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Dec 27, 2006 7:09 am US/Central
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Coyotes Moving Into The Suburbs
Minneapolis (AP) ―
The coyotes started to bother Craig Kronbeck when one of the snarling predators threatened his beagle puppy only a few feet away from him in his yard.
That got Kronbeck thinking about his children's safety.
"A 4-year-old isn't very big," said Kronbeck, who lives in Red Wing. "The coyotes are so brave now, you flip the light on and still have to go out and chase them away."
In Red Wing, city officials responded quickly to Kronbeck's concerns. Earlier this month, the city council voted to trap and kill the neighborhood's 10 to 20 coyotes.
Like Canada geese and whitetail deer, coyotes have adapted to life in populated areas, with its plentiful food supply -- often human-supplied -- and lack of predators.
The suburb of Eagan reports as many as 90 coyote sightings a year. Nationally, the population of urban coyotes is exploding. Chicago, one of the few cities to study coyotes, estimates that as many as 2,000 live in its metro area.
There are no reports of coyote attacks in Minnesota, though some have been reported elsewhere. Still, their growing presence in the suburbs should raise concerns, said Ed Boggess, deputy director of the Division of Fish and Wildlife in the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
"In rural areas, coyotes get shot at," he said. "Urban areas become de facto wildlife refuges because there's no hunting. The animals become less fearful of humans."
No one is sure how many coyotes live within the Twin Cities area. But Mike Tucker of Wildlife Control Services of Bloomington said he has received about 100 requests for coyote control this year.
"I think I've gotten a call from just about every suburb," Tucker said. "We have coyotes in the inner core as well. I get calls where coyotes have been stalking pets or acting aggressively. They don't flee when the residents yell or throw things at them. They don't see humans as a threat."
The task of dealing with aggressive urban coyotes falls to local law enforcement agencies, not the DNR. Those local agencies are often forced to hire experts.
"Our animal control expertise and equipment is for domesticated animals, not wild ones," said Blaine Police Chief Dave Johnson, whose city recently paid a trapper $1,500 to remove five coyotes from a park near Laddie Lake. "You have to be able to move the animals in a way that's safe for the people and domestic animals in the area."
Experts say that coyotes are tough quarry.
"They're like the Super Bowl of trapping," said Gary Meis of Bruno, Minn., president of the Minnesota Trappers Association. He has trapped coyotes for nearly 50 of his 59 years. "I have the greatest respect for coyotes. They're suspicious, they're intelligent; their smell is uncanny. ... The last two things that will walk the earth are a coyote and a turkey."
Despite the difficulty, the number of coyotes killed through trapping or hunting in Minnesota doubled last year, from 18,000 to 39,000, according to the DNR.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)