Beauty or a Pest?

Animal control officers trapped a coyote in Lindley Park this week and killed it after state wildlife officials advised them against relocating it.
The coyote had caused a rift in Lindley Park between residents who wanted it gone, and those who thought it should be left alone.
So one coyote is gone, but there are probably others in the neighborhood. And when one coyote is removed, another will take its place.
Residents worried the coyote would eat their pets.
It’s true, coyotes, like most humans, are meat-eaters. They eat small mammals – rabbits and mice. In some areas, they’ve been credited with controlling populations of Canada geese. And they do eat cats. But small pets left outdoors face many dangers – traffic, aggressive dogs, humans who don’t like animals. Coyotes aren’t their worst enemies.
Coyotes thrive in urban areas though they’re extremely shy around humans.
Researchers from Ohio State University found hundreds of coyotes living in Chicago. One pair raised its pups under a hedge near a public pool, and no one knew they were there.
The study also found that coyotes pose little threat to humans. Problems usually arise when people feed coyotes, even unintentionally by leaving food outside for a pet.
“Coyotes are probably doing us favors that we don’t realize,” one of the researchers was quoted as sayingin an Ohio State University publication http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/urbcoyot.htm. “They eat a lot of rodents and other animals that people don’t want around.”
The photograph above was taken by Lynn Hey on July 8 in a yard in Lindley Park.
What a beautiful animal.