A trail camera in the vicinity of Meeting House Way in Edgartown captured images of what appears to be a coyote. The shots were taken by Ashton Hannah via automatic equipment at just after 2 am on July 31.
As The Times previously reported, footage of an Eastern coyote was captured in Edgartown in May. Three years prior, a dead coyote was found washed ashore in West Tisbury. In 2011, images were captured of a live coyote on the Edgartown shoreline. It’s unclear if this is the same animal. The original trail cam images were inadvertently deleted, Roy Hope, a friend of Hannah’s, said. However, Hope retained laptop shots of the images, and shared them with Hannah’s permission. While no evidence has come forth coyotes are reproducing on the Vineyard, Hope thinks a breeding pair of coyotes will eventually arrive on-Island. “It’s only a matter of time before the right combination makes it here,” he said.
Hope described the Vineyard as “heaven on earth” for coyotes, with skunks, turkeys, and deer aplenty. “They’re on easy street for the rest of their life here,” he said.
