BROOMFIELD — There have been no coyote attacks on people since February, when sharpshooters killed a pack living in Broomfield County Commons. But officials with the Colorado Division of Wildlife said the problems caused by people and coyotes living in close proximity have not gone away.
Coyotes continue to take pets, said DOW spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill. The division has started keeping tabs on the number of pets killed, but it is still compiling data and doesn’t have a count, she said.
Kristan Pritz, director of Broomfield’s Open Space and Trails Department, said her department and Broomfield police also continue to receive calls about pet killings.
In late February, sharpshooters shot and killed a pack of five coyotes living in Broomfield County Commons. The killings followed three incidents since December in which coyotes bit people in Broomfield or Erie. No one was seriously hurt in those attacks.
The pack was killed because some of its members were believed to be unusually aggressive, Larry Rogstad, a DOW area wildlife manager, said at the time.
In the past three-plus months, there have been fewer reports of coyotes menacing people and no reports of attacks, Churchill said.
But if the most aggressive coyotes are gone, it hasn’t stopped others from going after pets.
Even though the evidence is anecdotal, wildlife officers believe it is a pattern of behavior that has been on the rise for the past two years, Churchill said.
Experts with the division aren’t exactly sure why the number of pet killings has increased, but the going theory is that coyotes have become bolder as they’ve adapted to the suburban environment.
“We still believe most of the coyotes in the area have been habituated to people,” Churchill said. “They’ve realized there’s no reason to be afraid of people. I don’t know why that is.”
For now, the DOW is making the same recommendations it has made for years. People shouldn’t feed coyotes, either deliberately or by leaving out garbage. Pet owners should protect their animals by keeping them on leashes and inside at night. And people should harass and haze coyotes whenever they come across them.
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