small area he quickly caught 11 coyotes that were especially troublesome. He believes there may have been some dog bred into that bunch, because one was black in color and the biggest weighed 42 pounds.
Because of the urban setting, trapping is a little different. His leg traps are padded, and his snares have stops to ensure they are non-lethal. He always checks his traps daily, and in some very public places he checks them twice a day. He removes the traps every weekend because of the increased human activity.
"So the traps are only set four nights out of seven. That hurts our efficiency," he said.
Farrar has often gone back after the weekend and found sign that coyotes went right through the area. He just has to wait for them to come back, and hope it is during the week.
One particularly difficult location was a small park far from the outskirts of town, where two coyotes were hanging around children during the daytime. The park was almost closed because of it. Farrar trapped the first coyote on private property nearby, during the day and within one hour. The other would sit along the edge of the brush and bark. He never caught it, but it finally left the area.
He never uses bait; he just uses trail sets, generally on faint trails off the main trail.
Farrar uses pan-tension devices on his leg traps, so that only animals weighing 25 pounds or heavier will set them off. He puts up signs warning people that traps are set in the area.
There has only been one non-target capture during the entire program. A dog was trapped in a creek bed, but the padded trap didn't hurt the dog, and it was back to normal by that evening.
Coyotes that are trapped in a public-type area are sedated, and then either Farrar or animal control takes them to Town Lake Animal Shelter for euthanasia.
If a coyote is caught in a secluded spot, Farrar shoots it in the trap with his suppressed Ruger .22.
"To me that's the humane thing. The drugging and hauling, that stresses them out. The quicker you can get it done, the better it is for the animal," he said.
When Farrar shoots a coyote, he bags the carcass. Everything is done out of sight.
"Even if people are supportive of the program, they don't want to see," he explained.
The coyotes are all euthanized, though technically they could be relocated up to 10 miles. Farrar said they would come right back, though.
In addition to trapping, Farrar does a good bit of calling and shooting. Most of the places he hunts require him to use a shotgun, because of both the terrain and proximity to people.
Farrar carries a radio, and he always calls police dispatch before he carries a gun around outside. He does not want the police to get a call informing them that someone is carrying a gun around a greenbelt. He said a dozen cop cars would soon be there.
"And I don't need some cop drawing down on me," Farrar said.
Even though all this happens inside the city, Farrar isn't trapping and shooting right on people's lawns. The area is full of hills, parks and greenbelts. There are many places he can get away from people, by Austin standards, at least.
http://www.livestockweekly.com
