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Chasing Coyotes

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Sorry for the inconvenience but I have lost interest in the concept. But surely will look out for your other titles in the future. Thank you!

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Chasing Coyotes is based on Debora Martin interaction with coyotes over the course of the last ten years. Her experience interacting with this canine is relevant as urban edges have encroached into more and more habitat.

Coyotes move into communities for a variety of reasons. In some cases, they are moved or relocated due to development or habitat change. As a result, these adaptable relatives of the wolves can start off as a curiosity and end up being a significant menace. Martin uses her personal stories to share how these hunters move into communities and begin to pray on house pets and other neighborhood animals. Eventually, it is their habits and their adaptability that makes them so hard to manage in an urban setting. As the coyotes become more and more brazen, they also become more protective of their territory, their dens, and eventually their litters.

The personal narratives in this book are interesting and helpful in fighting off a coyote issue in a community. And while most of her experience is on the West Coast, it still seems very helpful and useful regardless of where you live. Where the book becomes helpful is when she taps into studies and researchers to help expand the scope of urban incursion.

There is some misinformation out there and this guide helps to inform myths and erroneous information. Beyond that, this book does provide some behavioral tips for hazing coyotes and making them feel unwanted. This book speaks to the displacement of habitat and the way we proactively and reactively face shifting animal populations. There are times when this book really informs about the behavior and the ideology that goes into these interactions and cohabitation. While the personal narrative is sometimes long, it helps to inform readers about the complicated nature of hearing complaints and attacks, attempts to trap, laws, meetings, state and federal response, and how it can all make someone feel like no one is really listening at all. Martin is the Director of Coyotes in Orange County, Califonia and works in the insurance industry.

Parting Words: This easy to read guide is a good resource for unwanted coyotes and wildlife interaction. Written to be understood with some practical and clear guidelines to help.

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Less than a decade ago my husband and I were delivering newspapers in Corona California. We were quite surprised by how many coyotes we saw out in these beautiful neighborhoods. We didn't think of them as more than just nuisances who got into the trash. Turns out this book tell accounts of coyotes in the even bigger cities of Orange County that were around when we lived there and got worse in years since we left.

I think when I saw this book's description that I was getting some Urban Fantasy about Native American tales of coyotes, the tricksters. At first, I was a bit taken aback. Then I was pleasantly surprised at where these stories took place. Then the book inspired in me a healthier fear that I never had before.

If you live in big cities in Orange County or L.A. County or Riverside County in California, you should read this book. I suggest you get the hardback or paperback so that you can keep the guidelines of how to get rid of coyotes, that could kill your toddlers or grandparents or cat or dog. Use it to get in touch with the people, like the author, who are trying to make your neighborhoods safer.

Look, where I live coyotes walk brazenly down our dirt roads. I live in the country. There are wild rabbits and other creatures that coyotes like to eat. But now I know another reason why my cats and dog are not allowed outside alone in our yard, besides the threat of hawks and eagles, that like small pets. We are trying to find a way to fence in our yard better to keep out coyotes or bigger predators. (The first winter we were here we found antelope footprints right next to our bedroom window. So imagine what could come in.) But we expect these beasts out here. In the cities, I thought our biggest problem were mice, rats, and opossums. But I was wrong.

Please read this book. Be aware so that you can be prepared.

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Chasing Coyotes: Accounts of Urban Crises by Debora Martin is a highly recommended informative guide on the presence and problems of coyotes in the urban landscape of Orange County, CA, but it can pertain to coyote populations in other urban areas. The main purpose of the book is informational and educational, along with being easily accessible to lay people.

In Chasing Coyotes Martin discusses the history of coyotes in cities, coyote habitats, and points out ways to coyote "proof" an area. She also shares stories of coyote attacks on pets and people, especially children. The stated purpose of Chasing Coyotes is fourfold: "(1) to document the plight of urban coyotes in North America, (2) to reduce the amount of misinformation presently circulating about urban coyotes, (3) to remove or reduce any fear the reader may have of coyotes, and (4) to encourage readers to haze coyotes every time they see them." Currently there is misinformation and untruths being spread about urban coyotes by animal rights groups, such as the belief that urban coyotes control rats. It has been shown that urban coyotes only control mice and vole rodent populations, not rodent populations such as rats.

