Denver parks officials say killing or trapping nuisance coyotes are ineffective approaches and plan instead to ask the public to start “hazing” the animals.
Officials with Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department briefed members of the City Council today on a plan to deal with rising concerns over aggressive coyotes.
The meeting followed last weekend’s attack by a coyote on a woman and her labrador while they were walking in their southeast Denver neighborhood.
It also comes after Greenwood Village hired a firm to do limited shooting of coyotes in parks, greenbelts and trails.
Ashley DeLaup, Denver’s wildlife ecologist, said efforts to eliminate aggressive coyotes in other cities have proven ineffective.
Those coyotes that are killed end up getting replaced by other coyotes, she said.
Trapping and relocating the coyotes also doesn’t work and is inhumane, she said. The relocated coyotes often end up starving or getting attacked by other coyotes already living in the habitat, she added.
DeLaup said coyotes have some benefits for an urban environment. They feast on rodents and other nuisance animals, she said.
She said the problem is that Denver’s coyotes are no longer afraid of humans, partly because people have been feeding them.
“Now, they are at the point where they are no longer concerned when they see us,” DeLaup said.
She said park rangers are now scaring off coyotes they see and teaching park users to do the same.
Targeted mailings also have gone out to neighborhoods in southeast Denver telling residents to “haze” coyotes by making loud noises and threatening gestures when they see them.
Parks officials are planning to send out additional mailings to educate the public and also are planning to leave the mailings at the city’s recreation centers.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
