Coyotes in Columbus
Coyote sightings, problems on rise

Some people love them, others revile them, but either way, coyotes are making themselves at home in southeastern North Carolina.

• “Song dogs” making a place for themselves in southeastern North Carolina.

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

An animal unknown to Columbus County two decades ago is carving out its own ecological niche.

Coyotes are mostly thought of as animals of the far west, but the highly-adaptable beasts are slowly but surely becoming the dominant predator in North Carolina. Weighing from 30 to as much as 75 pounds, coyotes resemble longhaired, blunt-muzzled dogs. With their high-pitched howls, heavy red and gray fur and bushy tails, they are often mistaken for wolves (see sidebar).

Their characteristic howl, along with a large vocabulary of yips, yipes, barks, and moans, earned coyotes the nickname “song dogs” in literature about the old west written in the 1800s. The canine chorus once associated with cattle drives and cowboys is now common in Columbus County and throughout the Southeast.

Columbus County Animal Control Supervisor Rossie Hayes said he occasionally gets complaints about coyotes, but “there’s nothing I can do.

“We have some calls about coyotes eating calves, and occasionally killing cows or livestock,” he said, “but there’s really not a thing I can do. I tell the people just to shoot’em.”

Coyotes are considered an invasive species in North Carolina, and may be hunted year-round, with no bag limit. Hunters may use rifles, shotguns, bows, pistols (where permitted) and muzzleloaders. Coyotes may only be trapped during the regular trapping season in counties like Columbus that have local fox seasons.

The bushy-tailed canines made national news recently with attacks on three small children in California. Vestavia, Ala., officials also started an intensive trapping operation around an elementary school after multiple coyotes were seen on the playground and in some cases, stalking first graders.

The city of Roswell, Ga., is examining a city-wide trapping program to remove the animals from neighborhoods, parks and schools where leashed pets have been snatched from their owners.

Individual animals entered businesses in Chicago, Minneapolis and elsewhere. Closer to home, N.C. Secretary of Agriculture Steve Troxler lost a young puppy to a rabid coyote in his North Raleigh neighborhood last year.

Doing some good

Colleen Olfenbuttel, the Wildlife Resources Commission furbearer biologist, said coyotes are “universally reviled” but that shouldn’t be the case.

“They have an impact on some species, especially red foxes,” she said, “but they are actually beneficial to the deer population.”

While coyotes do occasionally raid cattle and livestock populations, especially during calving season, Olfenbuttel said their preferred meal is deer – especially if the deer is old, sick or weak in any way.

“We have areas with severe deer overpopulations where the coyotes have moved in, and they seem to be helping with the problem,” she said. “The coyotes can actually help improve the herd. They also push out the species that feed on waterfowl eggs and nestlings.”

Olfenbuttel cited a study in North and South Dakota where federal biologists kept track of waterfowl nesting areas before and after bounties on coyotes were removed.

The flocks actually increased when bounties were removed because coyotes tend to leave wild waterfowl alone and displace the primary predators of baby birds and eggs, especially red foxes.

“Coyotes push gray foxes out,” Olfenbuttel said. “Grays can climb trees to escape a pack of coyotes, and a gray isn’t afraid to fight.

“Bobcats are pretty tough, and can take care of themselves. But red foxes (a primary predators of eggs and small birds, especially young waterfowl) can’t handle coyotes. When the coyote population goes up, the red fox population goes down.”

Coyotes are unique in that they can naturally increase or decrease the size of their annual litters, depending on food supplies. Some scientists dispute the finding, although Olfenbuttel, like many researchers, agrees.
“In good times, they increase,” she said. “In bad times they decrease. It’s that simple.”

Bad news for
bounty hunters

Olfenbuttel said she regularly gets calls about coyote problems, and often people ask why the state doesn’t establish a bounty.

“Bounties are like throwing money down the drain,” she said, pointing out that officials have no way to determine where a coyote came from, unless the animal is actually turned in.

“You’ll have people re-selling the same animal, picking up roadkill, even crossing state lines – fraud is hard to stop unless the agency actually takes possession of the animal.”

Then storage and disposal problems develop, and coyote hunters are not always willing to sell a coyote for $25 to $50 when a quality hide can sell for $60 to $75 when markets are high. North Carolina coyotes generally sell for much less, with medium-heavy coyote hides selling for $11 to $22 at a recent fur auction. Coyotes and other furbearers rarely develop full “prime” hides in North Carolina because of the mild winters.

Bounties also change the natural selection process, since young, inexperienced or otherwise secondary animals are caught, leaving the smarter, stronger animals to breed and create a better gene pool.

“Bounties can actually make a better coyote,” Olfenbuttel said. “You’re already dealing with an incredibly adaptable, highly intelligent predator, the most successful predator in North America. You don’t want to make them smarter by weeding out the dumb ones.”

