1 week Ago By Phil Heidenreich
The time of year is approaching where there is an increased potential for aggressive behaviour from normally passive coyotes in Edmonton, but experts say they believe recently-adopted techniques — along with proactive steps taken by citizens — will mitigate the chances of negative encounters. The City of Edmonton held a news conference on Monday now that denning season is underway for coyotes. John Wilson, the city’s deputy bylaw chief enforcement officer for animal care and park rangers, said he believes the city’s decision to begin using non-lethal projectiles to deter coyotes who have become unafraid of humans is already having an impact.
Wilson said data collected by the city leads him to believe that park rangers being given the ability in late 2023 to use “kinetic impact launchers” to frighten and cause pain to problem coyotes has likely lowered the number of negative encounters with humans overall. “Our experience does suggest ..
. (the launcher) is having a positive effect,” he told reporters, noting that in 2024, the city received 53 complaints about aggressive coyotes, down from 128 in 2022. “It’s likely that that positive change is correlated with the introduction of our kinetic launcher program at the end of 2023.
This program provides additional capacity for park rangers to do high-intensity hazing. “Many other cities across North America also struggle with challenges with human-coyote interactions. However, to our knowledge, no other municipalities equip city rangers with these kinds of non-lethal management tools.
” Colleen Cassady St. Clair, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta, also spoke at the news conference and noted that the use of projectiles on problem coyotes is “intended to be frightening and uncomfortable for animals.” “But it is calibrated to avoid any physical injury,” she said.
“We know that the use of projectiles in high-intensity hazing has been a standard technique in the national parks for promoting co-existence with grizzly bears for decades. It works — maintaining high rates of grizzly bear survival and public safety for people.” According to St.
Clair, anywhere between about 500 to 3,000 coyotes live in the city and they are “in Edmonton to stay.” “There is no way we could get rid of coyotes even if we wanted to,” she said. “But nor is there a reason to get rid of coyotes.
Most coyotes behave very benignly around people. When they see people, they take off. Occasionally they become quite bold.
” The risk of bold behaviour increases after denning season, she explained. Coyote mothers will pick out spots to have their pups, often in steep areas at the top of the river valley or ravines. Three to four weeks later, pups will begin playing around the edges of dens, according to St.
Clair, and more aggressive behaviour is possible, especially when coyotes see dogs who they view as competitors, threats or both. Most pups are born sometime between the end of April and early June. St.
Clair said there are four main things Edmontonians can do to avoid making coyotes comfortable around humans and to mitigate the chance of coyote encounters with humans or pets: ensure coyotes do not have access to food that could be associated with humans like garbage, compost, fallen fruit, low-hanging fruit, bird seed and pet food; supervise pets and keep dogs on leashes, especially during denning season; learn appropriate hazing techniques so that coyotes do not feel comfortable around humans; and report bold or aggressive coyotes to the city by calling 311. She said when those steps to prevent encounters fail, park rangers may be called in to use high-intensity hazing techniques and that they have the discretion to determine if those steps are appropriate under the circumstances. “If there are repeated complaints of aggressive approaches by coyotes towards pets in an area that’s designated for human use, that would trigger a visit by the rangers with the launchers,” St.
Clair said. “If there’s aggressive behaviour — even very bold behaviour — towards people in areas designated for human use, especially residential areas, that would trigger use of a launcher.” In the event launching non-lethal projectiles is not effective in deterring coyotes from exhibiting aggressive behaviour, the city said it considers hiring contractors to use lethal methods as a last resort.
Coyotes can also be killed when pets or humans have been attacked by the animals. Wilson said the frequency with which the city uses lethal means to deal with coyotes fluctuates: 20 were killed in 2022, 31 in 2023 and 25 in 2024. He said while complaints of aggressive coyotes are down in recent years, complaints about the animals overall have risen from 1,547 in 2022 to 1,694 in 2024.
Wilson said that in 2023, “launchers” were used a total of 10 times on coyotes after the approach was adopted late in the year. That number rose to 42 in 2024 as the practice was used the whole year. As of the end of February, Wilson said the method had been used three or four times so far this year.
“The City of Edmonton is committed to using a science-based and humane management approach to managing our urban coyote population,” he said. “We work closely with wildlife experts including our partners from the University of Alberta to develop and implement effective and ethical management strategies. “We don’t support the indiscriminate removal of coyotes.
Research has shown that this approach is not effective in the long term and actually can increase reproduction. Instead, we focus on proactive and non-lethal methods that prioritize both public safety and the well-being of urban wildlife through co-existence.” St.
Clair said research over the years has shown coyotes are “highly adaptive.” “They are able to adapt to a wide range of human resources. But they’re also highly variable in their behaviour,” she said.
“We know that when coyotes become comfortable using human resources, food or shelter, they lose their natural weariness of people. And these bolder animals are much more likely to be involved in conflict. “So our core goal of coyote management in Edmonton and in municipalities everywhere is to try to stop that trajectory of increase in habituation and boldness in coyotes.
” City officials said that public safety is the priority when it comes to Edmonton’s coyote management approach. A post on the city’s website provides Edmontonians with a checklist they can go through to determine if a coyote is exhibiting problematic behaviour . The city says if a citizen encounters a coyote, they should clap their hands loudly toward the animal, make themselves appear large, swing or throw sticks or rocks at the coyote, blow a whistle or air horn if they have one, shout in a deep voice and maintain eye contact.
The city also says not to turn away and run as that could encourage a coyote to chase after you..
