HOULTON, Maine — Numerous sightings of a coyote reported to police over the past month have led the department to warn residents of the community to remain cautious.
Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin issued an initial warning about the animal Friday and included a photograph taken by a resident when it turned up in her backyard. He said Monday that there have been no reported sightings of the animal in recent days, but added that it could still be in the area.
The coyote was first spotted on Dec. 17 in the Pleasant, Charles and Elm street areas of town.
Later that night, another caller reported seeing it near the Salvation Army store on Water Street.
A few days later, the coyote turned up again in the yard of a home on Washburn Street. The resident was able to take a picture of the animal, which is believed to be at least 1 year old.
Asselin said the department has contacted the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife about the animal. Officials are troubled by its behavior, even though it appears to be healthy.
“Coyotes are nocturnal and afraid of humans, which makes them generally hard to observe,” he said. “This coyote is displaying no fear of humans and being seen during daylight hours, which is of particular concern.”
Asselin said the animal poses a potential threat to pets and people. He urged the public not to approach it or leave food out for it in an attempt to lure it closer to get a photograph.
“Because of the threat the coyote poses to the public, police have no alternative but to safely dispatch the animal when we come in contact with it,” said the chief.
Perfect timing.
How do these folks know it is the same coyote? And don’t we know that coyote’s seldom travel alone and usually in packs. If this one, or one of several, is a “scout” the others are not far off.
See it, shoot it.
hard to say, see them in downtown Millinocket, and some are pretty big. Though I have not seen more than one at a time.
Watched one walk through my yard in Millinocket about a week ago also. It was the size of a german shepard.
Well one I have seem almost seemed like the size of a wolf. Another I seen looked like it had the mange.
Some are nearly equivalent to wolves in size and there is plenty of DNA. Our IF&W shutters at the fact that an endangered species might cause them to have to act against the baiting/ trapping crowd.
your right the last thing we need is predatory wolves.
Missed my point.
oh no, I understand clearly
No, Maine definitely needs wolves, Just not in downtown Houlton.
Just like Maine needs Northern Pike up the Penobscot.
Suggested reading: Vicious, Wolves and Men in America, by Jon T. Coleman, University of Notre Dame (Yale Univrsity Press, 2004). Though it doesn’t deal with coyotes per se, the animosity people hold for coyotes is usually extended to wolves as well, so this history might be helpful in learning to understand
why the first reaction to the presence of large wild canids is to kill them. It seems to me the more we learn about our own visceral reactions to them, the better we can learn to live with our dog’s close cousins.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2009/10/28/ns-coyote-attack-died.html
The young women from Nova Scotia who was killed by coyotes has family that would probably disagree with you.
Didn’t she run which encouraged them to attack? Regardless that was an isolated incident. We don’t know how habituated to humans those animals were.
Perhaps you should read some of Dr. Valerius Geist writings on the subject. Do not blindly follow the pablum currently politicaly correct.
Stop it Kurt. We know where your baiting interests lie.
Whats the matter Cecil? Don’t you belive in science?
Readers of this sneering remark might want to know that Kurt J. Lane has quite an ax to grind, namely that he’s an officer in the laughably named Aroostook County “Conservation” Association, a group whose primary activity seems to be helping run a contest in which the weiners get to collect money prizes for killing as many coyotes as possible.
Thanks for the heads up.
Actually we concentrate on habitat improvments, as well as other problems our herd faces. We have planted hundreds of acres of foodplots, thousands of cedar and hemlock,as well as assist those involved with proper winter supplemental feeding. The predation problem is just part of the pie. many of the programs we started are now being copied throughout the State. We meet continually and have as speakers at our meetings, many experts, from habitat specialist on down to our State Bio’s.
We determined when we formed that we would be a working group, and we have been. and will continue to be.
Meanwhile, what have you accomplished?
See Peter, you are the one with the axe to grind.
If you read all the posts, she made a few mistakes and became prey. It happens, we shouldn’t forget the laws of the land when we are off pavement.
The only mistake she made was hiking alone.
Read the article and hopefully you will realize that running would not have helped. In the original article a few years back, it stated that people came and fought the coyotes and that they only withdrew after the MP shot one of them.
