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Chicago Using Coyotes To Fight Rodents
Brad Block, a supervisor for the Chicago Commission on Animal Care and Control says a coyote recently spotted downtown is part of a program designed to monitor the rodent population. "The animal has the run of the Loop to help deal with rats and mice," He said no one has called today to complain. “He’s not a threat. He’s not going to pick up your children,” Block said. “His job is to deal with all of the nuisance problems, like mice, rats and rabbits.”
I read this and thought they were paying Mexican smugglers to fight rodents for them. Which, ironically, is what we actually do here in AZ.
Finally, the city is taking the problem of Owls seriously.
Wouldn't it be nice to tell the public BEFORE you let the coyotes run wild?
Oh, and by the way, we had to release some tigers to deal with the bugroeoning coyote population....
THL phish sticks
This is actually great. I sincerely wish Pennsylvania would culture a few nice wolf populations to control the deer. I'm tired of dodging them with my car.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
One neighbor of mine watched a coyote carry off her miniature dog, and when coyotes start being sighted, the Missing Cat posters start appearing.
http://urbancoyoteresearch.com/Coyote_Project.htm seems like a much more likely reason than pest controll
Should be interesting to see how many outdoor, domesticated cats get shredded by these guys.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
sort of small, furry creature, say one with a long furry tail, specifically bred for this purpose over the past several hundred years that people wouldn't mind seeing around... Maybe one that enjoys drinking milk and- ah hell, screw the sarcasm. Why didn't they just use cats??
There is no -1 Disagree.
We know that coyotes suck at catching roadrunners (or at least one of them does), and roadrunners aren't much bigger than some rodents. Anyone wanna take odds on the rats and mice winning this round as well?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Reminds me of introducing mongoose to the Hawaiian islands to eat the rats - now there are two invader species there. Coyotes may not be as much of an invader species in Chicago as mongoose are in Hawaii, but we as a species have a pretty poor track record of attempted ecological control.
... a sensible solution to weed out corrupt Chicago politicians!
I think it is pretty obvious who this will benefit: Anyone smart enough to invest in ACME before it gets acquired by Haliburton.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Sigger than your average
Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?
Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.
Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse?
Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.
Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas!
Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
'Look, I can explain,' he said.
Lord Vetinari lifted an eyebrow with the care of one who, having found
a piece of caterpillar in his salad, raises the rest of the lettuce.
'Pray do,' he said, leaning back.
'We got a bit carried away,' said Moist. 'We were a bit too creative in
our thinking. We encouraged mongooses to breed in the posting boxes to keep
down the snakes...'
Lord Vetinari said nothing.
'Er... which, admittedly, we introduced into the posting boxes to
reduce the numbers of toads...'
Lord Vetinari repeated himself.
'Er... which, it's true, staff put in the posting boxes to keep down
the snails...'
Lord Vetinari remained unvocal.
'Er... These, I must in fairness point out, got into the boxes of their
own accord, in order to eat the glue on the stamps,' said Moist, aware that
he was beginning to burble.
'Well, at least you were saved the trouble of having to introduce them
yourselves,' said Lord Vetinari cheerfully. 'As you indicate, this may well
have been a case where chilly logic should have been replaced by the common
sense of, perhaps, the average chicken. But that is not the reason I asked
you to come here today.'
'If it's about the cabbage-flavoured stamp glue -- ' Moist began.
Vetinari waved a hand. 'An amusing incident,' he said, 'and I believe
nobody actually died.'
Coyotes are endemic to most of the North American continent. They were here before long before there was a 'Public' to get hysterical about them. I would be willing to bet that animal control in nearly every major city in the lower 48 can tell you stories about coyotes making a living in urban areas- this is NOTHING NEW, but is probably noticed more frequently as fewer people in outlying areas are shooting them on sight these days.
Coyotes frequent my rural property, although I only find out about it when I find their tracks or scat or- more rarely- hear a nocturnal sing-along happening close by. Over the years I've picked apart quite bit of coyote poop with a stick, and as the article suggests there are a lot of obvious rodent bones usually included with a smattering of deer hair (I suspect they go back to road/winter/cougar kill and chew on the hide, which takes months to break down). Sometimes it's obvious they've been feasting on ripe native berries. If I happen to see one while hiking, mountain biking, driving, etc. it's usually just a flash and they're already gone, but a couple times I've been able to spot one out on a hay field obviously pouncing on mice. It's a rare treat to find "God's Dog" out and about doing it's thing, as under normal circumstances they are highly motivated to keep human interactions both infrequent and distant.
Feral cats on the other hand are NOT endemic to the North American ecosystem, and there is evidence to suggest that bird populations have been hit very hard by them. Even discounting that aspect, I can't even wrap my head around why any thoughtful person would advocate for exterminating a relatively harmless native scavenger-predator and replacing it with a non-native, domesticated scavenger-predator. This is just asking for unintended ecological consequences.
No it couldn't. Don't be daft.
It might be able to vote several hundred times in multiple districts & precincts, but unless the Coyote is somehow related to a member of the Daley family (and I'm sure they fall under either the rodent or slimy lizard genus) it would never get elected.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
I live in Chicago, the city - not a suburb, around O'Hare. I saw a coyote on my way home from work last week. It was about 5:30 in the afternoon, the coyote was watching rush hour traffic roll by standing on the side of the road. I've seen them around here my whole life, I'm 32. The coyotes have been around here far longer than us humans have, it's native here - not like introducing some weird outside creature. They aren't that big, smaller than the pitbulls around here, I don't see what the big deal is?
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/luckycoyote.asp
No Inflation Taxation without Representation
...until rocket-powered anvils and explosive-loaded pianos start hitting buildings as a collateral damage of coyotes fighting the vermin.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
“He’s not a threat. He’s not going to pick up your children,” Block said.
What an idiot. Coyotes kill pets, and evidence from the Carolinas indicates they are now affecting deer populations by decimating the survival rates of fawns. Coyotes are dangerous, and they attack humans. There were 142 attacks on humans between 1960 and 2006. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coyotes-suburban-attacks
Coyotes have spread naturally to all lower 48 states because of declines in wolf populations. Another interesting tidbit is that the coyote is the only predator in North America whose recorded population has NEVER decreased, only increased. Why someone would give such an adaptable predator a leg up when it is doing fine is completely beyond me.
Make love, not reality television.