Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America | Hacker News Reader

Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

smithsonianmag.com

56 pointspseudolus63 comments

In my island province here in Canada the biggest animal was the red fox (vulpes vulpes) until about ten years ago. Then suddenly coyotes appeared seemingly overnight. It drove foxes into the towns and cities or killed them off in rural areas.

It's amazing to witness such a sudden change although I've read they arrived in 1983. It's very densely populated here but also rural it's many small towns spread out plus two bigger cities. Coyotes were easily spotted since they stood out compared to a fox or even a dog.

It's not really a true coyote it's canis latrans or the "eastern coyote", or "coywolf". They're bigger than a true coyote, they're smarter, and they live in packs of a dozen.

The Coywolf is also more dangerous than a coyote or wolf. There are reports from people who were out walking and upon seeing a large dog they turned back around. When walking back they discovered they were being herded into a trap of several Coywolves. One woman in Cape Breton was killed by Coywolves when she was out for a walk in a wooded area.

> One woman in Cape Breton was killed by Coywolves when she was out for a walk in a wooded area

Yes, this did occur and it was a tragedy. But worth keeping things in perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_attack

Three fatal attacks recorded in the last 100 years. And so few non-fatal attacks that the wikipedia page can list nearly all of them. Even the attack you mention, Taylor Mitchell, it sounds as though this was one particular pair of animals that were far more aggressive than typical.

Coyotes are generally big cowards. They're successful in the anthropocene because they stay out of sight and mind.

Coywolves are more dangerous, perhaps, but we should keep things in perspective about how dangerous we're talking about. If they were ten times more deadly than coyotes, they'd still be a orders of magnitude less dangerous than sharks, bees, and lightning. (All of which are unfathomably less dangerous than drunk drivers).

> we should keep things in perspective about how dangerous we're talking about. If they were ten times more deadly than coyotes, they'd still be a orders of magnitude less dangerous than sharks, bees, and lightning.

Sharks are an illustrative example. They're pretty dangerous if you encounter them. But doing that is fully optional; no one's ever run into a shark by accident. If you live near wolves, you can run into them even though you didn't want to.

Realistically, your risk from sharks is exactly zero unless you're going out of your way to inflate it. It's not honest to claim that sharks are more dangerous than coywolves -- and once you've realized that, you realize that you need to adjust risk estimates based on what you're exposed to.

> no one's ever run into a shark by accident.

What do you mean by that? I'm pretty sure that the swimmers/surfers that have been bitten by a shark were not actually looking for a shark. Swimming at the surface of the water unaware of exactly what's lurking in the water below them is the same thing to me as a hiker walking through the woods suddenly coming upon any wild animal.

Not sure it's a point worth making personally, but I suspect they mean that you encounter bees by leaving the house, something almost everybody does daily. Deer if you drive outside a city. But you will only encounter a shark if you specifically enter the ocean and almost only if you go deeper than a foot or so of water.

I live in Australia where almost everyone lives near the coast, and we regularly swim at beaches where sharks are sighted. Shark-spotting planes, helicopters and drones are a daily thing through summer.

> only if you go deeper than a foot or so of water

So, basically what any adult does when they go on the sea?

Though it seems sharks are especially attracted to surfboards , making the surfers a notable target.

> they'd still be a orders of magnitude less dangerous than sharks, bees, and lightning.

And well, dogs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_t...

BTW, since we just adopted a very sweet chocolate lab mix who according to wisdom panel has 25% American Staffordshire Terrier in him, I'll also share this article pointing out that breed is a poor predictor of bite risk:

https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/literature-reviews/dog-...

Gratuitous pic of our new family member:

https://ibb.co/thq4sRG

Did you read the list of fatal dog attacks? I toolk a cursory look came to exactly the opposite conclusion as the second avma.org link did, which seemed to be engaged in mental gymnastics.

The deer is a remarkably deadly animal. More people lose their lives in deer-involved car crashes than through dog attacks. Coyotes are the only thing that kill deer in the semi-urban Eastern US.

I would attribute that more to cars than deer. If oppossums and groundhogs were deer-sized and agile enough to dart in front of vehicles, would we track groundhog-related fatalities?

I think your zoology is a bit off and the type of coyotes you refer to, and the behaviors you describe are pretty much standard issue for any coyote pack.

C. latrans is the species of coyote - there are subspecies beyond this, but the Coywolf is not one of them.

Coywolf simply refers to the phenotype observed when coyotes and wolves interbreed - this can happen anywhere between all of the wolve and coyote subspecies. Coywolves are almost “one offs” (breeding pair hooked up by chance). Many wolves also have coyote DNA.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote

> Many wolves also have coyote DNA.