There are always exceptions. But you can’t just gun down any animal merely because it COULD kill you if it wanted to. People think black bears are killing machines, especially mothers with cubs. But you’re more likely to be killed on your way to or from the woods than you are to be killed by a bear in the woods, even if you get between a mother and her cubs.
We humans are far more dangerous than any wildlife we encounter.
It begins with the three little pigs and evolves to the Hobbit teaching our kids to war upon each other as well.
… wha?
I should have guessed that your a book burner.
Coyotes : The original assault animal.
No, that’s humans – we are the top of the line predator.
On land, maybe, but you never heard about a surfer winning one of those shark-v.-surfer fights. Not even the Australian ones, and those guys are tough.
Well, maybe…but if you notice, humans gang up and kill every shark with 5 miles when an attack happens. They lose anyway, much more so than we do when we prey on our own, or other species.
That’s not predation, though, it’s use of technology. Without that, we’re actually pretty crap predators.
Well that we figured out how to use tools makes us the top of the line predator.
here ya go:
http://surf.transworld.net/1000154119/news/humboldt-surfer-punches-shark-to-survive-attack/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2124875/Joshua-Holley-Hawaii-surfer-28-survives-tiger-shark-attack-punching-face-twice.html
http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=48957110023
makes me proud to be an Oregon surfer.
chiet? none taken.
Those guys got away with it, but they didn’t win – those were, at best, draws. A win would involve the surfer eating the shark. :)
true. but it it’s a pretty good draw.
I can’t believe this is news and in my hometown of all places. They’re all over South Portland.
Wow a coyote in Northern Maine. How odd is that?
And, why didn’t Vicki Monroe warn the community before this menace was a threat?
Vicki is a fox.
Not sure that the two care for each other.
I see what you did there…
Here in the middle atlantic area one of my neighbors has reported seeing a cayote. I’ve never seen a live cayote but I say one hanging after someone shot it and they are large animals.
Coyotes are not large.
Coyotes this far north are bigger than those in southern New England and out west – where they are actually pretty scrawny.
Even the Southern New England ones are larger than the Western coyotes.
It’s believed that Eastern Coyotes interbred with wolves on their trek east or otherwise selected for larger size in the absence of wolf competition once they got here.
Oh Yeah! The one I saw hanging scaled in at 62 pounds, and this is not a joke. They are much larger in Northern Maine, perhaps because there is not as much in-breeding as there is the south.
I didn’t know coyote were such good swimmers
I got your joke. Nice one. LOL
couldn’t help it :)
Ha! ‘Good joke, I agree!
Seriously, though, coyotes have turned up on Cape Cod and it’s believed that the population arrived after the Cape Cod Canal was finished (mid 1930s.) thus, the local population got its start either by walking over one of the three bridges (heavy car traffic on two of them, dodging railroad ties on the third) or they swam the Canal and the latter is no small feat if you’ve ever seen the serious current in the Canal at almost all times except for a few minutes a day when the tides reverse.
They can also fly small aircraft.
Will the police also dispatch texting drivers while they’re dispatching potential threats to life and limb?
Indeed, there was one woman driver recently (corner of Main St. and Court St.) who was far to busy with a cell phone stuck onto her head to yield right of way to me while I was IN the cross walk – and I had to run out of HER way. This person is (therefore) a criminal and should never be permitted to operate a motor vehicle in that manner. She sped off before I could note the license plate number – or else we WOULD have been discussing it in the District Court.
They certainly won’t or can’t do anything about all the old people who should’ve been off the road decades ago.Yet all we ever hear there is that the docs and family members should turn them in.Won’t happen.State/feds need to step in but they won’t due to AARP.
I’ve seen a lot of them this year. I live in Stockton Springs and there is one that wants to play with my dogs. You can hear her and the rest of them all howling in the woods behind the house at night. That’s probably what happened to my cat that is missing. They are awful skittish, unlike the fox that does play with my dog and will even come into the porch.
Hopefully you have learned not to allow your cat to run around freely outside.
Neighbor unintentionally let the cat out when we weren’t home. It was an indoor cat always trying to go outside.
