coyote attack in Cape Breton

[JAGDMORDER]

Here is the story (for you guys on dial-up).





All women should be armed, and trained, and confident...

Be carefull what you wish for.lol.

 

[Wendell]

Bounty decision to come next week

Natural Resources Minister Charlie Parker says a decision on the future of the province’s pelt incentive program will come next week.
<http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1265987.html>

"The harvest was up about 50 per cent over the previous year and . . . the education program, we think, has been well received."- Natural Resources Minister Charlie Parker

<http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1265987.html>

Halifax, NS | Sat, October 1st, 2011​

Bounty decision to come next week
Parker: Coyote program has seen favourable results
By MICHAEL GORMAN Truro Bureau
Sat, Oct 1 - 4:55 AM

COALBURN — With reports of aggressive coyote encounters down from last year, the province’s Natural Resources minister says a decision on the future of the province’s pelt incentive program will come next week.

Charlie Parker, who was in Pictou County Friday for a tour of the area’s new jail site, said there were talks this week about the program that pays harvesters a $20 fee for every pelt they collect during trapping season.

"Probably by Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll have that decision," he said.

Parker said the program, which includes an education component delivered through schools and wildlife groups, has been well received.

The province also hired a conflict wildlife biologist and it sends trappers after coyotes known to be aggressive.

There were 10 reports of aggressive coyotes from April to September of 2010. This year that number is down to one.

Although he would not single out any one part of the program, Parker said they’ve seen favourable results since putting it in place last year.

"It’s probably a combination of reasons why the number of incidents are down at this point," he said. "The harvest was up about 50 per cent over the previous year and . . . the education program, we think, has been well received."

( mgorman@herald.ca)

© 2011 The Halifax Herald Limited
<http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1265987.html>

 

[Wendell]

Ottawa plans study to reduce coyote encounters

Parks Canada plans to pay an American biologist $100,000 to come up with a plan to reduce encounters between people and coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
<http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/50406-ottawa-plans-study-reduce-coyote-encounters>

Ottawa plans study to reduce coyote encounters

January 10, 2012 - 4:35am By MICHAEL MACDONALD The Canadian Press

Parks Canada plans to pay an American biologist $100,000 to come up with a plan to reduce encounters between people and coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The proposed contract announced Monday comes more than two years after a young Toronto woman was mauled to death by coyotes while hiking alone in the park. Taylor Mitchell’s death on Oct. 28, 2009, marked the first recorded fatal coyote attack in Nova Scotia, and only the second in North America.

Ten months later, an unidentified 16-year-old Nova Scotia girl was bitten twice on the scalp as she slept outside at one of the park’s campgrounds. The girl needed stitches to close her wounds.

The maulings were among several coyote attacks across Nova Scotia that prompted the province to offer a $20 bounty for coyote pelts. About 2,600 of the province’s 8,000 coyotes were trapped last season for the bounty.

An official with Parks Canada said no one was immediately available for comment.

The federal government’s two-year project in Cape Breton will include live-trapping coyotes in the park and tracking them with global positioning system collars.

Parks Canada says the contract will be awarded to Stan Gehrt at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Ill., unless a better bid comes forward in the next two weeks.

"In the last 15 years there has been an increase in conflict between coyotes and humans, both in frequency and severity," the agency said in an advance contract notice posted Monday on the federal government’s online tendering service.

"The primary objectives are to change the behaviour of coyotes so as to reduce conflict between coyotes and humans."

Gehrt’s project is to be completed by April 2014. It will also include information about coyote survival rates, diet, range, den locations and whether availability of human food has played a role in promoting aggressive behaviour.

As well, Parks Canada wants an aversion strategy that looks at what tools or techniques will change coyote behaviour.

Gehrt, who teaches at Ohio State University in Columbus, is considered "the leading expert on urban coyotes in North America," Parks Canada said.

"There are no other researchers who have the combination of experience and expertise needed to achieve the objectives of this project."

It remains unclear why Nova Scotia’s coyotes have become more bold, an observation challenged by experts who say routine coyote encounters are getting more attention from the media. Some have suggested mild winters, urban sprawl and a diminished supply of snowshoe hares are to blame.

In August 2010, a spokesman for Cape Breton Highlands said park staff would continue to trap and kill aggressive coyotes, but Derek Quann said the province’s decision to promote a cull was a bad idea. He said studies have shown bounties don’t work because coyotes have the ability to reproduce quickly even when their population is under stress.