Indeed... in some cases enough that it complicates conservation efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA-QINoEEwQ

Other than eating the occasional housecat (which is bad) Coyotes, in general, seem like good partners for our current urban/suburban life. They make hidden dens in our parks, like to eat rats and other small rodents and are scared of dogs and households.

https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2010/12/08/131876027/6...

They take small to mid size dogs too. Usually when it’s dark. Sometimes even while on a leash. Our 13 pound dog got attacked in our backyard. The coyote jumped a five foot fence with ease. The dog survived with some bite marks but the vet said usually the injuries are worse.

Otherwise they cause less trouble than raccoons who get into a lot of things.

you may consider this: https://www.coyotevest.com/collections/all

Not sure about this. Doesn't seem very comfortable for the dog. I added another layer of chickenwire to the fence that went outward so the coyote would not only have to jump up but then also to get over an overhang.No problems since then and cost maybe $50 and a few hours of work.

I live across the street from a big park where coyotes live. I see them walk around as early as 2-3pm sometimes - and a few times I saw them right outside my door late at night. My biggest worry is them jumping into my balcony and getting in through the doggy door, which they are known to do. My dog has no chance against them.

i'm glad to hear it's working out

Well, they can't eat a cat if the cat is kept indoors, which it should be to protect wild animals that it might kill for fun (e.g. birds).

Considering Australia is culling feral cats as a conservation effort, the coyotes might be doing our ecosystem a favor in that regard as well.

There shouldn't be any _outdoor cats_, full stop. I don't think people realize the extent of the bird/squirrel/lizard/frog carnage inflicted by the fluffy apex predator they occasionally get to pet. While I've seen many a cat catch & eat small creatures, I once had a neighbor's cat use my bird feeder as the lure for an all-you-can-eat bird buffet.

Yes they eat/kill lots of wildlife but so did the Bobcat, Lynx Ocelot and Foxes that we drove out of much of their North American habitat.

Once coyotes establish themselves, you can never get rid of them. If you try to exterminate them, they just start having larger litters until their population recovers. They are adaptable and cunning. I hope that South America’s animals are ready for them, because they can permanently change an ecosystem.

Big Felines and wolves erradicate it. Is just that we, humans are not good at that.

Big felines and wolves don't do well in urban/suburban environments. Coyotes do.

The irony: we kill large scary predators, but inevitably medium sized predators replace them. People and cattle are not terrorized but our Shih Tzus and kitty cats are.

Yep, It even has a name in Ecology: Mesopredator release. You can have one wolf or "twenty" coyotes in the same area.

Yep. Coyote population is purely tied to resource availability, which unfortunately can include domesticated animals.

Any farmer will tell you that security is more important than hunting for coyotes.

This may be anecdotal, but it's said that coyotes drive foxes out, and foxes are better at keeping a neighborhood clear of varmints. The years when there are foxes in our 'hood, the rabbits are much less bothersome. I only hope coyotes can do as good a job. Last year was terrible.

If you have a plague of rabbits you need a lynx to eat rabbits and keep foxes out of the area :-) nothing new under the sun.

Can you post some lynx? ;-)

Sorry, endangered. We need all of them :-)

They have begun interbreeding with wolves and dogs, sometimes creating larger and smarter breeds of canids than coyotes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf

I was in Chile recently, and one thing you notice is how many street dogs there are in towns/cities. They don't seem to be owned by anyone, but are fed/watered by various people/businesses and seem somewhere between domesticated and wild split into various packs.[1]

Curious how coyote and street dog packs will interact. I've heard Mexico also has a lot of street dogs, so maybe there are already first-hand accounts of what happens when a pack of coyotes moves into street dogs territory?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_dog

They will probably interbreed.

They eat chickens that people keep, kill other pets, they're basically a nuisance species in North America. Here's it's perfectly legal to shoot them year-round. And, you can cull up to 50% of the population before you would have any effect on them.

Yeah, where my dad lives in rural kentucky, they actually paid you for each coyote you killed. Not sure if that's still the case, though.

> Other than eating the occasional housecat (which is bad)

If you want your cat to participate in nature, to have the opportunity to kill wild animals, you have to accept the possibility that other wild animals might try to eat your cat. Wanting the former but not the latter, wanting to have your cake and eating it too, is unreasonable.

Suppose I'd like my son to be able to go out hunting, but I want to make sure the animals out there do not eat him.

Why is that different?

If your kid wants to frolicking around in the woods in bear country, it would be reasonable for you to tell him to watch his back. Or go with him and watch his back yourself. Or if neither could be managed, you should tell him to stay inside. What's not reasonable is calling for the extermination of bears to turn nature into a sanitized Disneyland experience safe for unattended young children.

Mapping this analogy back to cats, you should either tell your cat to watch his back, watch your cat's back yourself, or keep your cat indoors. Really though, just do the last one. If your son hunted the north american songbirds your cat kills, he'd be a felon. If you want your cat to be happy, buy some cat toys.

