Suburbs debate response to influx of coyotes

Rebecca Barnett and her family for years had been coexisting with the coyotes in their Wheaton neighborhood until her son made a horrific discovery in August.

One of the family's cats, Jinx, was slain on the Barnetts' front lawn. The coyote was still sitting near the 10-year-old cat's body when the son arrived home about 11:30 p.m.

A month later, the Barnetts' daughters scared off a coyote just moments before it was about to attack the next-door neighbor's Wheaten terrier.

Then in December, a coyote snatched a Yorkie from a back yard, according to Barnett. While the incident wasn't reported to police, a Jan. 27 coyote attack on another small dog was. The dog in that attack was so severely injured in that it had to be put to sleep. Both incidents occurred in the same area of south Wheaton.

"We have lived in harmony with these coyotes for many, many years," said Barnett, a self-described animal lover. "Now it's really getting out of hand. They have become so bold and gutsy, I'm afraid for the children."

Barnett is among those supporting the Wheaton City Council's controversial decision to hire a licensed trapper to begin a citywide effort to capture and euthanize coyotes.

But others condemn the idea. On Friday, Councilman Tom Mouhelis said that of the roughly 75 e-mails and phone calls he's received, a vast majority are from residents opposing the city's plan to cull the coyote population.

Those residents are concerned that Wheaton is taking too dramatic a step to deal with the situation.

"They believe that it's just a couple of rogue animals causing all the problems," Mouhelis said.

While the coyote population hasn't changed significantly statewide, evidence shows their numbers are increasing in Chicago's suburbs, especially in Cook, Lake and DuPage counties. Traditionally, municipalities have responded by using public awareness campaigns to educate residents on how to coexist with coyotes.

Still, there are times when communities turn to licensed trappers to remove problem coyotes.

Just last week, Glen Ellyn hired professional coyote trapper Rob Erickson after receiving numerous complaints. He caught two nuisance coyotes by Friday.

Erickson said most of the towns that retain him don't advertise it; Wheaton isn't the first suburb to try to reduce its coyote population.

"They are just the first town that (the media) know about," he said. "There are other towns that I have worked for, and they've had fantastic results."

Other experts say they aren't convinced that mass removal of coyotes is a good idea.

"I am not aware of towns sort of wholesale going after coyotes," said Carl Strang, a naturalist with the DuPage County Forest Preserve District. "I'm not sure I would recommend it because you are replacing a known quantity with an unknown quantity."

He said removing a coyote that's acting normal - and not attacking pets - only creates a vacancy that allows another coyote to move in. And that new coyote might be one of the rare "bad" ones.

Erickson said the problem in Wheaton is that the city already has coyotes causing significant problems.

"The last thing you want to do is kill every coyote in the town of Wheaton," Erickson said. "But if you don't take the bad ones out, this isn't going to stop. Then it's going to be mass hysteria."

Unlike most coyotes, which are shy and tend to avoid human contact, Erickson said, the coyotes in Wheaton appear to no longer fear humans.

Research done by Cook County Animal Control and the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation shows that coyotes living in the Chicago area have higher survival rates than their counterparts in rural Illinois, where there's active hunting and trapping.

While hunters can get permits to kill coyotes, municipal laws, such as those prohibiting the discharge of firearms, make hunting and trapping the animals nearly impossible in the metropolitan area.

"You have to create negative stimuli to move these animals," Erickson said. "You have to show them that they are not supposed to be around people."

Once a coyote starts killing pets, he said, "It's not going to stop because the coyote doesn't know any better. It's territorial."

Bob Bluett, a wildlife biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said there are several ways coyotes adopt unacceptable behaviors.

"Oftentimes, if someone has been feeding them, the natural instincts of the coyote start to break down to where they accept people being close to them," said Bluett, adding that's why residents are advised to never feed or get close to a coyote.

While there have been attacks on humans in other parts of the country, experts say such cases are extremely rare. When it does happen, it's usually precipitated by someone feeding coyotes or leaving an infant or toddler unattended.

As for the instances where pets have been attacked, it usually involves coyotes that have learned to view small dogs and cats as prey - or aren't strong or healthy enough to hunt normally.

"In this area of Wheaton, I am very, very confident that there're animals that are (sick) there," Erickson said. "If their health is compromised, they lose their ability to hunt wild game. So what are they going to do? They are going to do anything they can to survive."

Bluett said one option that could be considered is to capture the specific coyotes that are causing the problems. Then Wheaton could have a better chance of replacing nuisance coyotes with good ones.

No matter what action the city takes, Wheaton officials say they plan to continue their public awareness campaign to educate residents of how to act around coyotes.

Still, Councilman John Prendiville, who voted against hiring a trapper, said he plans to ask fellow council members to reconsider the coyote culling program during a meeting Tuesday night.

"Humans are just one part of the natural world, and we must do everything reasonably possible to coexist with nature," Prendiville said. "It is our duty."