“‘Because of the threat the coyote poses to the public, police have no alternative but to safely dispatch the animal when we come in contact with it,’ said the chief.”
Er, I think the chief meant to say “Because of the PERCEIVED threat…”
Unless this animal has actually threatened anybody, leave it alone.
I think you’ve made a good point. This is Maine and we have wildlife. What is the big deal?
The big deal is that coyotes are generally wary of humans. This one is not. That raises the possibility of rabies, in my view. It also suggests that if you come near the animal it won’t necessarily run away from you. It might attack.
Yes, Henny Penny, and the sky might also fall.
If you’re dumb enough to go near it you deserve to get attacked. It’s a wild animal and heaven forbid we should have wild animals in Maine, especially northern Maine. It’s odd behavour may indicate rabies but it’s absurd to kill this animal based on what has been reported so far.
I’m actually more worried about the local kids doing whatever drugs and being robbed by THEM, then I am worried about coyotes.
The coyote would not attack a human adult. But if it is not shy of humans, it could certainly decide that a child might be vulnerable.
http://www.examiner.com/article/coyotes-attack-dog-man-backyard
No, what he said was they are going to shoot and kill the coyote the first opportunity they have. It’s behavior is already posing a threat.
I agree, I’d trust the coyote a lot more then I would some humans…………….
A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion says, “Because if I do, I will die too.”
The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp “Why?” Replies the scorpion: “It’s my nature…”
Coyotes may be trustworthy when there’s a window between you and them but up close and personal it’s anyone’s guess what happens.
Especially the drunken rednecks in that area and all over ME who are living in artificial fear that their precious right to kill other humans and animals might be abrogated.
“Unless this animal has actually threatened anybody, leave it alone.”
The threatening behavior is not being afraid of humans.
Hardly.There is nothing in this story that says the animal has attempted to attack anyone or a domestic dog tied out, or any farm animals. I think you should spend more time in the woods before making such facile statements.
A non-native species that needs to be eradicated with extreme prejudice.
Who are we, the progeny of immigrants, to be concerned about non-native species?
Once upon a research project, I happened on an article in the Nov. 11 1936 Daily Kennebec Journal, in which notice was made that one Ross McKenney, a well-known Bangor guide, shot a 70 lb. timber wolf near his camp in the Hemlock Stream area, 25 miles from Old Town. Readers were informed that the last previous recorded wolf kill was in 1865, thus inferring that McKenney would go on record for killing the last wolf in Maine or some such claim to fame.
T’was all for naught: The November 20, 1936 DKJ reported that McKenney’s wolf was a coyote. It’s doubtful it was the last one. They’ve been around for a while, but like all good hunters, they don’t generally wander around in full view like most of their quarry. Maybe that’s why they’re hated and feared so – they’re better at it than we are.
“Who are we, the progeny of immigrants, to be concerned about non-native species?”
The keyword there is species. Unless you’re a Neanderthal survivor or illegally here from Arcturus, you’re drawing a false comparison there.
Beep beep. Vrooooom…
I dunno.
I mean, the coyotes have moved in to take the apex predator position once taken by the wolves, but we eradicated those, so now here are the coyotes.
Here in MA, the coyotes have come on strong and they’ve been pretty good at eliminating the extra rodents, rabbits, and house cats (heh, heh, heh!) If only coyotes were big enough to go after that other large rodent that we have too many off down here (deer) and can’t seem to get hunters to take enough of.
I don’t really worship coyotes, but nor do I fear them. They just are and they serve a purpose as far as I can see.
I will say on edit that I’ve run my hands through a coyote pelt or two (I used to work for MA Audubon doing nature education with kids and we would occasionally get such things from salvaged road kill, etc.) and although fur coats are pretty passe, the pelts have to be felt to be believed.
“I mean, the coyotes have moved in to take the apex predator position once taken by the wolves”
This. Exactly. Wolves kill coyotes if given an opportunity.
Just as “non native” as you pal, and they were here long before your ancestors showed up.
Oh please. Their existence takes a lot less resources than many humans these days (never heard of a coyote on bath salts . Leave the animals alone. If the authorities think they are too close to people, safely trap them and relocate them to the woods.
