In my semi-rural Midwestern area, ground nesting birds such as Meadowlarks and Bobwhites have disappeared gradually within the last 50 years. As housing developments replaced farms, the open field habitats those species prefer are mostly gone. Dogs and cats let loose have also decimated them.
Even ring neck pheasants are fewer, and that is greatly attributed to increasing coyote numbers. We once provided shelled corn for pheasants on the ground below our bird feeders, and it was fun to see them materialize cautiously from the tall grass, a male with his harem. After a while, that happened only in wintertime (and never in hunting season).
Our neighbor’s wide-roaming flock of guinea fowl, humorous regular visitors to our feeders, disappeared one summer, the suspected cause being coyotes or dog packs. He had to enclose his remaining chickens and peacocks within fences soon after.
Rabbits are fewer, too, culled apparently by coyotes that hunt even in the housing subdivisions at night. And so unattended pet dogs and cats also take their chances these days. Even foxes must be cautious.
I suppose coyotes have their useful place in certain ecosystems out West, but they have certainly changed the character of certain ecosystems farther East.
(Yes, I realize the coyote and bird above are only cartoons in a cartoon setting.)
In my semi-rural Midwestern area, ground nesting birds such as Meadowlarks and Bobwhites have disappeared gradually within the last 50 years. As housing developments replaced farms, the open field habitats those species prefer are mostly gone. Dogs and cats let loose have also decimated them.
Even ring neck pheasants are fewer, and that is greatly attributed to increasing coyote numbers. We once provided shelled corn for pheasants on the ground below our bird feeders, and it was fun to see them materialize cautiously from the tall grass, a male with his harem. After a while, that happened only in wintertime (and never in hunting season).
Our neighbor’s wide-roaming flock of guinea fowl, humorous regular visitors to our feeders, disappeared one summer, the suspected cause being coyotes or dog packs. He had to enclose his remaining chickens and peacocks within fences soon after.
Rabbits are fewer, too, culled apparently by coyotes that hunt even in the housing subdivisions at night. And so unattended pet dogs and cats also take their chances these days. Even foxes must be cautious.
I suppose coyotes have their useful place in certain ecosystems out West, but they have certainly changed the character of certain ecosystems farther East.
(Yes, I realize the coyote and bird above are only cartoons in a cartoon setting.)