Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
I saw a coyote pup and its mama (or dad?) at a house that no one lives in. Someone's been putting canned food in petfood dishes in their carport. The pup crawled into a hole under the driveway, so I'm guessing that's this family's den.
At first I thought it was a fox and cub, and took a photo of mama from a distance after she ran to the side of the house, near the back. Got home and took a better look at the photo and yup - it's a coyote, for sure. Too big to be a fox. Ears too long, neck too long, tail not bushy enough. So positive it's a coyote.
Very cool to see, but not very cool to have in this residential area, especially considering that someone is intentionally feeding them, which makes them grow accustomed to humans and lose their fear of us. That spells danger for humans.
What to do? Is there even an "animal control" like there is up north? It's not a domesticated animal, it's not a bird or gator. They don't need rescuing.
But someone with authority needs to find out who's feeding them and make them stop doing that. And possibly the coyotes should be captured and euthanized or relocated.
Who though? The police? Animal control? Community standards? The local rec center? A wildlife conservation organization? The Lady Lake Town Hall? Who do you even report this stuff to around here?
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Coyotes are one of the more CLEVER animals at living in close proximity to humans. Grizzly bears, for example, would NOT be tolerated here. Coyotes would have both advantages and disadvantages in TV Land. They would obviously be eating mice and rats and skunks and possums, which can get surprisingly large. The obvious disadvantage is rabies and danger to small pet dogs and cats. Personally, I like to hear them howl at the moon at night.
......Some local residents seem to think that LARGE GATORS are so COOL and should be feed to get larger. Personally, I think that all gators over 4 feet should end up on a restaurant table. MY opinion is that LARGE GATORS are a much bigger threat than coyotes. I would NOT report coyotes to anyone because they will NOT be simply RELOCATED - just poisoned to DEATH. I don't believe that they are THAT big of a problem and they have some balance of nature benefits.