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Comment by thePhytochemist | Hacker News Reader

There have been some hilarious and unfortunate disasters using introduced populations for pest control. But coyotes are not introduced. They are native to the area which means there are many checks and balances in place.

Rat control is not just a nice bonus option to reduce an irritation - we need to take it seriously in light of the Black Death. The fact of the matter is I see people having trouble with rat control in my area and we could use help to manage something that is potentially a lot more dangerous than coyotes.

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Coyotes are not native to the eastern US. The eastern US was mostly forest and coyotes don't typically hunt in forested areas. Coyotes only spread to the eastern US after 1900.

Also, eastern coyotes typically also have wolf and dog DNA. Coyotes, wolves, and dogs can and do interbreed. This has resulted in some places in the eastern US in a subspecies that isn't afraid of humans due to the dog DNA, that can hunt in open areas due to the coyote DNA, and can also hunt in forested areas due to the wolf DNA.

Coywolves are also much larger and more powerful than coyotes. It may have been an anomaly, but I had the opportunity to see one close up on the edge of my rural property in PA that was easily the size of a German shepherd.

How effective will a pair of coyotes hanging out in Central Park be for rodent control in the city? It's the rats running in the drains, streets, buildings that are the problem. Rats living in the park are not what the people living in the city care about

Give it time. Predators breed until prey numbers are diminished enough that they start starving.

So then there will be thousands and thousands of hungry coyotes in NYC, since NYC is famously full of rats?

except a specialized rat killer will not be much of a threat to humans, and will have a natural population control - or go after ferrets next!

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