Young woman killed by coyotes

[Cliffy]

I have an active enough brain stem to be able to differentiate between humans and animals....

Humans are animals. It is egotistical to think we are more important or higher on the evolutionary scale. Life on this planet evolved at the same pace. We are just part of that process. Nothing more nothing less - except in our heads where we think we are gawds.

 

[AnnaG]

All things considered, I am starting to wonder if we are even equal to other species. Not one single other species (or even a combination of them) has done so much damage to our crib than we have, and yet we are the "intelligent" ones? Doubts form.

 

[Cliffy]

We've all heard that military intelligence is an oxymoron. I am also beginning to think the same of human intelligence.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

Humans are animals.

In a sense I guess, but what people, especially the tree huggers forget is that, like it or not, humans are also part of nature.

It is egotistical to think we are more important or higher on the evolutionary scale.

So I guess the mother bear is egotistical to defend its young against a defenseless human? The survival instinct is natual to all species, to deny it to humans, no matter what you think of them, is to deny nature itself.

Life on this planet evolved at the same pace. We are just part of that process.

It didn't happen at the same pace, 99% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct, most before the arrival of humans. That's not to say that won't be out fate as well though.

 

[Colpy]

I have an active enough brain stem to be able to differentiate between humans and animals....

Humans are animals. It is egotistical to think we are more important or higher on the evolutionary scale. Life on this planet evolved at the same pace. We are just part of that process. Nothing more nothing less - except in our heads where we think we are gawds.

No it is not at all arrogant.

Even if we set aside all the metaphysical considerations (as I know they are not part of your philosophy)........there remains the fact that humans are my species, that naturally makes them more important to me than any other.....that simple.

 

[#juan]

In an old family photo album there is a picture of my grandfather with the carcasses of fifteen coyotes. This photo would be from around 1910. At that time coyotes were a pest that people shot on sight. Coyotes had good reason to fear man and so did wolves. When I was a young teenager there was a $25.00 bounty on wolves but none on coyotes. Farmers didn't need to be paid to get rid of an animal that was killing livestock.
I would bet that the coyotes who killed that young woman had also taken pets and farm animals before. That brazen fatal attack was the first I've heard of by coyotes on humans in North America. The authorities should have a good, hard, look at the coyote population and weed them back where they are a danger to humans and livestock.

 

[petros]

They are in no danger as a species, in fact they have had a population explosion in the last half-century....

Would that be because we killed the wolves? Nah!

When the foxes fill the void of the coyotes you'll be afraid of them too?

 

[karrie]

Coyotes come to places humans inhabit because humans leave coyotes' fast food out: garbage, pets, and sometimes a child.
Bears, coons, skunks, too.
Most people don't shoot them when they are seen, so it's safe. If more and more people picked up sticks and chased them, or shot at them, they would be a lot more shy (like they used to be).

I once moved onto an acreage that had gone almost a full year without residents. The coyotes would run right past the front door, even after we'd lived there for a while. All it took was me getting myself dad's bb gun, and showing up at the door, then out on the step, with that gun a few times, and the coyotes started skirting the property along the fence line. They are smart, and fast learners. I didn't even need to pelt them.

 

[Colpy]

Would that be because we killed the wolves? Nah!

When the foxes fill the void of the coyotes you'll be afraid of them too?

Well......no. Things change. 100 years ago there were no deer in New Brunswick....now the place is full of them, and of coyotes that prey on them.

There are wolves in New Brunswick........not many, but hopefully their numbers will grow.

Same as cougars, and there are lots of bears.

I have no problem with large predators......in fact, I would like to see more of them. I shoot coyotes because of their numbers, and because I think all large predators need to understand that man is off-limits. It is no coincidence that this attack happened in a Park, where the carnivores are perfectly safe from my rifle......

Actually, eastern coyotes kill foxes at every opportunity.

And, I used to make fun of people that were afraid of coyotes. Not anymore.

 

[Colpy]

I once moved onto an acreage that had gone almost a full year without residents. The coyotes would run right past the front door, even after we'd lived there for a while. All it took was me getting myself dad's bb gun, and showing up at the door, then out on the step, with that gun a few times, and the coyotes started skirting the property along the fence line. They are smart, and fast learners. I didn't even need to pelt them.

East or west, Karrie???

I am beginning to get the idea that eastern coyotes are more accurately called "brush wolves"......more aggressive, larger, more pack orientated than their western cousins.....

 

[AnnaG]

In a sense I guess, but what people, especially the tree huggers forget is that, like it or not, humans are also part of nature.

Not in a sense, Bob. We can all be genetically traced back to prehistoric single cell animals. Scientifically we are animals in every sense.

 

[karrie]

East or west, Karrie???

I am beginning to get the idea that eastern coyotes are more accurately called "brush wolves"......more aggressive, larger, more pack orientated than their western cousins.....

yes Colpy, it is west. But, I'm sure eastern coyotes have the same capacity to recognize risk. Of all the animals out there, coyotes seem to benefit the most from a bit of hunting and fear.

 

[#juan]

If I saw this animal in the wild I would have identified it as a wolf:

Eastern Coyote Photo

 

[AnnaG]

No it is not at all arrogant.

Even if we set aside all the metaphysical considerations (as I know they are not part of your philosophy)........there remains the fact that humans are my species, that naturally makes them more important to me than any other.....that simple.

Yup. Dead right, Colpy. However, that is the subjective viewpoint and in the objective sense of the total amount of life on the planet, we are one small bit. We've been able to figure out about 2 million other species of life on Earth. Each one is as important to the health of the planet as any other species. Killing them off would result in the craftiest, most adaptable, and strongest surviving but only up to where the last species starves. We'll probably run out of fresh potable water long before that, though. Guess what the most adaptable critters are? Bugs. Bacteria, virii, etc.

 

[AnnaG]

If I saw this animal in the wild I would have identified it as a wolf:

Eastern Coyote Photo

Not me. Here's a wolf. There are differences.

Coyote

 

[karrie]

If I saw this animal in the wild I would have identified it as a wolf:

Eastern Coyote Photo

It looks like most coyotes I've seen.

 

[#juan]

Not me. Here's a wolf. There are differences.

Coyote

That coyote doesn't look like any coyote I ever saw, and I've seen plenty. The following link is to a photo of a coyote that looks like a coyote:

http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/wp-content/uploads/coyote006-004.jpg

 

[bobnoorduyn]

Coyotes in Nova Scotia

As coyotes spread eastward across North America they mixed with the red or eastern wolf, says wildlife biologist Jon Way. That created a cross that he calls a coywolf. DNA studies show that all the animals in the eastern part of Canada and the United States have wolf as part of their genetic makeup. The animals here are about five kilograms heavier on average than the coyote of the western part of the continent, weighing 16 kilograms with males sometimes reaching 25 kilograms

Fast Facts

- First recorded in Nova Scotia in 1977
- Top Speed of 55 km/h, and can bound five metres
- Main prey is snowshoe hares and white-tailed deer, either alive or dead. They also eat insects, blueberries, apples, mice, porcupines, woodchucks and garbage.
Source: Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources

 

[bobnoorduyn]

Not in a sense, Bob. We can all be genetically traced back to prehistoric single cell animals. Scientifically we are animals in every sense.

I would tend to agree with part of that, but it would upset the PETA types if we had the same right to hunt, eat, and defend ourselves as the other animals. As far as the science, there's still the age old question; if we descended from the apes, why are there still apes?

 

[#juan]

Coyotes in Nova Scotia

As coyotes spread eastward across North America they mixed with the red or eastern wolf, says wildlife biologist Jon Way. That created a cross that he calls a coywolf. DNA studies show that all the animals in the eastern part of Canada and the United States have wolf as part of their genetic makeup. The animals here are about five kilograms heavier on average than the coyote of the western part of the continent, weighing 16 kilograms with males sometimes reaching 25 kilograms

Fast Facts

- First recorded in Nova Scotia in 1977
- Top Speed of 55 km/h, and can bound five metres
- Main prey is snowshoe hares and white-tailed deer, either alive or dead. They also eat insects, blueberries, apples, mice, porcupines, woodchucks and garbage.
Source: Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources

In 1965 I worked on the first tar sands plant in Fort McMurray. The job superintendent was driving to work just before Christmas and he hit a wolf with his truck. He went to the back of his truck thinking he would get a shovel handle to finish the animal off. He took one look at the wolf and went home to get his rifle. He later brought the dead animal to the job site. That wolf was literally skin and bone but it weighed over a hundred and fifty pounds. In good shape and well fed, it would have been well over two hundred pounds. I don't know what the record is but that wolf must have been close.