Hunting and trapping are not allowed in most federal parks. However, culls have been carried out inside parks when resident animal populations have grown too large. About 400 moose were recently killed in Newfoundland’s two national parks.

<http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/50406-ottawa-plans-study-reduce-coyote-encounters>

 

[lone-wolf]

Money going to a bounty, sure why not. Money going to some American Biologist, not so fine with.

unless a better bid comes forward in the next two weeks.

Hmmmm I reminder Sarah Field(if I remember her name correctly) did research about PEI coyotes. How about we go with someone local first? Offer her $95,000

But really. I already know the results. Don't travel alone, don't go out at night, Do not feed the ####ing coyotes, ect.

 

[Wendell]

And carry a big stick.

 

[Big Game]

I've got a plan that won't cost $100,000. Buy a few cases of .223, set them up at the park gate, anyone with a rifle is free to pick up ammo and go shoot them. Encounters between coyotes and humans will be greatly reduced - cost maybe $1,000 tops. Parks Canada must be run by the same morons that run the CBC!

 

[nexgen]

Not that i mind the extra 20 bucks, but if they allowed us to use centerfire rifles year round, it would go a long ways toward putting fear back into them.

Also we have to be 274 m from the nearest house when setting traps or snares even if it is my own property, unless i hhave permission from the neighbors. Make it so I can trap my own property without my neighbors permission.

 

[seth]

"The primary objectives are to change the behaviour of coyotes so as to reduce conflict between coyotes and humans"

I watched a "Land and Sea" episode shortly after that poor girl was killed... some douche bag biologist suggested on the show that we use "fireworks" to teach coyotes to stay away from people...

Yup, that's what 10's of 1000's of dollars in research came up with, lets round up all the coyotes in the province, shoot Roman Candles at them and they should sort things out on their own, "very intelligent animals" you know...

This new report suggests 8000 Yotes in NS, how about give every active hunter a week off work and up the bounty to 50 dollars a pelt. That would make short order of them.

 

[BigUglyMan]

And carry a big stick.

Dirty, rotten necroposter!

 

[new and novice]

Wow thats the first I have ever heard of a coyote attack

I believe that it was only last year that another Nova scotia woman was killed by a coyote on her property.

 

[Yanni_S]

Money going to a bounty, sure why not. Money going to some American Biologist, not so fine with.

But really. I already know the results. Don't travel alone, don't go out at night, Do not feed the f**king coyotes, ect.

I've got a plan that won't cost $100,000. Buy a few cases of .223, set them up at the park gate, anyone with a rifle is free to pick up ammo and go shoot them. Encounters between coyotes and humans will be greatly reduced - cost maybe $1,000 tops. Parks Canada must be run by the same morons that run the CBC!

Agree with you both.

This makes absolutely no sense. What the hell could possibly be achieved? They're WILD animals. Are they going to go pet them so they become accustomed to humans? (which would result in more incidents) Are they going to go in to kill/relocate them?

This isn't rocket science and has been discussed and debated countless times. Solutions are very evident. The only outcomes I really see are..
1) kill them off
2) allow people to carry some sort of defense
3) just hope it doesn't happen and educate people of the danger
Hiring a biologist to "look into" it will result in #3 most likely.

 

[lone-wolf]

3) just hope it doesn't happen and educate people of the danger
Hiring a biologist to "look into" it will result in #3 most likely.

Or, also likely #4, biologist has a dumb idea, public responds with 'its a dumb idea!'
Government spends 100k - 1Million dollars implementing dumb idea, dumb idea doesn't do a thing but is continued on for years.
New government gets elected, and stops funding dumb idea.
Someone else gets bit/killed.
Cycle starts anew.

 

[Wendell]

Lack of snow means snowshoe hares can’t hide

O’Brien said, if the snowshoe hare population is the easiest food source and the numbers are down, coyotes may have smaller litters or fewer of the litter may survive.
<http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/51071-lack-snow-means-snowshoe-hares-can-t-hide>

Lack of snow means snowshoe hares can’t hide
January 12, 2012 - 4:35am By IAN FAIRCLOUGH Staff Reporter
Smaller rabbit numbers could affect coyote population

A coyote makes rounds in its enclosure at the Shubenacadie Wild*life Park in 2010. Coyotes in the wild are partial to snowshoe hares, whose numbers are down, but wildlife experts say the animals are adaptable in their diet. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

The white winter fur of the province’s snowshoe hares normally helps them survive the winter by enabling them to blend in with the snow and elude predators.

