Coyote Awareness

Prairie Fields residents voiced questions and concerns about coyotes during the 2019 annual meeting. Here is some helpful information on the topic:

1) Urban coyotes rarely feast on pets and garbage. They typically stick to a natural diet of small rodents, fruit, deer, and rabbit.

2) The easiest way to avoid negative interactions with coyotes is to avoid feeding them, whether accidentally or on purpose, to prevent habituating them to humans.

3) Trapping and killing or relocating urban coyotes does not reduce the overall coyote population. Coyotes are territorial so removing some from a particular area may actually increase the population short term, as neighboring packs will compete for the newly "freed" territory. Coyote packs protect and regulate their territories so overpopulation will not occur. In rare cases coyotes can become aggressive towards pets and humans, in which case an animal control officer should be contacted to remove a targeted problem animal.

​4) Coyotes can add benefits to the community. They help control populations of other sometimes problematic urban wildlife such as rodents, deer, and Canada geese. They also reduce the presence of feral and free roaming cats in natural spaces, which helps songbirds in parks. 

For more in-depth information on coyotes, please click the button below:

Urban Coyote Information