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Author
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Topic: Plucky Coyotes
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted June 25, 2003 10:55 AM
From today's Arizona Republic "
At 4 pounds, Raleigh the American rat terrier was just the right size to be carried around in owner Kathy May's handbag.
Monday night, it turned out Raleigh was also the right size to be carried off by a coyote.
About 9 p.m., May's husband, Gary Updike, 60, walked the 14-week-old pup outside their home near McDonald and Hayden roads in Scottsdale. Raleigh, who was not on a leash, gave a yip just before a coyote emerged from a bush and snatched him in its mouth.
Raleigh is the latest victim on a growinglist of aggressive acts by Scottsdale area coyotes.
Experts say the animals are losing their fear of humans. Cat and dog snatchings are now common in several neighborhoods. In the past four months, two Scottsdale kids have been bitten by urban coyotes, the first time bites have been recorded in several years.
On June 14, a 17-month-old boy was bitten on his face, abdomen and neck at Cracker-Jax Family fun & Sports Park, 16001 N. Scottsdale Road, according the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
In an earlier incident, a coyote entered a family's back yard and bit a young girl.
Neither coyote has been recovered.
After the CrackerJax incident, Game and Fish spent a week trying to find the animal department biologist Randy Babb said. What they found was a perfect urban resort for wildlife.
"Kierland Gold Course is the hub," Babb said. "Coyotes are seen regularly. Everything that makes this area attractive for people make it attractive to them. The area has a maze of interconnecting washes, alleyways and corridors that coyotes can live in. We found a spot where people were leaving water out for coyotes and another where there was a water run-off.
"Coyotes here are anything but starving. Life is as good as it can get."
The situation is repeated all around the Valley.
Babb said the northern and eastern edges and near Fashion Square mall are particular problems in Scottsdale.
It isn't so much an increase in coyote population as an increase as an increase in pluck.
"We're seeing more coyotes that are behiving in a bold, unfearful manner with humans," Babb said. "Bites, taking of pets, going into back yards and following people for handouts are all increasing."
Most animals leave or die off when an area becomes developed, but coyotes adapt. Because they can eat almost anything, coyotes are fans of garbage, pets, whatever's handy.
As many as 10 generations of coyote families may occupy long developed areas.
What's the solution? Game and Fish is starting to work with municipalities to reduce nuisance coyotes.
Game and Fish usually recommends that residents who see coyotes acting boldly call someone to remove them.
Wes Patrick of Critter Control finds that callers lose their urgency when they hear the cost: $350 to set up traps and $199 per captured animal. Trapping them is labor intensive, Patrick said.
Do all coyotes pose a threat?
"Probably not," Babb said, "but they should be treated as though they do." This is the same neighborhood that banned me because of the "rukus" that urban alpha male on the video and I raised last year while filming him. What little sympathy I have is for the kids.
[ June 25, 2003, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Rich Higgins ]
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted June 25, 2003 03:53 PM
We got the same thing here, Rich. Truthfully, nothing can be done. Unless, of course, they allow shooting, which they won't.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32371 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Doug
Knows what it's all about
Member # 31
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posted June 26, 2003 01:51 PM
Rich,
Lets see now...How long have you been out of Scottsdale? What? 3weeks? Already the coyotes are moving in and carrying off pets and small children. I have to wonder how the coyotes found out you left. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Doug
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My mountain cur thinks I'm God.
Posts: 69 | From: Northern Colorado | Registered: Jan 2003
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Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
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posted July 11, 2003 11:21 PM
Too funny...
That very printed article showed up in my mailbox this week, as packing in with some video tapes and a beautiful chunk of mesquite.
Do they only got one paper for all of Arizona?
Jeff 
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Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
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