sections at food resources.
It turned out that a human is a coyote’ s best friend: highway motorists who struck and killed deer, farmers who disposed of dead livestock in unprotected piles, kind souls who fed feral cat colonies, composters. Coyotes are versatile predators whose natural diet of small mammals, geese and fawns was being subsidized by thousands of pounds of human-supplied food each year.
“ If we could identify what resources were making them abundant, we could potentially control coyote numbers passively.”
— Biologist Numi Mitchell, president of The Conservation Agency
Mitchell used this information to test the effect of removing scavenging opportunities— collecting roadkill and corralling livestock remains— on the coyote population. She found that when food sources are removed, coyotes will increase territory size without changing pack size, creating lower density. Fewer coyotes spread over greater distances would result in fewer negative interactions between coyotes and humans, she theorized. This data became the basis of a science-based coyote management plan that included assistance to farmers and the DEM with animal remains disposal, a no-feeding ordinance and a police protocol. Mitchell hopes to persuade the General Assembly to pass legislation that would put the plan into action statewide.
“ The coyote research started because coyotes and people were in conflict with each other. And it really showed that we needed to change our behavior to be safer around these new and returned animals to our environment,” says David Gregg,
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