July 11, 2017, 07:01 AM
Todd HuffmanGotta love my home county. Coyote hung from stop sign.
I don't know why someone would do this, but still, it's a dead coyote. Not a pet dog. Are they warning their neighbors about the coyotes? Or were they just being juvenile?
CONNELLY SPRINGS — On a typical Saturday, there’s nothing wrong with the mistreatment of a coyote as long as it’s done by a mischievous roadrunner on TV.
But it wasn’t a Looney Tunes scene deputies responded to Saturday afternoon — it was the scene of a crime.
Deputies with the Burke County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the intersection of Miller Bridge Road and Van Horn Road in Connelly Springs around 2 p.m. to find a shot coyote hanging from a stop sign, Sheriff Steve Whisenant said.
The coyote was removed from the sign, and N.C. Wildlife was called to evaluate the scene and remove the carcass, Whisenant said.
Whiesnenat said there was no damage to state property and that the only charge would be not properly disposing of the carcass, but the incident has been a hot topic for residents near the area.
“The first question I was asked at church on Sunday was if I knew who killed the coyote,” said Mindy Lail, who lives on Miller Bridge Road.
Lail said she did not see the coyote hanging from the stop sign and has not seen any in the area, but her father-in-law recently saw one near their farmland, which is home to cows and horses.
“I don’t know much about them, but I heard they are bad this year,” Lail said.
But nearby resident Danielle Barrier said she is more familiar with coyotes and was shocked to see one so large in the area, let alone one hanging by its paw.
Barrier, a resident of Van Horn Road, is originally from Texas and moved to the area about four years ago.
“You could hear them yelping at night (in Texas), but I’ve never heard them out here,” Barrier said. “This is the first one I’ve ever seen or heard here. I’m just happy my kids didn’t see it because they love animals.”
Barrier said she believes it was probably done by misbehaving kids, but her original thought was someone hung the coyote to send a message.
Danny Ray, a biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said he agrees with Barrier’s original evaluation.
“That sounds like someone trying to make a statement,” Ray said. “It sounds like someone who does not have good judgment. It was done in bad taste.”
Coyote behavior
Coyotes are not native to North Carolina but first appeared in the state in the early 1980s, Ray said. Since then, the coyote population steadily has increased.
Research shows the animals are extremely mobile and can move more than 100 miles in a week, Ray said. This, coupled with the fact that coyotes breeding numbers depend on their resources, makes it hard to estimate how many are in the area.
“I could throw out a number now, and in six months, that number will change,” Ray said. “You can find them from Hudson’s Bay in Canada all the way to the Panama Canal. They are in 48 states and in all 100 counties in this state.”
The reason for coyotes’ expansion is the removal of their major predators, Ray said. But coyotes are known to be fierce predators, themselves. The animals are omnivorous and feed on everything from small mammals to berries.
“About anything you got in your garden, they’ll eat,” Ray said. “I get a couple calls about pets missing each year. I don’t want to tell people their cat got eaten by a coyote, but I often feel confident that’s what happened.”
Despite their predator instinct, coyotes are actually afraid of humans, Ray said.
“Keep your eyes on your pets when you are out and about, but (coyotes) won’t bother your pets if you are with them” he said. “Now if you see one up close, you don’t want to turn and run from it. But you don’t want to do that even with domesticated dogs or any other predatory animal.”
But although they are not harmful to humans, North Carolina is “lenient” when it comes to hunting coyotes, Ray said.
People are allowed to hunt coyotes for recreation all year as long as it’s done on a legal hunting day and with a hunting license, Ray said. People even can use electronic calls, hunt at night with lights and shoot a coyote on their own property without a license.
However, a person cannot shoot a coyote on a property they do not own unless he or she has a license, and no one can trap a coyote on personal property without a license, Ray said.
But even if people see a coyote has caused damage to their property or pets, they should not go out and “wage war” on all coyotes, Ray said.
“If you remove a coyote, it will be replaced by another,” he said. “If you kill a good coyote, it might be replaced by a coyote that kills livestock. So we try to tell people to focus on removing the offender. Coyotes are going to be here regardless.”
Ray said each coyote has a different personality and travel pattern. This allows people to distinguish the offender by looking at clues like where the coyote entered the property, such as a hole in a fence.
“Basically, they are an extremely elusive animal not aggressive to humans, but they are a predator,” Ray said.
For those interested in learning about coyote management, Ray will be helping to host a workshop at the NC Cooperative Extension Cleveland County Center in Shelby on Aug. 8 from 5 – 8 p.m.
The workshop will teach coyote biology and behavior; laws and regulations on taking care of coyotes; basic trapping techniques; and practical methods to reduce conflict.
People can register for the free workshop by calling 704-482-4365. For more information, contact Ray at 828-433-8880 or daniel.ray@ncwildlife.org.
Ryan Wilusz can be reached at rwilusz@morganton.com or 828-432-8941.
http://www.morganton.com/news/...ad-2f5653e01727.htmlJuly 11, 2017, 10:24 AM
rburgThey're all over around here. One was hanging around 3 houses down. Then he got deadified by the guy living there. Charlie just tossed the carcass in the garbage for pickup. I worked with a guy who's mother was having a problem with them. Right down by the Arc theme park. He didn't take it too seriously until his favorite barn cat came up missing. Then it was war.
Being a good guy, I furnished him with some ammo to keep up the fire fight. He hung them from fences when he could determine where they came in. The idea was they wouldn't cross the fence at the place where another was dead. It seemed to work. They moved their entry place down about a quarter of a mile. So he hung up another one there. Then they stopped coming in for a while. Either because the little trick worked or because they'd lost so many troops it seemed wise to move along. Wiley didn't get his name from being stupid. If he started with a family of 10 and suddenly its down to one or two, its time to do things differently.
