We also stress that people should not intentionally provide a food source to coyotes, which increases the chance of encounters. We teach people to be aware and do things such as keeping their dogs on leashes during pupping season. Off-leash dogs may come too close to a den site, and the coyotes are protecting their pups. When we see an uptick in calls and conflicts with coyotes, it’s usually when coyote parents are raising their young. We also have a ranchers’ program that teaches nonlethal and humane ways to reduce conflicts between cattle and wild carnivores. We work all year, not just after an encounter, to assist communities with programs and plans educating urban dwellers on how to live with coyotes peacefully and reduce encounters. Whenever there is an encounter, it gets blown up in the media. How do you make people feel comfortable around coyotes?Ī. Coyotes have this historical reputation as wanton killers of livestock and a threat to humans, and we have had some scary coyote attacks in recent years. Why do people get so freaked out when they see a coyote in a developed area? We talked with Fox about Project Coyote and why we shouldn’t be so afraid. Coyotes are the most misunderstood and maligned wild carnivores in the country.” “Often there is a knee-jerk fear response. “I think for a lot of people, seeing a coyote is their first experience with a wild predator, especially those that live in urban areas,” Fox says. The organization’s mission is to dispel the myths about coyotes and other wild animals and to educate people on peaceful coexistence with them. Influenced both by her mother, who taught her to care about nature on a local level, and her father, a veterinary university professor who studied large canines and had a more global view, Fox has made it her mission to speak in the defense of coyotes as well as other predators.įor the past 15 years, Fox - and no, she didn’t change her name - has been executive director of Project Coyote, a national organization she founded and based in Marin County. But while others her age wanted to help kittens, puppies and butterflies, Fox leaned toward apex predators, animals often as feared as they are misunderstood. As a child, Camilla Fox displayed a keen interest in wildlife.
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