![]() ![]() Compost should not contain meat products. Where coyotes live, which includes most of Richmond, garbage should be stored in sealed containers. Under the B.C Wildlife Act it is an offense to feed “dangerous” wildlife, including coyotes, because feeding can lead to physical harm to people and inevitably the death of the wild animal. Coyotes are wild animals that will defend themselves if suddenly feeling surrounded or cornered.Ĭoyotes should never be fed intentionally. Once humans and their dwellings are associated with food, a coyote’s natural caution may diminish, which can lead to confrontations. However, on occasion there are conflicts, often having to do with food, either because of intentional feeding by people, or the presence of inadequately stored food or discarded food waste that attract coyotes. They probably became established in Richmond in the 1980s.Ĭoyotes usually avoid people. Over the past 25 years they have expanded into urban areas. Coyotes appeared in the Lower Fraser Valley in 1930s. ![]() This is due in part to wide scale clearing of forests, and the elimination of wolves, the main competitor and predator of coyotes, from farmland and urban centres. Originally a wild dog of the central plains and deserts of North America, the range of coyote has expanded throughout the continent over the past century. Until a few decades ago there were no coyotes in Richmond. Coyotes also eat discarded human food, or food intended for pets that is left outside. They will also eat grain, including seeds spilled from bird feeders, wild berries, and fruit from orchard trees, including that which has dropped to the ground. Other natural foods include slightly larger mammals such as squirrels and rabbits, amphibians, reptiles, birds and their eggs, fish and carrion. Coyotes are often seen “mousing,” staring downward and listening intently, suddenly leaping up and landing, front feet down, attempting to catch a meal. Coyotes hunt, breed and thrive in Richmond, generally undetected by its human residents.Ĭoyotes are opportunistic omnivores, but their primary food is small rodents such as voles and mice, which they catch in overgrown fields and woodlots. In evenings, near natural areas you may hear their howling or yipping calls, one group of coyotes responding to another, or to the barking of neighbourhood domestic dogs, or even joining in chorus with the sirens of passing emergency vehicles. Coyotes are occasionally seen in daytime, standing in farm fields, or prowling amid the driftwood in the marshland beyond Richmond’s dykes, but are most active near dawn and dusk. ![]() It has slender legs and a long, bushy tail that is usually black-tipped. The coyote ( Canis latrans) is a medium-sized, grey- brown dog with a pointed muzzle and large, pointed ears. ![]()
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