Coyotes are native to the western US and have only colonized New England within the last 150 years. Humans (Abenaki, Penobscot, Maliseet, Passamaquaddy, Kennebec, etc., etc.) have inhabited New England for at least 10,000 years.
I wonder how old this animal is. Older predators and any others whose skills are limited for one reason or other often wind up checking out garbage, bird feeders and yes, the family cat, if left outside. So far, this one appears to done nothing but alarm nervous neighbors with its presence.
A few years ago a female coyote came into my back yard to feed on the bits and pieces the birds dropped from the suet between 10 and 2 each day for about 3 months. In late winter for another month,she brought her mate with her and then they disappeared. They were both as tall as my German Shepherds but not as heavy. They were never relaxed while foraging under the bird feeders and if one of the dogs barked they became very wary. I saw the female one day while in the woods with my dogs. She froze until the dogs passed and she ran in the opposite direction. I always enjoyed watching them.
Some consider that the unfortunate death of a young person in Cape Breton where coyotes were involved makes coyotes to be serious threats. It is cited in a comment below.
The facts are that domestic dogs are a far greater hazard to us than anything in the wild. An average of about 30 people a year are killed by dogs including several sad cases here in Maine in the last two years. Thousands of people are injured and receive medical attention every year from dog attacks.
For that matter, people, including a man from Cape Breton who killed three Maine men a couple of years ago, pose a far greater threat than any wild animal.
I wonder if they think the howling they hear at night is from their neighbors dog also? Invalids.
Relax, the coyote will not harm anyone. People are so brain dead some times. Please leave wild animals alone, they are not hurting anything.
Evidently you missed the article above about the girl killed in Nova Scotia. Trust me this is only the beginning for them preying on people.
Actually, they are hurting the deer herd.
If that’s really your concern, then wouldn’t it be a good idea if human hunters were treated the same as so many idiots commenting here would like to see coyotes treated?
… and?
And, this is why the state has put $150,000.00 aside for coyote hunters.
Actually, Humans cutting all the wintering grounds is why the deer are gone in Northern Maine.
yea right, read this http://www.examiner.com/article/coyotes-attack-dog-man-backyard
What about house cats?
Exactly what it is a HOUSE CAT, if you live in Maine and don’t want to have your HOUSE CAT disappear, keep it inside or let it out and risk the chance of having it eaten by a coyote!
I live on Cape Cod and coyotes are commonly seen, nobody really pays any attention to them unless they are acting out of the ordinary. I know of a 911 call to the police reporting a coyote walking down the street and the reply was basically “so what, they are all over the place”.
I agree. I live in the Walpole/Foxborough area around significantly forested areas. In fact, I work on a special ed. school campus of nearly 200 acres and our students sight the things nearly every week. “So what?” – yeah, that’s my reaction these days too. When I first heard of coyotes moving into New England when I was a kid back in the early 1970s, I never dreamed they’d eventually become so numerous. It’s wild (pun, intended.)
It’s the hordes of wild turkeys that are the real problem here in Brookline and Newton. Even the coyotes won’t bother with them!
I agree. It doesn’t seem like coyotes go after deer or turkeys all that much, as we seem to have all three species on our school campus in abundance, not to say it doesn’t happen on occasion, especially as younger turkeys and deer are concerned (poults and fawns.) From what I hear and see, coyotes work smaller game mainly such as rabbits, opposums, mice, voles, maybe skunks, and so on (not sure about the skunks, though.)
There have been many necropsies done over the years during the course of studies involving coyotes and wolves. In almost every case the main stomach contents were rodents and rabbits.
Yes, both species kill and eat deer as well as smaller domestic animals when we are so ignorant as to offer them up, but they are not the vicious thrill killers that many in the hunting and apparently in this case, law enforcement, would have us believe.
Are either dangerous to humans? Yes, in a very few incidents people have been killed by wild canids; a handful in a couple of hundred years. Far more people are killed by farm animals than wild animals. It is always good to remember that when we walk in the woods or off the beaten path we are no longer at the top of the pyramid.
