Dealing with urban coyotes

Screaming and banging pots should help keep coyotes out of Calgary backyards, advises a Vancouver expert.

Robert Bowlins, an urban wildlife specialist with the Stanley Park Ecology Society, said coyotes look for den sites that are safe and secure for pups. Never feed coyotes, he said, and show them that backyards aren't suitable for a den.

"The key when there is a coyote in your backyard is to respond to it, to be as aggressive as possible," Bowlins said. "By throwing things at it, by shouting at it, you are basically teaching them to get out."

It's common to spot coyotes in parks, on golf courses and along river valleys in Calgary.

But Wendy Watson, a Lake Bonavista woman who had a family of coyotes move under her back deck, says the animals have become too bold. She wants the growing coyote problem in her area solved.

• FROM JUNE 8, 2006: Coyote family moves into Calgary yard

Bowlins advises Vancouver residents in a program called Co-Existing with Coyotes, developed in co-operation with the Vancouver Parks Board and the province.

• STANLEY PARK ECOLOGY: Co-existing with coyotes

In Vancouver, wildlife technicians go to areas with problem coyotes and chase them out of the neighbourhood. Rarely are coyotes so aggressive they need to be killed, Bowlins said. Those problems usually result when coyotes are fed by humans.

His program also involves educating about 10,000 elementary school children each year about how to distinguish between a coyote and a dog. He says children who encounter a coyote should try to appear as big, mean and loud as possible, rather than run away.

City bylaw services trapped and removed the female and four pups from Watson's yard in Lake Bonavista near Fish Creek Park, but the male and two more pups remain. The injured female has been euthanized.

Urban coyotes can be found in other large Canadian cities, including Edmonton and Toronto.