Friday, November 30, 2007

Wild Encounters


I'm a huge animal lover, have been all my life. When I was really young I wanted to be a veterinarian & one of my young sons wants to be a zookeeper. Over the Thanksgiving holiday our family took a trip to Michigan where we were greeted not only by snow (!) but also hunting season. My thoughts on hunting are a little complicated. When I see deer walking in the woods, I slow down to look at them or let the kids take a photo. I certainly don't feel like shooting them. That being said, I understand that deer can be pests & I'm definitely a meat eater. During our vacation I saw something that I've never seen before. After eating lunch at McDonald's (thank goodness we'd already eaten!) I saw an SUV at the drive-thru with a dead deer strapped to the roof (not something you're likely to see in Southern California). Try explaining that to your kids!
When we arrived home, we found that a coyote had moved into our yard. We have a large yard that's totally fenced & somehow he's gotten in & can't get back out. I've called animal control, department of fish & game, etc & no one can seem to tell us how to get rid of him (although their voicemail system did tell me how to get a hunting license). The coyote doesn't seem too afraid of me & comes right up to our backdoor & looks in. Of course, I'm nervous about our dogs & kids (although he's probably more interested in all the ground squirrels & bunnies). If any of you have coyote advice, I'd love to hear it!

4 comments:

GaryB said...

Hi Erin,
If you needed advice on Kangaroo's I could help. But the only advice I would know about distracting a Coyote would be to get a Road runner "Beep Beep".
Are you possibly attending the Star ceremony for Elizabeth Montgomery in January?
Or the Bewitched fan fare in July?
I hope all is well.
GaryB

Brophtron said...

How tall is the fence and is there "wilderness" on the other side? If the fence isn't too high, maybe put a plank that the coyote can climb from the ground to the top of the fence (if you go out there with several people and make noise, he should stay far enough away from you.

Is there a gate to the fence that you can leave open with some food at the entrance? You'd have to watch the gate, though, to make sure he goes out, and close it after he leaves.

Could he have dug under the fence? I would think he could dig back out if he did.

Jesse21 said...

Erin,

Here is information that was put out here in Virginia. I've seen a few over the last couple of years. They seem to keep their distance from humans for now.

Jesse

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/habitat/landowners/infosheets/coyote.pdf

Majestic said...

Hi Erin

Maybe this could help

http://icwdm.org/handbook/carnivor/Coyotes.asp.

O how i would like to go to the Bewitched fan fare but that will not the case , i live in belgium.

bey bey

sigrid (my real name)