Coyotes in our Midst: On The Rise in Westchester?

Read the with any regularity and you notice a fair amount of coyote calls. The police seem to get as many calls about coyote roaming the area (usually the southeastern edge of Tarrytown) as they do about deers getting hit by cars. 

The two -- coyotes and deer -- go hand in hand, says Sergeant Alex Cossifos of the Tarrytown PD. “The deer is why they're here.” 

Yes, and no, said Department of Environmental Conservation Wildlife Biologist Kevin Clarke who examines such trends in our region. The coyotes do not coincide with the deer population per se, he said, however they are very “opportunistic” and go after easy targets like wounded deer (we have these) and fawns in the spring. 

We picked Clarke's knowing brain for a while to find out more about these coyotes, if they pose a real risk, and what are they doing here and for how long. 

The coyotes have been moving into our Westchester suburbs for the last 20 years or so, though there are no real numbers on this, and they love the suburbs as much the humans do.

“We're all looking for easy food for survival,” Clarke said. People on generous properties often unknowingly attract coyotes with their easy food sources: plants, pet food, bird seed, compost, even pets. Coyotes generally eat small mammals (moles, voles, mice) but they also go for berries, vegetables, bird seed, birds. “They will eat just about anything.”

Though they are more active at night, food is readily available here at all times of day, so it is not so unusual to sight coyotes by day. Late winter/early spring is when they are the most sighted, as they are more aggressive about feeding their new pups and providing protection, and more dangerously territorial.

You should not leave small pets outside unattended, or small children for that matter. Only take garbage out right before you need to. Don't leave open compost outside. 

Somewhat like bears, who are becoming increasingly comfortable around people, coyotes are too. It's the goal to create a more hostile environment for them so they don't feel welcome alongside people, said Clarke.

If you see a coyote, don't run (like prey would, triggering the idea in them that you in fact prey) but make a ruckus. Spray them with a hose, throw stones, whatever it takes to ward them off. “As they get more accustomed to people, we may see more of them," Clarke said. "You don't want to harass them per se but we don't want them familiar with people." 

The DEC even encourages hunting and trapping, both seasons of which are long “and fairly liberal” for coyotes. Oct 25 through February 15 is trapping season; hunting from Oct. 1 through March 25. “There is very little hunting and trapping pressure on them in Westchester,” he said, which would be beneficial to discouraging their growth here. But he cautioned folks to “never be mislead that removing one will do it. Others will just usually move in to fill the void.”

Not that he dislikes coyotes. “They are good looking animals,” Clarke said.

Contrary to the standard image of a white animal, they come in a range of colors from German Shepherd-like to red to gray to black. The coyotes that have migrated here have mixed on some minor level with wolves en route (from Canada and the west) so they can be bigger and more pack oriented than their cousins elsewhere in the country – and they are all over the country. “In most habitats we have coyotes now,” Clarke said.

They may seem bigger than they really are though, commonly weighing 35 to 40 pounds. Size might not stop them from occasionally taking on a full size deer or a small child. “Every once in a while across the country a coyote will be brazen and bite a small child,” Clarke said. Also, a coyote isn't a rabies-carrying species but any mammal can get rabies and any animal with rabies is a dangerous animal.

Sergeant Cossifos said, “there's not much we can do about [the coyotes] unless they're aggressive. That's nature.”