SACRAMENTO, USA – C Street and 25th Street: Allyson Seconds – a good name because she acted within seconds – captured on her smartphone a couple of coyotes chasing a dilute ginger tabby cat from the side of a house to a tree where the cat had the advantage and escaped to safety. She took a series of four photos. I have selected two. I believe that Allyson is interested in wildlife.
Last Thursday morning she was in her car when she spotted the action. The coyotes had crossed the street. There are a lot of coyote attacks on domestic and feral cats in the USA. It is a simple case of predators looking for food. I have many articles about the ‘problem’. Or is it a problem? It certainly would not be if (a) there was a slowing of human population growth in the USA which leads to more housing estates on land which is occupied by coyotes and which they consider their own and (b) more cat guardians kept their cats indoors all the time.
These are both contentious issues. The first will never happen. As for keeping cats inside, many cat ‘owners’ in the USA already keep their cats inside full-time as they are fully aware of the dangers of letting them roam freely. It is not just about predators preying on cats. There are many other hazards, the most obvious of which is probably vehicles. And there is ever present argument of cats preying on wildlife which needs to be managed.
Allyson Seconds used her great photo shoot to make the two points I have referred to above although she did not refer directly to human population growth. She also said that people should not bash the coyote as they are simply just doing what they have to do to survive. As for mountain lions and bears, people can scare away these large wild predators using tried and tested techniques. Allyson calls is ‘hazing’ the animals. It is about coexisting with wildlife rather than squeezing them off the planet. But as long as the human population grows that objective will one day be impossible to achieve.
Coyotes are an important part of the ecosystem. They also hunt rodents and help to control them.
SOME MORE ON PREDATORS (OFTEN COYOTES) PREYING ON CATS: