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Coyote in the Arboretum
By adamg on Sun, 03/11/2007 - 11:18pm
Mark O'Neill of Roslindale took this photo of a sign at the Arboretum today warning of coyote spottings in the Arboretum and along the Arborway and urging anybody who sees one (especially if it has an Acme rocket on its back) to call Boston animal control or state environmental police.
Earlier:
Coyote in Mattapan
Coyote in Arlington
Coyotes in Brookline.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
I spotted a Coyote in Abington.
The morning after Christmas I was driving on Hancock Street near Ames Nowell State Park.
In the past year I've heard of a couple of deer in Dorchester, I can't wait to see one off those suckers for myself.
Coyotes and Foxes and Mooses oh My!
Well, no Moose, yet, but we have seen coyotes and a fox in our yard, as our street dead-ends into the Middlesex Fells. We get turkeys and deer, too.
Their increasing presence the dropping racoon and skunk populations. When our kids were little, we trained them to come in when they saw any coyotes nearby. We got several false positives for off-leash german shepherds, which can be more dangerous to small children than coyotes as they don't fear people.
Neither we nor or neighbors report sightings because the last thing we need is some Medford cop playing cowboy and shooting a dog or a kid in the woods. The area is way too populated. The skill set needed to track a critter and get the right one is very different from typical urban police skills. The cops were told by the state that they could go shoot coyotes (real men?)because we have some people in town who seem to have had no previous clue that their property was near a large woodland and got too scared to even leave their houses because they saw a coyote.
I think that is kind of sad, myself. Besides, we like them, and the cute foxes too. See racoons and skunks above.
Why are we instructed to
Why are we instructed to call animal control or environmental police?
I would be more likely to call animal control after encountering some of the unruly dogs at Arnold arboretum. Owing to their natural fear of people, coyotes are not a significant danger. As far as killing coyotes, it will not affect their numbers much, as coyote populations depend entirely on food availability and they modify their litter sizes to suit the optimum level the environment can support. So ridding the arboretum of coyotes may require ridding the arboretum of deer and neither seems likely.
Coyotes in Arboretum
Yep, they're there. Saw one the other night when i was driving down Centre Street ... was near the part that juts out across the street from the Rehab Hospital. Couldn't believe it. There were 4 of us in the car who saw it. U-turned a couple times to make sure. Looked like it was trying to cross Centre St. back towards Brookline, but was freaked out by the traffic. Was definitely not just a dog. I wouldn't have believed it if i hadn't seen it. Along the VFW near the Charles River is one thing, but in the Arboretum crazy