Re: Backyard Wildlife
- To: s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
- Subject: Re: [SG] Backyard Wildlife
- From: M* L*
- Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 10:33:10 -0600
At 12:51 PM 10/3/00 -0400, you wrote:
>In a message dated 10/3/00 9:34:17 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>diehlr@INDIANA.EDU writes:
>
><< Thanks, Kay, for that encouraging news about coyotes. I was hoping someone
> would say they kill rabbits and at least discourage deer. If dogs are a
> deterrent, as everyone claims, it stands to reason that packs of coyotes
> would be also. >>
>
>Hi Bobbi and Kay,
>
>Do not be to quick to love the coyote. They are not nice animals. They will
>kill and eat whatever is slow, lame or very young.
>They hunt in packs. That will include domestic animals if available. It
>appears that they multiply quickly where food is plentiful. Fawns are what
>are killed by the coyote plus, in my case, water birds nesting on our pond.
>Many photographs show the coyote as a small and thin creature. Ours are much
>larger and have the disposition of a pit bull. It is believed that they have
>crossbred with dogs to increase their size. All life seeks to survive,
>wildlife is not acculturated by living close to us.
>
>I am not happy to have the coyote population increase in my area. It is very
>hard to live in a rural area carving out your small part of the terrain for
>gardening. The only animals we have not been able to sign a truce with are
>voles. One can lie in bed at night an think of ways to deal with voles. it
>inspires vicious and dreadful thoughts.
>
>Claire Peplowski
>NYS z4
I sincerely sympathize. My first thought was, "get a Cairn terrier," but
not in coyote country. Cairn terriers have a sweet body odor and I suspect
Scotties do too. When I was a child, a pack of coyotes came into the edge
of town where we lived, and by morning my Scottie had disappeared. His
parents and the rest of the litter, who lived about two miles from us,
quite near the mountains, disappeared about the same time. Just a couple
of blood spots on the snow. But they are great at killing voles and mice.
Cats just wait for them to surface, but terriers will dig them up. And eat
'em. Margaret L