Olfenbuttel said the best things farmers and property owners can do when they have coyote problems is ask a local trapper or predator hunter for assistance, or try to kill the animal on their own. While the state works with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to control problem beavers and some other species, no such program exists for coyotes.
“We encourage people to manage the problem on their own,” she said. but added the task isn’t an easy one.

“They are the hardest critter to trap there is,” Olfenbuttel said. “They are smart and learn fast, so you need an experienced trapper who knows what he or she is doing. A livestock producer should pro-actively allow trapping and hunting on his property if he has a coyote problem. The animals will be back, but that’s still the best way to handle the problem.

“Non-lethal methods aren’t practical, because you just transport the problem somewhere else. Poisons are dangerous to other animals. Fencing is expensive – a coyote can clear a six-foot fence, and will gnaw his way through some types of fencing if he wants inside badly enough.”

Coy-dogs, deer dogs
and mutts

Many problem calls about coyotes and livestock actually turn out to be feral or roaming domestic dogs, Olfenbuttel said.

“Coyotes will eat calves,” she said, “but they aren’t as likely to bother a full-grown cow, even as a pack. Coyotes are efficient, and a cow stands a better chance winning a fight than a coyote.

Feral or free-roaming domestic dogs are actually the most common culprit when cattle depredation occurs, Olfenbuttel said.

“Dogs will run cows until they hurt themselves,” she said. “Sometimes we have someone tell us there are coyotes running his cows, but the ‘coyotes’ turn out to be his neighbors’ dogs running loose. Oftentimes dogs will kill a cow and head home, but coyotes eat what they kill. That’s a sure sign – when the remains haven’t been eaten, you’re probably dealing with dogs.”

Pets are often the primary target of coyotes that live in the suburbs or in urban areas.

“You know you have coyotes when cats and small dogs begin disappearing,” Olfenbuttel said. “The coyotes come to associate humans with food, because of trash cans, pet food, etc. outside of homes. That creates problems with interaction between a hungry coyote and human beings.

“They are by nature hunters and scavengers,” Olfenbuttel said, “and if they see a small animal, they will hunt it down and eat it – even if it is your pet poodle.”

Coy-dogs – the offspring of a dog and a coyote – are most often a problem when coyotes first move into an area, Olfenbuttel said. The hybrid has a low survival rate, since female coyotes rely on the male to help feed and care for the young, and feral or wild dogs are not as nurturing as a male coyote. Domestic dogs can breed year-round, but coyotes only come into heat once a year, so pups can be born in the warmer spring months when food is plentiful but before parasites and disease become prevalent. Litters of coy-dogs are often born at times of the year when food is not easy to locate.

One national study showed states with rising coyote populations and large numbers of abandoned deer hounds – like North Carolina – can produce a kind of “super” coy-dog that preys primarily on deer.

When a population of coy-dogs becomes established, Olfenbuttel said, the animals can become a problem.
“You’re dealing with a high-end predator that, because it’s half-dog, has little fear of humans or human habitations,” she said. “It’s also a very intelligent animal, and keeps most of the traits of both species.”
Coy-dogs often die out, Olfenbuttel said, as the coyotes take over.

“After a while they kill or drive out the coy-dogs, and the pure coyote takes over.”

Here to stay

Olfenbuttel said coyotes are here to stay. The animals took the top predator slot once held by eastern brush wolves and red wolves that once roamed North Carolina. Both species were persecuted to extinction through a lack of regulation, fur markets and misconceptions about the animals.

“The year 2005 was the year the coyote began to reign in North Carolina,” Olfenbuttel said. “That was the year it turned up in every county, where widespread reports only began trickling in five years before.” Prior to the year 2000, isolated coyote sightings were reported, and trappers took a small number by accident.

Fox pens also began importing coyotes in large numbers in the 1990s (an exact date of the first Carolina coyote introduced into a fox pen is impossible to track down), since coyotes are stronger, smarter and run faster than foxes, giving hounds a more difficult chase.

Burgeoning deer populations helped direct a natural eastward migration of the species toward North Carolina starting in the 1970s – about the time the last of the wild red wolves were dying out, and when bobcat hides were popular with the fashion trade, causing increased hunting and trapping pressure on the species.

With a growing population and more deer that had virtually no predators except man, it was natural for coyotes to come to the Tar Heel state.

“Coyotes are filling that niche,” Olfenbuttel said, “and it’s not feasible – or even smart – to get rid of them. It’s better people understand them and try to control the population, and take what steps are necessary to avoid problems.”

And what about the rumor that the state imported coyotes into the state –at the behest of the auto insurance companies, no less – to help control deer populations.

Olfenbuttel laughed.

“That is nothing but an old wives’ tale,” she said. “Nobody imported coyotes, except for some fox pens. They came here on their own, like they did everywhere else. They just decided they liked North Carolina.”

For a list of licensed coyote trappers in the area, go to www.ncwildlife.org, and go to the problem wildlife section.