“You’re always going to have coyotes in Westchester. They’re not going anywhere. They’re here to stay.” Â That’s the dose of reality from a state biologist featured in new series of public service videos instructing the Mamaroneck community on how to live with urban coyotes.
Village of Mamaroneck community leaders launched the educational videos on the village website, youtube and facebook. The videos cover what to do if you encounter a coyote, coyote deterrents, coyotes and dogs, coyotes and cats and more.
In the videos Kevin G. Clarke, Wildlife Biologist with the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, instructs what to do if you come across one of the wild canines.
In the fall, the Village of Mamaroneck Board of Trustees became especially concerned with the large number of coyotes sightings in a Rye Neck neighborhood that Mayor Tom Murphy says “has been inundated with daily multiple sightings of a set of coyotes that would not be discouraged.” Those concerns led to the creation of a special committee with the purpose of researching and providing strategies and recommendations to the Village Trustees.
This comes after a special public hearing in October in which the wildlife specialist told everyone “because people are seeing them (coyotes) we don’t necessarily interpret that as a bad thing.”
Clarke says “There’s good reasons to leave coyotes who aren’t causing trouble on the landscape because they are territorial enough that they’ll keep other coyotes that might act badly out of the area.”
One of the videos warns that behaviors to be concerned about are when the coyotes approach people that are walking dogs or approaching dogs in backyards. “Harass the heck out of them…throw rocks, throw sticks, spray them with a garden hose.”
Further information about coyotes as well as the public service announcements produced by LMCTV, are available through the village website and on youtube.