Included are ways to discourage coyotes from making your neighborhood part of their hunting grounds, including "ammonia and white vinegar to reduce pet odor, picking up pet compost, and keeping pet food and water dishes inside." You can also "make sure that all fruit is picked up, secure your trash can lid so coyotes cannot knock them over and get to their contents, remove bird feeders, install motion-activated lighting and sprinkler systems, and increase the amount of outdoor lighting.... Low-lying bushes should be removed, and bushes and trees should be cut back, in order to reduce the number of potential coyote hiding places. Your objective is to create a hostile environment for the coyote by making your home and neighborhood coyote-unfriendly."

Martin discusses pets she has personally lost to coyotes in her neighborhood. She makes it clear that you should never show fear to, turn your back on, or run from a coyote because they might view you as prey. You should never feed a coyote or take pictures of it. This encourages them to not fear humans, creating a potential dangerous situation. If possible haze any coyote you see. Martin explains how to haze a coyote: Raise your arms and wave them while approaching the coyote - be loud and large! Use noisemakers (your voice, whistles, air horns, bells, and soda cans filled with pennies or dead batteries. (Be sure to familiarize your dog to this noise.) Use projectiles (e.g., sticks, small rocks, cans, tennis balls, rubber balls). Try other repellents (such as hoses, water guns with vinegar water, spray bottles with vinegar water, pepper spray, bear repellent, and walking sticks). Sometimes coyotes will test you by pausing in their tracks and standing their ground, but continue hazing and chasing them until they leave the area and are out of sight.

Included in the book are a list of Coyote Preparedness References. There are several urban areas that record and track coyote sightings in their areas and compile a database of information. Be sure to see if your city has a website with coyote information and a place to report sightings of coyotes. If you have ever lived in a city or urban area where there are populations of coyotes preying on pets you will appreciate this book and the information it contains. While some of the text is repetitive when discussing actions to take, in this case it might help the causal reader remember what to do when a coyote is sighted.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1974399572
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/04/chasing-coyotes.html

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The author makes no assertions that she is an animal life expert but the work that she and her fellow concerned neighbors have accomplished is extraordinary. The issue of urban coyotes can be seen in almost all of the US cities so the information contained in this book can have the potential to help anyone. While I have not personally had a close encounter with a coyote the fact that they have been spotted in places as populated as Manhattan means this problem will most likely continue to escalate. The question of balancing the safety of human and domestic animal lives versus the protection of wild animals can become a very charged issue. I admire the author keeping a fairly neutral view on involvement both by radical animal rights activists and proponents of widespread coyote euthanization and focused more on public education. The strategies in the book can save people and pets from attack which has the outcome of protecting coyotes lives by default. If individual coyotes do not become habituated to people or population dense areas they are less likely to become targets of lethal force that can become required when attacks on humans occur. Children unfortunately are such an area of concern because they are small, slower than adults, and may accidentally identify coyotes as dogs. The author touched continually on the topic of public education which is by far the best and simplest tool to coexist with coyotes but expressed frustration about getting this information out. Perhaps in areas of high concern schools should permanently implement a hazing/defense education class as part of their curriculums, especially because children could be protected by the same techniques if encountering other animals (mountains lions, black bear, Bobcats, etc)?

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Full disclosure: I only read 25% of the book before I couldn't read further, as the author seemed dead-set on avoiding obvious factors. Hoping she would get to the realization that feeding feral cats and allowing pet cats to roam freely outdoors was essentially providing a buffet for the coyotes. Actually, a food chain was going on there---lure the birds to feeders, allow the cats to prey on the birds and then be preyed upon themselves. The coyotes were not eating for fun. Food, shelter and water are mandatory to all creatures. Most are also opportunistic, taking the easy food first; thus saving vital energy for survival. To not take responsibility by removing the first-line food temptation (pet and feral cats), was in effect inviting the progression to human attacks.

I even searched the book to see where removal of this "buffet" might be mentioned and that was near the end. And because some of us are vegetarians, please note that coyotes will be more easily lured to stinky meat, regardless of how much more pleasant it is to handle watermelon. One more thing I must mention. Cat scat (the presumed "compost" that the caretaker was cleaning up) will still leave odor after it is picked up. Scat/poop is not compost, as it is a potential disease carrier (toxoplasmosis). Sorry, because the premise was good. The information was faulty at best.

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An easy read about a neighbourhood plagued by coyotes in California. it is easy to read and very informative. As an animal lover, I enjoyed the book, although I live in Scotland and we don't have coyotes! We are plagued with urban and rural foxes.. Thank you Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Amazon and Goodreads.

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