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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.
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
One neighbor of mine watched a coyote carry off her miniature dog, and when coyotes start being sighted, the Missing Cat posters start appearing.
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
Dodging them isn't the point. If a deer leap in front of the car and the driver didn't have time to steer or break, well tough luck. Good chance the car is going to be a total wreak, and the driver's dead or gravely injured.
A (well-feed) wolf doesn't have the habit of starring into coming lights, and in the case the driver hit it, well, it's going to be a bit less spectacular. A deer can weight up to 200kg, a wolf weight barely more than 60kg. Deers have an habit of smashing the windshield, wolves mostly hit the bumper.
You're talking to someone who has hit a deer at 50+ miles per hour. (I don't know what that works out to in KPH, sorry.)
Dunno about kilograms but the local DOT estimated the deer (a doe) weighed 160 pounds or more.
We were ok, and it didn't even break the windshield. It did do over $3000 (US) damage to the truck.
The secret to surviving a deer is to drive a truck of 1/2 ton or heavier, with the optional 4X4 package that jacks the truck up a few inches so the deer doesn't go over the hood.
The problem I see with wolves is, if it *does* go over the hood, then you have a really pissed off wolf in the car with you...
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
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.
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.