Two Dead Coyotes in Six Months
Two coyotes have died on my property in the last six months. One was found a few weeks ago and one about six months ago. They were discovered under some pepper trees on a remote part of my property. Remote for me but not so much for my neighbor who was alerted to the deaths from the stench of the decomposing bodies.
My neighbor told me both times about the dead coyotes. I would bet good money to say they were killed by poisoned food in the way of smaller animals a coyote eats.
I didn't pay much attention when the first one was found. But the second one in such a short period of time clued me in to the existence of a bigger problem.
I have many types of wildlife who call my land "home" and a slew of others just passing through. On any given day, you can find mice, rabbits, ground squirrels, possums, raccoons, skunks, doves, hawks, owls, egrets, roadrunners, bats, coyotes and bobcats just to name a few. There has even been an occasional mountain lion (puma) but—thank goodness—not recently.
They were here long before I arrived and this wildlife will continue to exist long after I'm gone. We happily coexist and don't bother each other for the most part.
But a neighbor poisoning bothersome mice or even weeds can knock out a whole generation of wildlife.
You didn't just poison a mouse. You poisoned an owl, a hawk, a fox, maybe a family pet. You poisoned the entire food chain. When we see a mouse in the yard or garage, poison seems like the quick answer. But that poisoned mouse becomes a meal for the predators that actually keep rodent populations under control. The poison moves up the chain—causing internal bleeding, organ failure, blindness, slow deaths in animals doing nothing but eating their natural prey. Birds of prey admitted to wildlife rehabilitation centers test positive for rodenticides regularly. Many don't recover. Fewer predators means more rodents. More rodents means more poison. It's a cycle that unravels the entire ecosystem. Nature spent millions of years creating balance. Owls, hawks, foxes, snakes, weasels, coyotes—they all keep rodents in check. Remove them, and you've created a much bigger problem than a single mouse. If you have a rodent problem, work with what actually works. Seal entry points around your home. Store food securely. Remove outdoor attractants. Use snap traps when necessary. Encourage natural predators by protecting habitat and installing owl boxes where appropriate. The solution doesn't have to poison everything else to work.—Natural Living Ideas
I have to continue outsmarting these creatures as soon as I discover them ruining my things.
The rabbits love to eat my new seedlings so I wrap the trunks with hardware cloth so they can't get near enough to nibble.
I have an abundance of mice and ground squirrels so I put up an owl box. An individual adult owl eats roughly 1,000 mice and small mammals per year.
I lock my chicken coop with a combo lock and have tight lids on my garbage cans because the raccoons can open nearly everything. They have been known to unscrew my fish food container and devour $100 of Koi food in a single night. Raccoons love fishing in ponds so I had my Koi pond built 5 feet deep so the Koi can avoid the raccoons.
The egrets like to stand in the pond for hours on end and skewer a Koi before flying off to devour it. So I strung rope around my pond with large bells on it so the noise would scare them off when they bumped it. That has been working for over a year.
When a very pregnant coyote was preparing my property to deliver her litter a few years ago, I hung up wind chimes and added lights and a radio tuned to a talk show to move her down the riverbed. And she did leave. I didn't need her four to seven pups calling my property "home."
I try to stay one step ahead of the wildlife.
Two nights ago I heard a rather large pack of coyotes with babies run down the riverbed. The coyote pups were happy to be out of the den and were yipping and yapping as they ran along. It was probably ten pups but it sounded like twenty. I'll be on the alert for not letting them rent an apartment on the property.
My point for this article? There is more than one way to tackle a problem. Poison is the easy way but then you're poisoning the entire ecosystem.
Be creative. I know that you'll find new and clever ways to deal with the situation.
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