BTW, for anyone to say that this particular and I might add, lovely, little coyote’s behavior is suspicious or dangerous is ridiculous. Coyotes like many animals are opportunistic. In the wild there are certain pack behaviors that are consistently observed: staying with the group, primarily nocturnal hunting. In situations where animals live near humans, perhaps humans who do not see them as a threat so do not harass them, the animals will become more comfortable foraging during the day and coming near human habitation.
Maybe instead of running out to shoot the animals it would be more beneficial to shoo them away as we do with bears. Loud noise and aggressive behavior on our part goes a long way to teaching wild animals to stay wild. A dead coyote cannot teach the young to stay away from humans.
As for those of you who think you can kill enough coyotes to make a difference in numbers; I have a bridge to sell you. All studies have shown that the more the animals are killed the higher the breeding rate goes. Coyotes and wolves fill a very important niche in nature. Just because you do not want to accept that a wild carnivore has more of a right to kill and eat a deer than you does not give you the right to attempt to exterminate them. I can’t believe we are even still having this discussion.
To me it looks like the coyote has mange (due to the lack of fur on its hind end and tail). The animal should be dispatched, the animal will only suffer until it dies.
That’s not mange but instead a normal shedding pattern.
Coyotes don’t shed in December. They rub a bit more toward mating season, but that won’t happen until February. That coyote has clearly been rubbing its hind quarter on the right side and has very little hair or fur on its tail from chewing it (it can reach with its mouth). The parasite that causes mange itches and consumes their attention. They cannot hunt effectively, but their strong will to survive has them adapt quickly. Easy meals like house cats, bird feed, and garbage are easily found in neighborhoods.
This time of year is when the coyote will have its fullest coat of fur. The “shedding” will occur in spring when they shed their winter coats. That is mange.
Hmmm, down in Massachusetts they are commonly seen during the day, ditto where my brother and his family live in the Oregon Cascades. I’ve seen them myself in both places in broad daylight.
My take on the Houlton situation is that for some reason, that part of the US hasn’t quite seen coyotes take over the landscape as quickly as in other parts of the US, the eastern part especially and thus, folks aren’t used to seeing them in the heavy numbers the rest of us are. I can tell you in the fairly well re-forested southwest exurbs of Boston, I can hear them calling and singing almost any night of the week if I wait long enough and their tracks are everywhere, as are deer.
My home away from home is in Littleton (Maine) and in my wood lot there, I don’t see nearly the coyote sign I see down in MA, but I also get the idea that coyote numbers are coming on strong in southern/central Aroostook nevertheless.
I have no problem with hunting, but I wouldn’t be so quick to assume this animal sighted in Houlton is sick or any more of a threat than any other coyote – the latter of which is to say it *is* something of a threat, especially if one is a toddler, but not much of a threat otherwise.
Since when are coyotes a threat to human health? We live in rural state. Let’s respect and enjoy its wildlife and not panic when it does what comes naturally.
I believe there is a coyote living on the Bangor Golf Course. Seen it a couple of times, but not close enough to be sure.
Lots of comments on the coyotes. Anyone have anything to say about the .decimation of the deer.What about the effect that they have on the hunting, that brings people into this state , to bolster the economy. Curious, but not trying to stir the pot!
If packs of coyotes were decimating the deer population, MDI wouldn’t be considering some sort of hunt. We have many active packs of coyotes and more deer than the amount of open grazing land can sustain.
Habitat and Wall Street Cut and Run are decimating the deer.
Well, moose, birds, fishing, etc., also contribute to the state economy. The deer herd is being decimated by people more than equal predation by natural predators. Loss and change of habitat, poaching, car/deer accidents, harsh winters. I’m wondering if there are more moose than deer in Maine now. Anybody know?
Sure, I’ll say something about The Decimation of the Deer: works for me. I commute 140-odd miles a day, often in the dark, and quite frankly it would be no skin off my back if there weren’t deer in Maine at all. Or moose either, for that matter. Extirpation of both species from the state would only increase my quality of life. I don’t actively advocate such a thing, you understand, but it would far from break my heart if it happened. They’re just mobile road hazards, of no practical use to anyone. In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret: They’re not really even good eating. People who hunt recreationally just feel the need to say they are so hunting won’t come across as a completely preposterous thing to be doing in the 21st century.*
* This last part may not be meant entirely seriously. Venison is pretty nasty, though.
