Updated Feb. 16
Islanders will have to learn how to live with coyotes on Martha’s Vineyard.
That’s from Dan Proulx, Marblehead assistant animal control officer and wildlife rehabilitator at Dan’s Wildlife Rescue, who led a talk about coyotes at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Hall on Saturday, attended by around 120 people.
“He reminded us that we need to work together as a community to make sure they don’t become a problem,” Tisbury animal control officer Heather Maciel, who invited Proulx to give the coyote talk, wrote in an email. (She added that MVTV recorded the event, and an edited version will be available online next week.)
Proulx said an aim of the talk was to quell unnecessary fears about coyotes. “That’s the No. 1 thing we’re trying to do, not to have people frightened but just aware, and to have tools … to keep the coyotes in the woods,” he said.
The number of coyote sightings seemingly increasing on the Island led people to call for ways to deal with them, some suggesting hunting the animals as an option. But Proulx said that people will not need to worry about coyotes for the most part. “You guys are pretty spread out, and you have a lot of wooded areas. There’s plenty of room for coyotes to coexist with everybody and not really be a problem for people,” Proulx said.
The issues arise when coyotes start going into residential areas. Proactive measures include not leaving food out, securing trash and garbage cans, and getting rid of excess feed from birdfeeders. If someone meets a coyote, even a pair, they should stand their ground, wave their arms to look bigger, and make loud noises to scare, or “haze,” the animals.
“We want everybody to act the same toward them, so they’re always afraid of humans,” Proulx said. “That’s the key, to make sure everybody hazes them, and not pull up cameras and take pictures, and walk away and post online going, ‘Oh my God, look at this thing, almost tried to kill me,’ when it didn’t.”
Hazing adult coyotes would help to instill fear of humans in coyote pups. Even setting up a pinwheel or a motion-detecting Halloween prop can spook them. “They’re extremely smart, so if you can provide something that confuses them or scares them, they’ll stay away from a certain area,” Proulx said, adding that occasionally changing the area’s configuration helps.
Island naturalists Gus Ben David and Matt Pelikan also underscored Islanders being aware of these measures. “[The] main thing is we should avoid letting them get too complacent around humans and human habitation,” Pelikan said, adding he does not anticipate coyotes will greatly impact life on the Island.
Ben David underscored keeping the coyotes “wild,” and avoiding actions like giving them food. Proulx said people feeding coyotes was an issue earlier this year where he lives on the North Shore, and led to the loss of cats and dogs.
These preventive measures do not mean coyotes are completely risk-free. Coyotes see small pets like cats and dogs as food. Proulx said dog walkers should keep their pets on a leash, especially from dusk until dawn, and be aware. Maciel told The Times cats should be kept indoors. “If someone has a large piece of land just letting their dog run around, especially at night to let them go to the bathroom, stuff like that, I would say that would be the biggest concern,” Proulx said.
On the other hand, Proulx said he does not foresee an issue of coyotes targeting children, and added that attacks on humans are rare. “Coyotes are very reclusive. They’re afraid of people, and we’re trying to keep it that way,” he said.
Still, Ben David said not keeping a child 4 or younger out in a yard alone would help. “It’s mostly using common sense,” he said.
The coyotes can actually benefit the Island as the new top land predator. According to Martha’s Vineyard Magazine, the Island did have other predators, like black bears, foxes, and bobcats, that were wiped out by the 19th century by human activity. Without a predator, deer flourished on the Island to the point of overpopulation. Although coyotes cannot take down an adult deer, they can hunt deer that are injured, sick, weak, or are fawns. Coyotes also eat lots of small rodents, like rats. “Coyotes are opportunistic,” Proulx said. “That means when they’re traveling, if they run into something and they can eat it, they’ll eat it … they’re not stalkers or hunters.”
A lingering question is the actual coyote population on the Island. Currently there are only estimates, which vary. Ben David felt certain that there are around 12 coyotes, based on the photographs and footage of the animals taken from different parts of Martha’s Vineyard. He said despite coyotes’ ability to travel far, the timing, location, and reportage of the findings makes him confident about the estimate.
“Their range depends on food availability,” Ben David said. “The more food that’s available in a given area, the less they have to range out. Right now on the Vineyard, with the rabbit population and small mammal population we have, coyotes don’t have to go far to satiate their appetite.”
Ben David also expects a breeding population this season, or in the near future. Coyote breeding season lasts from late January to early March. He said the litter sizes depend on an “internal adjustment factor,” which means the number of pups born will vary depending on food availability and the parent’s health.
But Proulx believes there are two or three coyotes, based on their ability to travel up to 30 miles a day, which would cover large swaths of the Island. He said of the “handful” of coyote sightings, it is uncertain how many are of the same animal. “On the North Shore, people think there are 50 or 60 of them, but there aren’t. They just travel really far,” Proulx said.
Pelikan also believes that the number of coyotes on the Vineyard is in the single digits, adding he has never seen one, despite his extensive time outdoors.
Another concern was regarding the risk coyotes posed to livestock. While many livestock are in fenced-off areas and seem like easy pickings for coyotes, Proulx said hazing methods and area reorganization should prevent attacks. Pelikan said people with livestock should at least consider improving fencing management, rather than relying on coyotes’ fear of humans.
Ben David said that the abundance of food — like rabbits and rats — on the Island could deter coyotes from becoming a problem for animal owners. Even so, coyotes becoming a nuisance for domesticated animals like sheep and chicken is a possibility, according to Ben David, who pointed to Falmouth and Naushon as examples. This possibility is most likely in the winter when there is less prey, Ben David said.
Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society president Brian Athearn, who felt Proulx’s talk was educational, said he felt the on-Island coyotes were a double-edged sword. While natural predators could be beneficial, he felt they were a bit large for the Island. “All of the cages and pens and runs for animals on the Island are all gauged on keeping raccoons out, or regular dogs out,” he said.
Athearn also said that hunting would likely not be the answer against coyotes, considering how many places there are to hide, adding there would be regulations to learn. Additionally, deer are still overpopulating the Island, despite active participation during hunting seasons.
A concrete number of coyotes on the Island was another factor Athearn felt was necessary for protecting livestock. Athearn said Massachusetts is trying to purchase 400 trail cameras for a deer study on the Island, so he and several other Island hunters are trying to work with them to include coyotes in the research. An idea Polly Hill Arboretum arborist Ian Jochems had was using trail cameras that Island hunters already have to provide data, which Athearns is trying to help implement. “I think if the hunters could work with the homeowners and the landowners, I think we could at least get a cognizant idea of what’s going on,” Athearn said.
Athearns encouraged people to notify the local Environmental Police officer, Matt Simmons, if they see coyote activity.
A previous version of this story misattributed the trail cameras idea to Brian Athearn.
