Unwelcome Neighbors Tracked In Westchester

MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y., June 28 — Standing on a boulder in Graham Hills Park here under a dense canopy of tulip trees, Daniel A. Bogan held an antenna aloft and listened. A receiver emitted faint beeps, indicating the proximity of a female coyote he had recently collared with a global positioning device in this Westchester County park.

Researchers use syringes to draw skunk musk from a vial, as a way to attract coyotes in a study in Westchester County.

Mr. Bogan, a graduate research assistant at Cornell, was tracking the coyote in the hope of learning more about this relatively recent arrival to the suburbs of New York City, where reports of encounters with pets and children are on the rise.

Westchester is a nice little petri dish to learn about human-coyote interactions, he said.

The coyote that was hidden in the woods here was one of more than 30 his team has trapped in four towns since last spring and outfitted with either global positioning or radio collars, as part of a five-year, $428,000 study in Westchester by Cornell University and the states Department of Environmental Conservation. The study also includes research on the public perception of coyotes.

The Cornell study has taken on added urgency because of two harrowing incidents in recent months in Middletown, N.J., where there were coyote attacks on a 20-month-old boy in April and a 5-year-old boy, who required 46 stitches and rabies shots, in May.

In Westchester, coyotes have not harmed people so far, but the animals interest in house pets is keen, with police officers and animal wardens attributing a number of disappearances to coyotes.

According to Mr. Bogan, a Mount Pleasant couple reported that a few years ago a coyote hopped a four-foot fence, snatched their Lhasa apso and jumped back over — in plain sight of the husband. In June 2006, a Croton-on-Hudson resident, Herbert Doran, was walking his bichon frisé at night when a coyote lunged at the dog.

He tried to muscle me out of the way with his body to get to her, Mr. Doran said in a phone interview. I came down on his head with a flashlight. He was stunned for a second and then he stepped back. We had a stare-down for four or five seconds and then he took off.

The Cornell study, which should be completed by 2010, will eventually make recommendations for managing the coyote population in a way that reduces potential conflicts with people.

The best chance for success is in changing our own behavior and removing any food attraction that might bring coyotes into the backyard, said Paul D. Curtis, an associate professor of wildlife science at Cornell who is a principal investigator of the study. If they do show up in the yard, we need to act like predators by making noise and throwing rocks or sticks so they get the message that they dont belong here.

The Eastern coyote arrived in New York State in the 1930s or 40s, Professor Curtis said. The demise of the gray wolf and mountain lion cleared the way for coyotes to come down from Canada, where they first entered the St. Lawrence River Valley, and the Adirondack Mountains.

In the past 20 years, they have colonized almost the entire state. While some have put Westchesters coyote population at a few hundred, Professor Curtis dismissed the speculation. We dont have a clue, he said.

Omnivores and opportunists, coyotes eat food ranging from raspberries and apples to rabbits and fawns. While a house cat may indeed get swiped for a tasty meal, a dog is just as likely to be attacked because the coyote views it as a threat.

Dogs smell like another canid, so theyre a close competitor, Mr. Bogan said. In the coyotes mind, that dog is intruding into its territory.

Around the state, the Department of Environmental Conservation received 130 complaints involving coyotes last year. It expects this years total to exceed 300.

In Westchester, where Mr. Bogan is focusing on the towns of Somers, Yorktown, Mount Pleasant and Greenburgh, coyotes prefer natural areas like parks, estates and buffers along parkways and reservoirs.

Coyotes generally remain within a range of less than two square miles, but some pass through residential neighborhoods on their way from one natural area to another, putting them in the path of people.

While coyotes are not nocturnal by nature, in suburban areas they tend to rest during the day and forage at night, Mr. Bogan said. They usually weigh 38 to 45 pounds and resemble German shepherds, but with a pointier snout, longer ears and a downward-sloping tail. They move about alone or in small social groups and live, on average, five to six years.

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