Roaming populations worry property owners
It might be a glimpse of something running between the trees, or finding strange tracks in a field, or something rustling behind the garbage cans on a darkened back porch or a mournful howl in the night.
But unlike a Halloween beastie, the coyotes of Butler County won't evaporate in the sunlight.
They're here to stay and they have been prowling the area for a long time.
Roger Coup, wildlife management supervisor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Northwest Region (Butler, Clarion, Crawford, Erie, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, Mercer, Venango and Warren counties) said it's hard to determine the exact number of coyotes in Butler County, but their population can be gauged by the number of complaints.
Coup said, “In the last couple years it's staying pretty stable going back to 2012. It would fluctuate up and down depending on the harvest.
“In 2012 and 2013, there was an exceptionally high harvest of coyotes, 40,000 statewide including Butler County, and so in all counties complaints kind of dropped off,” Coup said.
For example, he said, in 2012 there were 29 coyote complaints, in 2013, 17 complaints, and after a high harvest in 2013, coyote complaints dropped to seven in 2014.
But, Coup said, “Coyotes are adaptable, and the population rebounds very quickly. When you drop the coyote population significantly, there is more food and with more food litters increase from five to seven pups to six to nine pups.”
Coup said most of the complaints made to the game commission were of coyote sightings or people hearing coyotes.
People, he said, are afraid of coyotes and worry that they carry rabies.
Game commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Randy Pilarcik, whose beat is southern Butler County, said he gets coyote calls.
Pilarcik said, “It's not so much calls for the killing of domestic animals, but it's concerns that they are around.
“We have a booth at the (Butler) farm show and people are worried about their livestock,” he said. “It's more of seeing and hearing them than coyotes attacking.”
“They'll come around and take away little cats, but they are more often after moles and voles,” said Pilarcik.It probably won't do a pet owner's peace of mind any good to learn the coyotes roaming across Butler County are hybrids, a cross between the western coyote and the timber wolf.Coup said the so-called eastern coyote came about because our colonial ancestors were slobs.“As human populations expanded westward, the western coyote adapted to human garbage as a food supply,” Coup said. “As humans moved north into Canada, the western coyote met up with timber wolves and bred.”This crossbreeding resulted in an animal that can grow to the size of a small German shepherd dog and weigh 50 to 55 pounds.Coup said the eastern coyote has four color variations in its coat: tricolor with coloring similar to that of a German shepherd; a reddish coat; a light blond coat; and very dark brown to almost black.Coup said the hybrid animals began a reverse migration, drifting down from the north through the Adirondack Mountains into Pennsylvania in the 1940s. By the 1960s, the eastern coyote was firmly established in every county of the state.Coup said, “For a habitat, they prefer thick, brushy cover, but they can adapt to live anywhere, in heavily wooded areas, and are doing very well in suburban and urban areas in the state.”Coyotes will den in brush piles and under rock overhangs. Often, Coup said, they will take over fox dens and make them their own.“They don't travel in organized hunting packs like we think of with wolves, when not focused on large prey. It's more of a loose family group.“When they do group up it's to defend food sources. They'll do it in the winter time when deer or other large animals die. They will band together in a large group to defend the carcass of a deer,” he said.As far as eating habits go, coyotes aren't picky, Coup said.“Basically they are what we classify as a generalist. They don't have any preferred food, whatever they come across that they can eat they will eat,” he said. “They will scavenge and they will kill fawns in the spring.
“We do know they will kill small, domestic pets. Small dogs and cats are pretty much an easy prey for them,” he said.But they're also a benefit, Coup said.“They keep down populations of some small to medium mammals,” he said.Signs that coyotes are around include tracks similar to a dog's and dog-sized scat with a lot of fur in it.Coup said, “You may hear them yipping and calling in the distance.Coyotes' biggest enemies are larger predators such as bears and large raptors such as eagles and owls that can attack and carry off coyote pups.Of course, coyotes also have to look out for the largest, most dangerous predator of all, humans.Coup said a coyote hunter needs either a general hunting license or a fur-taker's license if intending to trap or hunt them. Coyotes can be hunted pretty much year round.Pilarcik said, “All you need is a hunting license. Now in rifle deer season you need a valid deer license to hunt coyotes in the daytime.”Coyote hunting must be proving successful, said Todd Hovis of Todd Hovis Taxidermy, 109 Old State Road, Chicora, because his customers keep bringing in coyotes to be mounted.“I think it's because you don't see them all the time,” said Hovis, as the reason hunters bring coyotes in to his business to be stuffed.But that has been changing.The taxidermist said, “Coyotes are getting more and more common. I've got a couple hunting myself.”“They've gotten more numerous lately. You can hear them howling at night,” said Hovis. “They are a very sly animal. You hear them, but you don't see them.”Still, Coup said despite the unlimited hunting and the 40,000 reported killed last year, Coup estimated the coyote population across the state at 100,000.Which is too many for state Rep. Rep. Michael Peifer, R-Pike County, who sponsored a bill this month that would authorize the game commission to set a bounty on coyotes.Named the “coyote control incentive program,” the bill would allow the game commission to pay $25 to any licensed hunter or furtaker for each coyote lawfully killed.After winning the approval of the state House of Representatives, the bill was sent to the Senate, which does not return to Harrisburg until Jan. 7.The Philadelphia Inquirer reported it would be Pennsylvania's first such bounty on a wild animal in 50 years.Peifer said he wants to give hunters an extra incentive to reduce the growing coyote numbers.A bounty might make coyotes an even more elusive phantom.“They are wary of people. If you do see one, respect it and observe it from a distance, enjoy the fact we have coyotes in the state,” said the game commission's Coup.
