As the world has slowed down to stave off the spread of COVID-19, stories of wild animals tromping into now-quiet city streets have gone viral online. Some of these turned out to be completely made-up, including the dolphins supposedly swimming through Venice canals or the elephants getting drunk on corn wine in a Chinese farming village.
Shelter-in-place orders do not apply to wildlife, and in San Francisco, coyotes are making themselves comfortable out and about. With little to no people around, the coyotes have free rein and can explore areas they might not otherwise get to. The animals are experiencing greater freedom in the city than its people.
In January and February, some of the largest wildlife killing contests in the nation occurred in Pennsylvania, with at least 27 of these “predator hunts” this winter alone. Annually, tens of thousands of hunters take to Pennsylvania forests to kill and trap coyotes — the keystone predator of the Keystone State. Killing-contest prize money attracts more contest participants than any other furbearer event in the state.
State and federal agents have used traps, snares, denning, fishhooks, dogs, cyanide guns and poison bait for decades, but the coyotes have continued to colonize region after region, state after state. You are witnessing evolution: These predators are adapting to conditions we humans have made favorable for them and their prey, including free-roaming cats (who should be indoors) and unattended dogs. Coyotes will also kill white-tailed deer fawns, the overabundance of which we humans have created for the hunting industry and by the virtual extermination of the wolf. Through competitive exclusion, wolf packs once limited the spread of coyotes.
Conservation groups and the Trump administration have reached a settlement that will sharply limit where and how federal agencies can kill wolves in Idaho. Filed Wednesday in Idaho federal court, the settlement comes after the Western Watersheds Project, Center for Biological Diversity and others challenged the environmental impact statement issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services regarding efforts to control gray wolf activity in Idaho. After a series of appeals and legal battles, the two parties have reached an agreement on how the killing of wolves can be managed moving forward in the Gem State.