The problem is when new predators, especially widely adaptable ones such as coyotes, are introduced into an ecosystem where the prey animals have no defenses against them, they tend to outcompete everything so the populations of prey animals decline and local predators end up with less food causing both populations to decline until only the invasive one is left.

This is why introduced and invasive species of both plants and animals are a huge problem around the world. They stifle local biodiversity and you end up with monocultures.

Out here (Southern California) they definitely eat cats and small dogs.

Yep. Every time I see a lost cat poster, I wonder what the owner's thinking. There was even a lost dog poster in my neighborhood stating outright that the dog got snatched by a coyote.

Fascinating article, highlighting that the coyote is one of the few species to thrive in the Anthropocene. How do such populations cross significant barriers such as the Panama Canal? I could imagine a coyote or two crossing, but how do enough breeding pairs cross?

My guess is simply by trotting across a bridge or roadway. I've come across coyotes in Chicago and they're fearless. I was walking along a major road at around 5PM and a big, fat one that had been running down the sidewalk ran right past me and bolted across the street into a wooded area of a cemetery. I was kind of zoned out and hadn't even noticed it until it was right upon me.

They've happily walked into shops with open doors too.

https://coyotesincities2011.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/urba...

The interesting question is why did not happened before. This would suggest that big felines are retreating (and that coyotes trive in urban areas of course)

The golden jackal in the same way is returning to its old domains in Europa, for some reason is a global trend. Maybe control of distemper has triggered something, or maybe climate is more accurate now for they.

"Then, around the turn of the 20th century, nature’s barriers began to crumble. Forests began to fragment,"

It's impressive how wrong that statement is. 1900 is when forests stopped fragmenting, not when they started. Between 1630 and 1900 forested area of north America declined from 46 percent to 34 percent. That declined only slightly to 33 percent in 1997 and has since increased to 36.2 percent.

Fragmenting and loss of overall area are not the same thing.

A fragmented drinking cup may weigh the same as an intact one, but one of them is a lot better at holding water.

A power line through a forest, for example, incurs minimal deforestation, but provides a highway for animals to transit through the surrounding forest.

I would think that power lines are a minimal impact. What probably really hurts is some species have roam areas of dozens to hundreds of square miles. With the introduction of roads and urban areas to break up some of the ecosystems that spanned multiple states, for example, had to have a much more dramatic effect. Fencing, road barriers, etc. Create choke points and make it harder especially for large predators to thrive. The Florida panther was not even an especially large feline but it did occupy a central place at the top of the food chain in Florida and now its population has been decimated due to fractured ecosystems and each one needing about 75-150 square miles of roam area.

Yeah shortly after 1900 we got the national park movement and more state forests and wildlife reserves started getting set up. Conservation was not a thing in the 1800s. It became one in the 20th century.

This is not unusual, at least on large timescales. Life finds a way.

If you want to read about larger migrations have a look at The Great American Biotic Exchange.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987556/

We’ve had them roaming through the middle of the city of Houston for well over a dozen years. This local news article from a couple months ago has tips for how to handle them in your yard:

https://www.khou.com/mobile/article/news/local/urban-coyotes...

Coyotes are on my lawn regularly. Once there was a litter of seven, that dwindled to 5 by the fall. They liked to play in the yard.

I never bothered them, they didn't bother me, though they'd watch me carefully.

There's an eagle nest nearby, and the eagles are often circling above.

Amazingly, I live in the middle of the city.

> Amazingly, I live in the middle of the city.

I live within a Boston postal code, and we have at least one coyote in our neighborhood. That was a surprise even coming from nearby Arlington where coyotes are not uncommon. Nobody expected we'd have one chillin among the concrete.

No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes.

I know an old lady who swallowed a dog. She swallowed the dog to chase the cat to chase the bird to chase the spider to chase the fly.

"The crab-eating fox and the coyote may soon swap territories, initiating the first American cross-continental exchange in more than three million years"

If you don't count humans

Ok so apparently they would have to get through the equatorial (Amazon) forest first

My bet is that it's not going to happen. It's not really a place where that kind of animal will thrive

Yeah, the Darien Gap - well done to them.

I thought it was only the repulsive rats that benefit from the human ever-expanding footprint. Interesting to know other species are also adjusting.

Domestic dogs, many crops, and feral-descended populations (like wild pigs and pigeons) also benefit

Strange list. Other domestic animals (cats, pigs, chickens...) benefit the same way domestic dogs do. That's the whole point of being domesticated.

It certainly would be a strange list if it were exhaustive. It was just a random list of examples to make the point that anything humans perceive as beneficial are reproducing at massive rates.

Food animals (like cows) are perhaps not fitting anyone's definition of "doing well", but they're certainly reaching record-high population counts.

Raccoons are doing well, as are crows.

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