Denver parks officials say killing and trapping are ineffective approaches to nuisance coyotes and they plan instead to educate the public to start “hazing” the animals.
Officials with Denver Parks and Recreation briefed members of the City Council on Wednesday on how they plan to deal with rising concerns over aggressive coyotes.
The meeting followed last weekend’s attack by a coyote of 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 proved 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 coyotes that end up relocated to a wild environment often end up starving or getting attacked by other coyotes already living there, she added.
DeLaup said coyotes provide some benefits for an urban environment. They prey on rodents and other nuisance animals, she said.
She said the problem is that Denver’s coyotes are no longer scared of humans, partly because people have been feeding them.
She said park rangers are scaring off coyotes they see and teaching park users to do the same.
Targeted mailings have gone out to neighborhoods of 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
