PORT HAWKESBURY: With coyote sightings continuing through the fall and early winter, town officials here are examining the possibility of partnering with Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to educate the public on the proper means of dealing with the animals.
Port Hawkesbury’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Terry Doyle, has confirmed that town council members are still receiving word about coyote sightings within the town boundaries and “want to have more discussions with DNR” about courses of action that could include public education.
Doyle’s comments came less than two weeks after DNR’s Human Wildlife Conflict Biologist, Mike Boudreau, responded to a January 19 letter from Doyle on the coyote matter with an assurance that “the province continues to take aggressive coyote situations seriously” and a pledge to work with the town on public education and preventative measures.
“We are aware of the coyotes living in the Port Hawkesbury area and are monitoring the situation,” Boudreau stated in his letter to Doyle.
“Advice has been provided to residents around preventative measures needed to discourage coyotes from hanging around residential areas… We will continue to deliver public education/communication programs using published material, media, staff speaking engagements, and school visits regarding living with coyotes and mitigating risks in the area when needed.”
While Boudreau told The Reporter in early January that “it’s been pretty quiet” with regards to coyote sightings in Port Hawkesbury, with one such incident occurring in each of November and December, the CAO said that the town is still receiving coyote complaints in the early stages of 2017.
“We’ve had a number of complaints about sightings, and DNR has a number of reports about sightings – they’ve followed up on each one of the sightings, and they have indicated that they haven’t seen any danger to the public as a result of the sightings,” Doyle told reporters following last week’s regular town council meeting.
“We certainly understand the constraints that DNR are under, and their procedures. They have to treat each incident in the same fashion as in every community. But we do want to have further discussion with DNR to try to help resolve the problem, so we are planning to meet with officials with DNR within the month.”
While Doyle described a proposed joint public education effort between the town and DNR as “a great idea,” he added that such efforts will be guided by council’s future discussions with department officials.
“It will stem from our discussions with those officials, if they’re willing to do that and help us through that process,” the CAO added.
“Even some education as to leaving food and leaving garbage out or those types of things, feeding other wild animals, which attracts the coyotes – these are the types of things that will help us help the problem with the coyotes.”
In the meantime, town residents are still asked to report any coyote sightings in Port Hawkesbury to DNR officials via the following Web link: www.novascotia.ca/natr/wildlife/living-with-wildlife/coyote-sighting-form.asp.