Lehigh Valley howlin' over coyotes

Charles Malinchak has an article in The Morning Call about coyotes (they're not just in California any more):

These days, residents of Bethlehem Township's Hope Ridge condominium community are keeping a watchful eye out for stealthy omnivores that have roamed the earth for hundreds of thousands of years: coyotes.
Don Wright, president of the condo association for the community on Hope Road, said concerns from a resident who has spotted coyotes while walking her small dog prompted him to ask township commissioners this month if they would consent to a coyote hunt.
The commissioners said no, but the request underscored an increasing concern in suburbs and even big cities. In New York City, for example, no one's idea of a wildlife haven, coyotes have been spotted seven times this year, from wealthy upper Manhattan to the blue-collar precincts of Queens and Brooklyn.
Because they are fanged and fierce-looking, coyotes tend to make people shudder. But attacks on humans are rare. "There are very, very few incidents of them interacting with people," said Cheryl Trewella, Pennsylvania Game Commission information and education supervisor.
Coyotes inhabit every county in the state, including Philadelphia, Trewella said. Since the 1980s, their numbers statewide have increased despite a yearlong hunting season coupled with a liberal trapping season that runs from 26 October to 22 February. The latest record of coyotes trapped was sixteen thousand for the 2011-12 season.
"We're having a terrible time," said Dorothy Charles (photo) of Upper Macungie Township. "Usually it's two that come into our yard. The other day it was three. We have a fenced yard, so they evidently are jumping over."
Elaine Biondi of Lower Macungie Township saw what she believed to be two coyotes chasing two deer along the Little Lehigh Creek in the Millbrook Farms townhouse community last month. "They are moving into areas where you wouldn't expect," Biondi said.
That's not necessarily the case. Coyotes live just about anywhere, because they eat just about anything: rabbits, rodents, cats, fruit, birds, and insects. Their mainstay is deer, which are superabundant in Pennsylvania.
The reason people seldom see coyotes is that they usually hunt by night. But this is the time of year the females have pups— five to seven per litter— so they'll venture out from their dens any time of day.
"They're going to be looking for an easy meal any way they can get it," said Nate Roberts, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Trappers Association. Roberts said many of the group's members have animal control permits that allow them to trap coyotes outside the usual season, so they are often called on to remove them from populous areas.
Wright said the woman in his condo community came to him because she was concerned the coyotes might try to eat her dog. "It was about a month ago," he said. "She said she's seen them at least three times since and the last time it was carrying something. I haven't personally seen them, but it is a safety thing. We have small dogs and children in the community, so the advice is not t walk alone and [to keep an eye out. …There's nothing we can do about it except be vigilant."
Hope Road connects William Penn Highway to Freemansburg Avenue and is bordered on the west by Route 33. The well-developed area includes a PennDOT maintenance yard and a large field owned by Bethlehem Township.
The coyote sightings there surprised township Commissioner Mike Hudak, because it's so developed, and unlike the area around his own home off Wilson Avenue. He lives about a hundred yards from the Lehigh River, a place where sightings and the yipping call of the coyotes is almost a common occurrence. "We kind of like it," Hudak said. "It's nice to see wildlife get a foothold after all the land has been developed." He said coyotes never have been a problem, though they do rile his dogs. He believes one of his dogs, a Chow mix, once took a bite out of one. "We heard a lot of yipping that night… but they really are no big deal and we don't feel threatened," he said.
Charles, the Upper Macungie resident, said she is mainly worried for her five-pound Yorkshire terrier (photo). "Several of us in the neighborhood have small dogs, and we're afraid to even go out on the patio," she said. "We always have a lot of bunnies in our yard. I said to my husband in the last couple of days, 'I don't see any bunnies.'"
Little can be done to discourage coyotes, Trewella said, other than making sure lids are secured to garbage cans and not leaving the cans out all night. Small dogs might fall prey to a coyote, but they might also be carried off by a great horned owl. "They are one of those species that made their own destiny. They are just here and will remain here. They are part of our ecosystem,'' she said.
Roberts, of the trappers association, said coyotes typically shy from human contact. But rabies and other diseases can make them aggressive. "If they're approaching you, or close to a lot of people, that's a big issue," he said. "It could get bad quickly."
Residents who want to reach licensed trappers for help with coyotes can email the trappers association at http://patrappers.com/contact/

Coyote facts
• Fossil records indicate coyotes' ancestors existed in eastern North America in the Pleistocene period, a million years ago.
• Coyotes are monogamous, maintaining pair bonds for several years. Young coyotes, born in April and May, leave the family when they are about six months old and disperse up to a hundred miles.
• They move alone or in packs, communicating with a variety of yips, barks and howls.
• Eastern coyotes, the kind found in Pennsylvania, are larger than their western counterparts and likely evolved from interbreeding between coyotes and gray wolves. Adult males weigh 45-55 pounds and females weigh 35-40 pounds.
• Coyotes' dens are found under overturned trees, in piles of tree stumps, in rock dens, and in dug-out red fox dens.
Source: Pennsylvania Game Commission

Rico says the coyotes were here before Columbus, and they'll be here when we're gone. (And hopefully will eat that woman's stupid little rat dog...)