Is it possible to live in peace and co-exist with coyotes without hunting them? Very much so, according to conservation biologist Geri Vistein, who spoke in front of a near capacity crowd at Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association on Aug. 3.
Vistein believes coyote populations will regulate themselves in the absence of human intervention, which she said, is a concept that goes against what modern society has believed and taught for centuries.
Vistein is the Maine Representative for Project Coyote. She received her undergraduate degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana, and Master of Science degree in natural resources from the University of Vermont. Her master’s work focused on the conflict over hunting at Cape Cod National Seashore and the social psychology of human belief systems.
The coyote is only found in North America, where it has made its home for over a million years. America’s Song Dog, as it is nicknamed, has the “widest range of vocalization of any species,” Vistein said.
The coyote got its name “Coyotyl” from the ancient Aztec. They were often referred to as tricksters, for their coy and cunning ways. The goat hunting Navajo called them God’s dog. Native Americans “saw coyotes as connected to the land,” Vistein said. In Native American myths, passed down from generation to generation, coyotes were always referred to as the teacher.
While the Native Americans lived in harmony with coyotes, European settlers despised them. “Massive numbers of wildlife were hunted down. Caribou, elk and wood bison” were wiped out. “By 1500 Europe was devoid of wilderness. When they came to this country” they saw the virgin forests as scary places and evil. “They feared them, hated them and wanted to get rid of them, both natives and coyotes,” Vistein said.
Europeans killed coyotes outright, destroyed their habitat and brought in non-native sheep and cattle. “Coyotes were perceived as a threat to their livelihood,” she said.
Vistein said predator control was started hundreds of years ago, adding that $20 million is spent in the United States every year to kill predators, and “there are more coyotes today than when the Europeans settled.”
When the land was cleared, coyotes’ favorite foods, herbivores like mice, rabbits and woodchucks flourished with the new abundance of food. Wolves and mountain lions, coyotes’ natural predators and territorial foes, were over hunted and near extinct, making conditions ideal for coyotes.
“They balanced each other out. It was a perfect example of how it works,” Vistein said of pre-European life in North America.
With an open territory, herbivores “can have more babies because there is more food.” In turn, coyotes can rear more pups with an abundant food source.
Vistein cited coyote studies done in Baxter State Park and Acadia National Park, which are largely wooded. In the parks, “where coyotes were not hunted or persecuted” they had an average of five to six pups; but in non-protected and more open areas, coyotes had seven to 16 pups.
In the parks, “of the six pups, they were lucky if two survived. Coyotes in other areas, of 14 pups, 12 to 13 would survive,” Vistein said.
“Population goes up when they are not in a stabilized environment. Coyotes mate for life, they are the most faithful of all social animals. The alpha female and alpha male are the only ones allowed to breed. They are four years old before they breed.”
When the coyotes’ habitat changed, they adapted and changed. “They are resilient. They adjust to new territory, new climate. Coyotes prefer to hunt during the day”, but have adapted to hunting at night. “They are stable when their family unit has 28 square miles to hunt in,” Vistein said.
DNA and genetic studies show that the Maine coyote is a wolf hybrid, having bred with an Eastern Canadian wolf (red wolf) and gray wolf in its past.
Vistein said coyotes play a keystone role in Maine. She described a keystone as a major carnivore that kills an animal to create a healthier species. She believes coyotes keep deer on their toes and make them more alert, and that they only take the “weak and less smart” animals, which creates a healthier deer herd.
She also said that coyotes help protect against diseases carried by rodents, such as Lyme disease. “They have a relationship with smaller carnivores (raccoons, skunks, fox) and that balance helps control disease.” These meso-carnivores feed on bird eggs and affect the bird population, Vistein said. “It helps bring the population in check. The system of predation works for all animals.”
Vistein would like to see hunting coyotes with dogs and bait illegal in Maine. She believes hunting upsets the territorial balance. “If you kill a female, there is no one to teach them about territory. Don’t bait a coyote with domesticated animals. The coyote will get a taste for it and will not forget.”
She cited examples where farmers have lived in harmony with coyotes, using llamas, donkeys and guard dogs and strategically placed fences. Vistein said the best way to co-exist with coyotes is to keep them wild, by never providing them food “in any shape or fashion. No dog food outside, pick fruit up off the ground, don’t feed birds and turkeys on the ground, don’t provide domestic animals for food, and do not provide water and shelter. Secondly, “support protection of coyotes by law, so they can stabilize themselves.”
She urges people who are approached by a coyote to yell and wave arms in the air, and not to run. “Coyotes are the lowest carrier of rabies in the country.”
“We need to replace fear and intolerance, with understanding and respect. The only way we can do that is have knowledge,” Vistein said.
