Coyote Seminar – Getting to know our wiley neighbours

March 3, 2014 12d Comments

A seminar entitled;  Coyotes – Getting to know our wiley neighbours, came to Ottawa Friday night…too bad I only heard about it on Saturday after reading SUN Columnist Susan Sherring’s article.

According to Sherring’s column, the seminar given by Dr. Stan Gehrt – a world renowned wildlife ecologist from Ohio State University… was brought to the nation’s capital to “provide insight on how people in urban and rural developments can coexist with coyotes,”

It  would have been nice to attend this seminar since it is  topic near and dear to a lot of people’s hearts in this City and something I have been covering over the past few years, however no one in the City thought to mention it. Having someone who covers the outdoors locally attend the seminar, and then sharing details afterward would have been a terrific idea, don’t you think?

Ottawa’s wildlife seminar series is intended to increase residents’ knowledge and appreciation of wildlife to “promote coexistence through understanding and respect.”

Did anyone attend this seminar, I invite you to share the details of what was presented. There seemed to be some concern over the cost of this seminar, although I find $1300 to be minuscule compared to the importance of dealing with the Urban coyote situation we have.

Outdoorsguy

12 thoughts on “Coyote Seminar – Getting to know our wiley neighbours”

  1. Jeff, you’re pretty much a common sense guy. It certainly would have made perfect sense to have a local wildlife writer attend such a seminar. Remember though, that common sense has very little to do with how the City (or any city for that matter) runs things.
    There are a couple possible reasons that this thing was under wraps.
    No one thought of announcing it or inviting professionals to it in which case the demonstration of incompetence is evident.
    Maybe they thought that the seminar might not be in line with the City’s ideals, and that it would bring negative criticism to bear. This also smacks of incompetence.
    Regardless of the reason I think they dropped the ball on this one.

    1. Yes Herman, that’s it exactly and trust me, it’s nothing to do with being insulted or my nose is out of joint!
      I just thought from the City’s perspective having someone (anyone) locally attend, who’s in contact with hunters and conservationists, only makes sense to me. And instead of costing $1300…I’m FREE for goodness sake!!

      Of course, West Carleton Counsellor Eli El-Chantiry’s comment says it all:

      “What I’m saying is that Mother Nature takes care of this itself,”

      Ughhhhh…….why do we even try?

      Outdoorsguy

  2. Jeff: I have tried to contact you at , but my messages are getting bounced back. Do you have an alternative address?

  3. I would even go so far as to suggest that they would not want anyone who may question any part of this seminar. They were probably catering to the ( city ) dwellers exclusively. After all there’s is the largest voting block and with that they can have enormous say in how and or if there should be anything done to bring there numbers down within the city limits. Again this is how the city imposes its control over all the land within the city boundaries by pitting rural concerns and needs against urban. What is good for the citiots is therefore good for us.

  4. It seems incredible to me that the Outdoors Guy was not invited. I would be curious to know who actually did attend. Perhaps those who think we should just happily co-exist with these pests and just lock away our children and pets in order to accommodate them.

    1. The more I read from Dr Gehrt..the more I believe he may be one the ‘happily co-exist’ kind…I think the photo of him cradling a coyote pup sort of gives it away.

      We should get some pics of the coyotes with mange living around Cherry beach/Andrew Haydon Park to show him!

      Paul & Hunting mom, you may be right…it was purposely kept low-key so the people who really understand coyotes (like us) would not attend. I’m still waiting to hear from anyone who did attend..my guess is that ‘Nick Stow’ who asked earlier about my email address, may be our contact.

      Those critical of City spending are more concerned with the $1300, whereas there’s a deeper issue here that I’m concerned about. If ‘Happily Coexisting’ with the urban coyote (without doing anything about it) is there goal, that’s what Ottawa has now(everything but the ‘happy’ part) and we don’t really require a seminar to inform us of that fact.

      Outdoorsguy

  5. Maybe there was no conspiracy whatsoever and they just didn’t think to contact hunting biased outdoor writers because the talk was about coexisting in ‘urban and rural developments’ where hunting isn’t an option anyhow. I am pretty sure I saw a documentary on his work in Chicago and this guy is very knowledgeable so I assume that it would have been a good seminar whether you like coyotes or not. Very interesting stuff and it’s truly amazing how these creatures adapt and take advantage of their surroundings in a downtown area. Bottom line is we either “promote coexistence through understanding and respect.” or we exterminate the population in rural and urban developments. I don’t know which is the best solution, but I can tell you which one will get the most push back.

  6. Jeff, I failed you – I had read about this in the other paper a few days before it happened.
    I did the a$$ thing and assumed you’d heard about it 🙁

    I did NOT attend.

    For my own sanity b/c I’m would imagine the possibility of running into anti hunters might be high. Even though it wasn’t about hunting per say, I’m sure with my camouflage duck dynasty hat, I’d stick out like a sore thumb. Plus I probably would have spoken up if I heard any anti-hunting comment.

    With all the recent battles regarding the idiocy of the antis attacking the possibility of the spring bear hunt, I chose not to attend. lol

    1. No problem Keeb…I may have just ended-up embarressing myself anyway.

      Duck Dynasty hat, eh? Cool! My usual cap is a Tinks camouflage hat – makers of North America’s #1 deer lure..the ON gov’t really hates the natural scent part!

      Outdoorsguy

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