BANG!!
Humans hunt deer too. Would love seeing a human hunt the same as coyotes do with only their skills. Not using cameras, bait and assault weapons……smile.
i dont care what anyone says….coyotes hunt deer!
So?
im refering to the last article they had on coyotes. in that article they said that study’s show that coyotes do not hunt deer and that they do not hunt in packs. i figured someone would know what i was talking about. guess not
So what? Your point is? It’s somehow bad that coyotes kill deer? Well, then, shorten the deer season for humans if there is a shortage.
And that is bad why? Deer are prey animals and coyotes are predators. Unlike humans they won’t eliminate their food source.
So do redneck Mainers!
Where do the all the poor animals of the woods go when it’s 20 below and the snow is so deep? Where can they find food just to survive? Why are we so surprised that they might venture to our doorstep? If you are afraid of them—don’t feed them!
omg!!!Coyotes!!! In Maine??!!???
It gets a little weird having them so close to downtown. Many comments here are not by people from or in around the Houlton area, so may not realize how this neighborhood is situated.
It’s not (quite) outlying fringe of town amidst farms and woods, it’s right IN residential streets – and the Salvation Army store mentioned is only about 150 yards from Market Square (downtown Houlton). Granted, the proximity of the Mednuxkeag River and the farm lands out past Houlton Community Park DO provide access corridors for the critters to travel (not all openly visible from the streets).
Last fall, I saw bear droppings right IN the alley from Court Street to the parking lot between Court Street and Kendall Street. This is downtown Houlton, not out on the edges of town. There was no mistaking what it was – full of bits of red apple – and stinking strongly all around there.
All the theories and supposing don’t matter much at all compared to being there and feeling the feelings of close encounters so close inside residential neighborhoods – and right close to downtown, too.
Many years ago, National Geographic made a film called Polar Bear Alert, about the annual migration of polar bears through a town in northern Canada. I haven’t seen it for a long time, but I seem to recall it containing footage of bears roaming the streets in daylight, ransacking people’s houses, and suchlike antisocial behavior.
Well, you have a point. I have a house up the road in Littleton, but I don’t intimately know all the Houlton streets you name.
That said, coyotes are running all over the neighborhoods of Boston such as parts of Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury as well as the neighboring towns of Brookline and Newton and all of those are at least as heavily settled as the Market Square, Court, Military, and Kendall Street areas from what I see, yet people have grown used to seeing coyotes.
Look out for the killer coyote!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!! Believe me, the poor coyote has more to fear from humans.
This animal does not look sick, is opportunistic so it imay be looking for food, has not tried to bite down someone’s door to attack them, has shown no other signs of being rabid so what is everyone so upset about? Are we going to continue to kill a magnificent animal because it MIGHT have a problem? Shoo it away and I will bet anyone it runs. This chief is causing alarm for no good reason. if I could get a picture of a coyote as good as this one I would consider it a gift.
Coyote phobia continues with those who are potential candidates for the Darwin Award.
I find it hard to believe that a coyote is a problem in Houlton, when nobody cares about the coyotes running around in Manhattan or Boston.
Coyotes became nocturnal when slaughtered continually by European settlers; in Yellowstone, where they are protected, they hunt by day. We are alarmed by them because unlike their cousins, (more wilderness-dependent) wolves, they manage to be successful despite our relentless need to kill them off.
Will this one take a small dog, or a cat? If possible, yes. Watch your pets, but leave canis lupus alone. Unless fed handouts, which alters its habits, coyotes pose little if any danger to people. We should feel lucky, in this age wherein we strive to eliminate many other top niche predators, to be able to see, or better yet hear the song of a coyote.
NOTE: Canis latrans. Canis lupus is the grey wolf (and domestic dog, weirdly enough, which makes all the legal handwaving about “wolf/dog hybrids” a bit strange).
I heard a vicious rumor that There are LOBSTERS in te ocean too! And they eat stuff!!!!!!!
Coyotes have decimated the deer herd here in Maine the last 4-5 years. The only good coyote is a dead one.
If you can….shoot it, you’ll be saving Bambi’s life this winter.