But this isn’t a normal winter, and their white fur makes the rabbits stand out against the brown landscape when there is no snow on the ground. It makes them easier for hunters to spot, and they’re also more visible to coyotes, owls, hawks and other predators.

"A little white bunny shows up quite brilliantly against a dark background," said Tony Rodgers of the Nova Scotia Federation of Anglers and Hunters.

"If you happen to be hunting in an area where there’s no snow on the ground, the rabbit is going to look pretty much exposed."

That’s not good news for a population that has been lower in the past few years, but it wouldn’t take much for the hares to be able to hide again, said Mike O’Brien, manager of wildlife resources for the provincial Natural Resources Department.

"A dusting of snow is all it takes," he said. "Snowshoe hares have turned white in the fall and turned back brown in the spring for years, and there have been lots of other years with extended periods of bare ground, so they get by."

O’Brien said the lack of snow also means the rabbits can’t get under the snow’s surface to insulate themselves against the cold, and they have less access to bark and other food.

"If you think about running around on the ground now, (a rabbit is) basically a foot-and-a-half-high critter," he said. "You can only reach so much food, and all of it has to be within a foot and a half of the ground, because they don’t climb trees.

"If you get a foot of snow, then suddenly you can reach another foot."

The rabbits seem to be reaching a low point in their population cycle, which is usually seven to nine years. Natural Resources statistics show that the average abundance ranking of the rabbit population from hunters and trappers has dropped for the past five years.

Rabbit season is still open this winter. The estimated harvest has gone from 215,000 animals in 2005-06 to 118,000 in 2008-09. More recent statistics are not yet available.

"It’s been down a number of years," Rodgers said.

"I normally have rabbit pie on Christmas Eve, but I found myself on the first of December without a rabbit. I went out poking around and I could not come up with one, so I ended up bumming a rabbit off a friend of mine."

And that animal came from an area where his friend normally finds a lot, but it was the only one he bagged this year, Rodgers said.

"There are pockets of them around, but I guess I don’t know where those pockets are, and nobody’s telling me," he said.

Rodgers also said he hasn’t seen people selling rabbits at the roadside as he has in past years.

O’Brien said the lack of rabbits can also affect the coyote population.

"Coyotes are adaptable, and snowshoe hare aren’t the only thing they eat, but when there’s lots of snowshoe hare, it’s an important part of what they eat," he said.

"Coyotes are able to switch to deer."

But, O’Brien said, if the snowshoe hare population is the easiest food source and the numbers are down, coyotes may have smaller litters or fewer of the litter may survive.

He said adult coyotes are better able to take down deer, but young ones may starve if they can’t find food on their own or there is less to share.

( ifairclough@herald.ca)

<http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/51071-lack-snow-means-snowshoe-hares-can-t-hide>

 

[Cranky Pants]

I guess they are going to starve then cause there are no rabbits and few deer around here.


Where are these aggressive coyotes at? The ones people say won't back down, won't scare away?

I've been hunting the buggers hard for 3 years now, baiting, calling etc and had exactly 2 chances.

Come on, try to eat me! Be aggressive!

 

[nexgen]

I've gotten four with snares on about 100 acres, all four are pups

 

[ATOM]

I've gotten four with snares on about 100 acres, all four are pups

No disrespect, but as is generally the case with any culls, you got the dumb, inexperienced ones.

 

[ShootSavage]

Wow thats the first I have ever heard of a coyote attack

this happened before in either a Nova Scotia or New Brunswick park some years ago where two coyotes actually killed a young folk singer from Ontario she was also around the same age (19 or 20)

sorry I didn't read far enough to see that this was already mentioned, I'm also very sorry to hear the young lady from this most recent attack didn't make it

This makes me so dam angry about the stupid regulations here on the Rock concerning the very limited number of rifle calibers allowed for hunting coyote, if there was ever a reason to change the rules and allow more people to hunt them by allowing more rifle calibers to be used, this is it

 

[Wendell]

Parks Canada hires consultant to boost awareness

A statement of work shows Toronto marketing firm Veritas is getting paid $395,000 over two years to advise Parks Canada on how it can better promote itself and its attractions.
<http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/52539-parks-canada-hires-consultant-boost-awareness>

Parks Canada hires consultant to boost awareness
January 16, 2012 - 4:35am By STEVE RENNIE The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — With fewer people visiting the country’s national parks and historic sites, Parks Canada has hired a consultant to help boost its flagging brand.

