The coyote problem here in Ottawa has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime that’s the only way to describe it.
Over the past five years we have seen coyote contests, coyote culls, coyote attacks on family pets, increased predation on white-tailed deer, and even one coyote attack on an Ottawa resident.
I know around my place the coyote numbers are insane. Five years ago there were very few predators around and my trail cams were lucky to capture 1 coyote image for every 1000 deer images.
Now I’m picking up more yote pics than deer pics!
My neighbour’s lost their cat this past spring right on their own property, and last week a woman who lives nearby told us her neighbour has an English Sheep Hound who tangled with a coyote in her backyard, and sustained very serious injury. The dog came very close to being put down!
Along with the handful of deer I see and photograph regularly around my place is a doe and fawn who call my backwoods and fields their home. Now, for the past week or so, only the fawn has shown up on its own – looking a bit disoriented and lost.
As we all know, 6 month old fawns do not travel alone or stay on their own for any length of time. Mom is never far away. Although I haven’t yet discovered what happened to that doe, I can wager a pretty good guess as to why there’s an orphaned fawn running around.
Yes the coyotes are running rampant in Ottawa and we are up against a rock and a hard place! Sure, the hunting season on yotes is open year round and trapping is an option too. But are these really viable control options here in the Capital City?
For God’s sake, I’m scared to let my little dog out for a pee for fear that a friggin coyote will grab her!!
I can’t really trap the coyotes around my place(even though I have a license) because there are too many family pets travelling the same fields, and I can’t hunt the coyotes freely because public opinion seems to think it’s cruel.
“What would the neighbour’s say if they saw you shooting coyotes in the back field” says Mrs Outdoorsguy. Personally, a lot of them would thank me but not all of them, and I know that.
And not all of your neighbour’s would either.
Many folks here (the protectionist – preservationist lot) in Ottawa think we should just leave these nice little critters along…so the coyote population continues to flourish at the expensive of our deer population.
It’s bad now and only getting worse!
Below is an example of some of the varmints creating havoc around my place. These images were taken over the 2 weeks alone. I especially like the one of the big coyote taking a dump on my lawn..talk about the ultimate in disrespect!
Yes, something needs to be done about our burgeoning coyote population but I’m at loss as to what that should be..
The graphic image series below speaks itself..for those who have not seen it yet:
