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Co-Existing With Coyotes – Education And Prevention Best Defense As Coyote Sightings Increase

Coyote Sightings Increase

GoHuntGeorgia.com

SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. --(AmmoLand.com)- The distinctive call of the coyote or “song dog” echoes across our state, from the more welcoming rural areas of wooded forests and open fields, to the less inviting backyards of metro Atlanta neighborhoods.

Rapid human population growth across the state coupled with the coyote’s unique ability to adapt and thrive, contributes to today’s increased observation of coyotes in urban settings.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division encourages residents to educate themselves and take the proper precautions essential to co-existing with coyotes.

“Historically, coyotes were most commonly found on the Great Plains of North America. However, their range has expanded greatly. They are one of the most adaptable species on the planet. In fact, coyotes have adapted quite well to living in suburbs and cities like Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta,” says John W. Bowers, Wildlife Resources Division assistant chief of Game Management.

“Preventive actions are the best solutions for residents to reduce the potential for human-coyote conflicts,” explains Bowers.

Though the coyote’s principal diet typically consists of small rodents and fruit, they are characterized as opportunistic and will prey on small, domestic animals if given the opportunity. Because of this, small house pets (such as cats), young or small livestock and poultry are vulnerable and susceptible prey.

The Division advises landowners and homeowners to heed the following precautions to ensure the safety of their animals:

• Take pets indoors during the night, as this is the coyote’s primary hunting time. (In addition to coyotes, small pets may fall prey to free-roaming dogs and great horned owls.)
• If the pet must be kept outside, install fencing and motion-activated flood lights to discourage predators.
• Small livestock or poultry should be kept in an enclosed or sheltered area. Coyotes rarely bother larger livestock although they are often blamed for such nuisance instances. (It should be noted that free-roaming dogs, rather than coyotes, are notorious for harassing, injuring or killing livestock.)

The Division encourages residents to also heed the additional following tips in an effort to minimize coyote habituation to humans and ensure public health and safety:

• NEVER, under any circumstances, feed a coyote.
• Keep items, such as grills, pet food or bird feeders off-limits. Clean and store grills when not in use, keep pet food indoors or feed pets indoors and refill bird feeders infrequently and in small amounts.
• Make trash cans inaccessible. Keep lids securely fastened or store trash cans in a secured location until trash pick-up.

Additional solutions for managing coyotes and the problems they may cause include trapping and/or hunting. Coyotes are not native to Georgia and may be hunted/trapped year-round. The Division does NOT provide trapping services, but maintains a list of licensed trappers permitted to provide this service across the state.

To access this listing, visit www.georgiawildlife.com (Select “Permits and Other Services” and then select “Nuisance Wildlife Trapper List”).

“The Division receives numerous calls each year. Most callers report the sighting of a coyote or request coyote relocation,” says Bowers. “Relocation is not a solution. Relocating coyotes only moves the problem into someone else’s backyard. It also may result in a slower death from the stress of being released into unfamiliar territory. Trapping and killing habituated or problem coyotes is the only reasonable way to keep them out of backyards.”

While coyotes closely resemble a small dog in appearance, the distinctive characteristics that set the species apart are upright, pointed ears, a pointed snout, low forehead, a mottled color fur pattern ranging from black to reddish-blonde and a bushy tail that is generally carried straight out below the level of the back.

For more information regarding coyotes, visit www.georgiawildlife.com , contact a Wildlife Resources Division Game Management office or call (770) 918-6416.

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Swallow-Tailed Kites Duped Into Helping Themselves

Swallow-Tailed Kites

GoHuntGeorgia.com

BRUNSWICK, Ga --(AmmoLand.com)- High among the branches of pines in southeast Georgia, the lifeless eyes of strategically placed swallow-tailed kite decoys stare at the world, eyeing platforms for artificial nests that biologists hope will soon lure the state-listed kites.

Based on research on establishing post-breeding roosts in Florida, Tim Keyes of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources thinks the decoys and platforms may attract swallow-tailed kites to nest on state lands.

Most kite nests in Georgia have been recorded on private lands.

“While we have had excellent working relationships with many private land owners, we have also lost some important nesting habitat on private lands,” said Keyes, a wildlife biologist with the DNR’s Nongame Conservation Section. “The goal of this project is to determine whether we can establish nesting sites on state lands where we can actively protect and manage for them.”

Keyes and tree climbers from Avian Research and Conservation Institute, or ARCI, carefully picked five sites, then added nest platforms and mounted three decoys for each site in nearby trees. The decoys are actually repainted crow decoys with the kites’ distinguishing scissor-like tails added.

Artificial nesting platforms have been used only once before in Georgia, and with limited success. In 2008, one nest was recorded at an artificial nest site.

“Kites appear to have plenty of suitable habitat along the lower reaches of our large rivers, but they seem reluctant to expand into new areas, often using the same nesting clusters year after year,” Keyes said.

“Based on their social nature (the birds nest in small clusters of two to three pairs), we hope to attract birds to new nesting sites with the decoys.”

Swallow-tailed kites breed between late March and July, so the season is in full swing and 29 nests have been confirmed. Most of these nests were spotted during surveys by helicopter. Researchers will survey nests from the ground and air, monitoring sites and nesting success, twice a week through the nesting season.

Although the swallow-tailed kite has no federal status under the Endangered Species Act, it is listed as rare in Georgia. Populations appear stable but not increasing, with about 1,200 breeding pairs in the U.S. Approximately 100 pairs breed in Georgia.

“After fledging, kites form post-breeding groups which are important to document for population estimates. In Florida, these groups can be as large as 2,000 birds, but the largest roost found in Georgia was 100 birds, with 15 to 30 birds more typical,” Keyes explained.

“Here in Georgia we see smaller groups and they move around from one day to the next, maybe 100 birds but usually more like 20 to 30 birds, and we don’t know why. There is still a lot we don’t know about these birds.”

Once these roosts break up, the kites start their arduous southbound migration to southern Brazil.

The best places to see a swallow-tailed kite in Georgia are near any of the large rivers in the lower Coastal Plain, such as the Satilla, Altamaha, Ogeechee or Savannah. One of the best times to see the birds is in late summer when they regularly feed over open fields with Mississippi kites, and often ranging well into the Piedmont region.

Georgians can help conserve swallow-tailed kites and other animals not legally hunted, fished for or trapped, as well as native plants and habitats, through buying wildlife license plates featuring a bald eagle or a ruby-throated hummingbird. They can also donate to the Georgia Wildlife Conservation Fund state income tax checkoff. Both programs are vital to the Nongame Conservation Section, which receives no state funds.

Visit www.georgiawildlife.com for more information, or call Nongame Conservation offices in Social Circle (770-761-3035), Forsyth (478-994-1438) or Brunswick (912-264-7218).

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