Hunters Make Deep Cut In Coyote Population

     Users of the Shining Sea Bikeway in Falmouth this summer may notice rabbits serving almost like mobile distance markers, found every few hundred feet at the edge of the trail. If it seems as if there are more of them, not only on the bike path, but all over town, there is good reason for it.
     One of their main predators, coyotes, were harvested in unprecedented numbers during this year’s hunting season, which was extended five weeks by the state, lasting from October to March. 
     There was a 600 percent increase in coyote killings in Falmouth this year. State records show there were 28 coyotes killed, up from last year’s total of four, though just four were taken during the extended weeks. Only two were killed in Mashpee during the 2007-08 season. Across Cape Cod, coyote killings also jumped, with 144 pelts checked in this year compared to 86 during the 2006-07 season.
     Statewide, numbers jumped to 422, up from 222 last year.
     Locally, this has led to a significant decrease in the number of phone calls the town has received about coyotes, said R. Charles Martinsen III, the assistant director for the Falmouth Department of Natural Resources.
     “In the last eight months we only received three phone calls. That number is way, way down,” he said.
     One was concerning a dead coyote off Clinton Avenue, while the other two were calls that residents had seen the animals in their neighborhood.
     Mr. Martinsen attributed the scarcity of reports to the high number of kills in Falmouth this year. 
     Despite that high number, experts agree that coyote populations will ultimately rebound, having large litters to compensate.
     Nonetheless, for at least one scientist, Jonathan G. Way of Osterville, author of Suburban Howls, a book detailing coyote ecology and behavior in Massachusetts, the numbers are disturbing.
     “One-hundred and forty-four on Cape Cod is a tremendous amount of animals,” he said, estimating that during the winter there may be 300 coyotes on the Cape. “They effectively killed half the population...28 shot in your town is probably half the population [in Falmouth] in the wintertime.”
     Dr. Way criticized the state for allowing a “coyote-hunting contest” without taking feedback from experts such as himself into the equation. “They have a complete bias toward hunting,” he said. “It is so pro-hunting that someone who buys a $30 license has more say than someone who has PhD credentials.”
     He has written letters, he said, that have been ignored by the state, including suggestions to ban the use of bait and have bag limits. By not having restrictions, he said, “they literally allow a slaughter.” 
     In addition, Dr. Way claimed that the state has made his own research much more difficult, taking more than nine months last year to issue a permit that allows him to study the animals despite having done the work for over a decade. “Getting a permit renewed shouldn’t take any time,” he said. “For nine months I had to wait. I was almost ready to move somewhere else.”
     He has tried unsuccessfully to designate Barnstable as a wildlife watching sanctuary, to prohibit hunting in the town. It would aid in his research, he said, which receives little protection from the state.
     Mr. Way is tracking 10 animals that are currently tagged, but in the past hunters have killed them, sometimes with malice. “I have hunters follow me, and they will shoot the animals I am studying,” he said. “It has happened....It makes you want to quit studying them and move to an area where people aren’t so blatant about it.”
     Last year when the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife was debating whether to extend the coyote hunting season, Dr. Way said, there were a significant number of people opposed to the increase. “I went to talk and the vast majority of people, to put it bluntly, were [angry] at [the state],” he said.
     During the public hearing process, he said, he received hundreds of e-mails from those opposed to increasing the hunting season. “It was showmanship because basically the board didn’t listen to anyone against hunting,” he said. “Purely pro-hunting lobbies have all the say. It was all a bunch of lip service...They have no partiality. It is really sad.”
     He equated it to smokers being in charge of the Surgeon General warnings about smoking. “Do you think they will have any regulations, if they are all smokers?” he asked.
     However, Thomas K. O’Shea, assistant director for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, disputed this notion. In order to extend the season, he said, the state had to go through a public hearing process in which testimony was heard from both sides.
     Before the new season was established, Mr. O’Shea said, the state’s healthy coyote population—he estimated their numbers to be 10,000 statewide—as well as the animal’s high reproductive capacity were also taken into account.
     Even in this instance, Dr. Way cannot find a common ground with the state, estimating that the 10,000 figure is wildly inflated to justify coyote hunting. His research, he said, has shown that 3,000 to 5,000 is a more realistic number for the state’s coyote population.
     Whatever the figure, hunting the animals has become a popular pastime for sporting enthusiasts. Mr. O’Shea said there are many reasons for this. Coyotes, he said, are challenging, elusive, and a difficult species to hunt.
     In addition, their fur can be sold for a profit, although one local hunter, Brian G. Downs of Hatchville, said a pelt may fetch $35 at most. Comparing the cost of hunting equipment, from guns to digital coyote callers to bait, he admitted there is not much profit to be made from the fur.
     A lifetime hunter, Mr. Downs experienced success with the animals this year in Falmouth, killing 14 in all, including one that weighed in at 50 pounds.
     Prior to moving here from Bourne four years ago with his wife, Claudine, he had primarily hunted white-tailed deer, upland birds, including pheasants and quail, as well as boar in Texas. “I was brought up hunting with my father, my grandfather, pretty much we are a family of hunters,” he said, professing a love for the sport.
     With animals like deer and boar, he said, he will keep the meat for consumption, rarely having to buy from local supermarkets. With coyote, he will sometimes give the fur as a gift to family or friends, while other times keeping it for himself. He plans on using some of the pelts captured this season to make a bedspread for his home.
     His interest in coyote hunting came shortly after he moved to Falmouth, he said, when his neighbor’s beagle was attacked and killed by a coyote. Knowing that Mr. Downs hunted, the neighbor asked if he could have the animal removed. In that effort, Mr. Downs was unsuccessful. “I tried to get it, but I couldn’t,” he said. “It made me realize that the animals were a challenge and not an easy animal to hunt.”
     Since that time, Mr. Downs said, he has found them to be a formidable adversary. Because they are predators, he said, they are so finely tuned into their senses that any sound, scent, or sight can mean the difference between a kill and a miss. “They say a deer has 20,000 sensory receptors, while a coyote can have up to 200,000 sensory receptors,” Mr. Downs said. “They survive by hunting, so they always have to be alert.”
     Unlike some who may fear or dislike the creature, Mr. Downs said, “coyotes are beautiful animals,” and recalled one of his favorite hunts was not when he killed one, but when he came up empty-handed. In this instance, he was emitting a coyote call when an animal walked up, feet from him, tilted its head curiously for a few seconds, and then walked away. “There is no way to explain that feeling; it was just a wonderful moment,” he said.
     Mr. Downs has found them to be an interesting study in wildlife behavior and stressed that “everything has a place in nature,” including coyotes.
     Through his interactions with coyotes, he has noticed that their population in Falmouth is quite high. Because of the high density of coyotes in the area, he noted that many have been suffering from mange. This causes the fur on the coyotes, he explained, to be less thick than it normally would be. That can result in the animal freezing to death. This happens, he said, “when there is not enough food and too many coyotes.”
     And while he has read Dr. Way’s research on coyotes and found it to be interesting, Mr. Downs said those views on the subject should not negate his right to hunt.
     In the middle of this debate is Mr. O’Shea’s agency, which allows hunting, but also is involved in educating the public to prevent conflicts with coyotes. “We do many talks, have pamphlets, and try to prevent and avoid conflicts with coyotes first,” Mr. O’Shea said. “We have to learn to live with them....Hunting has a variety of different interests in terms of sportsmen or for others to use as a management tool.”
     For Dr. Way this is a mixed message being sent by the state. “The message of coexistence is tainted when there are no regulations on someone killing them for six months a year,” Dr. Way said. “Why preach coexistence, and allow that?”