The move comes as the federal agency looks for ways to make money without raising user fees as it grapples with a steady drop-off in attendance.

A statement of work shows Toronto marketing firm Veritas is getting paid $395,000 over two years to advise Parks Canada on how it can better promote itself and its attractions.

"The specific objective is to increase awareness of Parks Canada and to create general interest in visiting Parks Canada and specifically national parks, national historic sites and national marine conservation areas," the document says.

The agency wants a 10 per cent increase in the number of visits to its parks and historic sites by 2015. To do that, Parks Canada plans to target urban and new Canadians in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

"The degree of knowledge is very low in these three cities, particularly among young Canadians and immigrants," says the statement of work.

Many people who participated in focus groups were not aware an agency like Parks Canada even exists, it adds.

"Canadians also remain confused about what Parks Canada does and the reasons national parks are established," the document says.

The Canadian Press obtained the statement of work under the Access to Information Act.

Parks Canada is in a tough spot. In 2009, the federal government announced a two-year fee freeze at all Parks Canada sites, which has since been extended to 2013 for the general public and 2014 for commercial groups.

The agency manages 42 national parks and 167 national historic sites, but only charges fees at 125 locations. Those fees cover everything from entry to national parks and historic sites to permits for fishing and camp fires.

Meanwhile, fewer people are venturing into national parks and historic sites.

The number of visits to Parks Canada attractions fell from

21.8 million in 2006-07 to 20.2 million in 2010-11 — a seven per cent drop.

The agency is now trying to find ways to raise its revenue.

Parks Canada has already commissioned a separate $50,000 study to identify potential sources of new income.

That’s on top of the Veritas contract, which was awarded last fall.

No one from the company or Parks Canada returned a call for comment.

Other money-making ideas are also on the table.

Parks Canada recently launched its own clothing line featuring its iconic beaver logo. The agency plans to sell it at national parks before moving to the Internet and brick-and-mortar stores in Canada’s biggest cities.

The company that gets the contract will design the merchandise and then sell it, with Parks Canada getting a royalty each year or a cut of wholesale revenue, whichever is greater.

<http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/52539-parks-canada-hires-consultant-boost-awareness>

 

[cement head]

I live in Ontario in a basic neighbourhood and I was out for a walk several months ago and I stopped to look behind me and I saw what I thought was a dog in the hydro field. it stopped to scratch it's self and then it looked at me . then it started to come towards me so I started to yell and walk towards it screaming and pretending I was throwing something at it .

well it started to come towards me quicker then a pickup truck started comming down the road and it took off . when I got near my house a cat ran across the road right in front of me and there was that coyote right there in front of my house and he saw the cat so it started to run in my direction so I grabbed some rocks and threw them at the coyote.

I don't trust the bastards . now I carry something to crack it on the head with . this was at night time. yesterday I was talking to some neighbours at say 12 noon and a coyote came sauntering across the field about 100 yards away and the woman who was talking to me told me one of those killed my son's Lab the other day .

if I was able to I would have put a 22 into that coyote . too many homes around here though.

 

[3macs1]

I guess they are going to starve then cause there are no rabbits and few deer around here.


Where are these aggressive coyotes at? The ones people say won't back down, won't scare away?

I've been hunting the buggers hard for 3 years now, baiting, calling etc and had exactly 2 chances.

Come on, try to eat me! Be aggressive!

Not going to starve at all they just move into town which they have big time especially this year, take every cat and stray dog which they are doing here now and then hit the green compost bins which started here this week.
These old boys don't back down and have no fear of people. Friday night we had two hit by a truck one died on the spot the other hobbled into the woods.The dead one was all of 55 pounds the other I looked for the next day but could not find it. Sat morning I had two in the back yard looking at me about 100 yards and layed in the field for well over 2 hours.
I don't get out as much hunting them as I would like but always manage to get a few a year. You really have to watch the wind even more than deer hunting, any swerling of the wind find a new blind. Also if you have a dog take him with you but on a leash. I see triple the amount when I have the dog with me,.Some times he points one out that I would have missed but in all honestly I think if they wind me with the dog they see the dog as a meal or competition for food and come to the foxpro full bore. Good luck with the future hunting