Oakville Coyotes More Visible in 2012

Coyotes have always been a part of the landscape in Oakville, Ontario Canada. Between an abundance of greenspace, farmland and a provincial park, there is plenty of room for wildlife and the coyote has been here before the Town of Oakville was amalgamated.

A few years back, the Bronte Creek Provincial Park packaged some of their special events with evening coyote walks, or coyote howls. Indeed on some nights, a pack of coyotes could be heard from the Bronte Creek campground.

More recently, coyotes have been spotted crossing main roads, wandering around populated areas of northwest Oakville and sometimes getting into a scrap with a neighborhood dog. Recent bad press has put the coyotes on the front page of local newspapers and has ended up with one being shot by police the other day and dragged off of the path.

Now it would be one thing to simply call up a pickup truck full of hillbillies with shotguns to sweep through Oakville yelling “yee-haw” and taking care of the “problem”. But that is toying with the entire balance of the local eco-system.
Perhaps a lack of coyotes would lead to local residents complaining about the destruction of their flower beds by rabbits and other animals which would then increase their numbers.

It would be best if the coyotes would not interfere with human life. Rarely do coyotes even attack humans, but as with bears and other wild animals, their behaviour can be unpredictable and it is best to keep a safe distance. It is a shame that small dogs and their owners must be vigilant all around Oakville so they don’t fall prey to a hungrey coyote. Hopefully the recent spate of attacks on small dogs – even ones on leashes accompanied by their owners – will come to an end as at least one coyote has been eliminated from the area.

One theory has it, that the recent construction of the New Oakville Hospital has displaced some coyotes further south of Dundas and into residential areas. In any case, it seems coyotes have been more visible lately, and that is not good for little dogs or coyotes. Please comment below if you have seen a coyote this year in Oakville and what your experience was. Were they aggressive, passive watchers or did they respond to loud noises and leave? Where did you see the coyote? It will be interesting to see if most encounters with humans in the area go unreported because there is no threat of the coyote actually attacking a human.

Thanks for you comments,
OakvilleBlog