LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – For some in the Cadence community, living with coyotes is an everyday reality.
Some community members say they’re feeling helpless after seeing more coyotes this year than ever before.
“Last year, I don’t remember seeing one to be honest, now all the sudden it’s everywhere you turn,” Cadence Resident Dixie Meacham says.
Meacham says she now keeps a stick in her car to protect herself. FOX5 spoke with experts about what they can do to help.
There are several factors that will determine whether or not the Nevada Department of Wildlife will remove a coyote, Conservation Education Supervisor, Doug Nielsen says.
For example, if it’s aggressive, and if the person calling has eyes on the aggressive coyote.
“If a coyote came in and injured or killed someone’s pet cat or dog and then are gone, there’s not a whole lot we can do there,” Nielsen says.
Nielsen says they’ll also take into consideration whether or not the attack was at all provoked. For example, human feeding, like the story FOX5 brought you out of Lake Las Vegas from January.
Critter Brothers is a licensed coyote trapper based in Northern Nevada, California and Arizona. The owner, Timothy Furrh, says they aren’t allowed to leave traps on public property.
However, he says a certain motionsensored deterrent system that uses flashing lights and high-pitched noises might work in an area like Cadence Central Park.
“The problem is with that, you’re going to have humans or people that are going by, setting off the sensors, and then you’re going to hear the sound. If you have too much of that, then it just becomes an annoying factor,” Furrh says.
For Meacham, she says the benefit would outweigh any annoyance.
“Coyotes are supposed to be afraid of noises and it just might work,” she says.
Nielsen offered some additional suggestions for keeping coyotes out of your backyard, like clearing excess shrubbery, avoiding leaving food out, and installing “coyote rollers” on your fence.
He says if NDOW does get involved to “remove” a coyote, that means they will euthanize that coyote, because they are carriers of rabies.
For more information about living with coyotes from NDOW, click here.
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