In Your Backyard: Tips for Dealing with Coyotes

On Monday, the Sherborn Police Department received a call from a homeowner that coyotes had killed eight sheep and wounded several others at their home on Western Avenue.

The number of coyote sightings has been growing in Dover and Sherborn and while authorities say that humans are generally not at risk there are preventative measures that can be taken to try and keep coyotes away from your property.

“There is not a safety issue with children and families. Coyotes go after sheep. Sheep happen to be available at this particular residence and that’s kind of what happened,” said Sherborn Police Officer Paul Van Vliet.

Van Vliet said that the sheep were killed by one coyote, which was killed and disposed of Tuesday by the town's Animal Control Officer.

"That coyote is no longer an issue,” he said.

D-S Patch spoke today with Tom O’Shea, Assistant Director of Wildlife at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to discuss what preventative measures residents can take to try avoiding having conflicts with coyotes.

O'Shea said the main measure that can be taken is to keep a safe distance away from the animals.

“The big thing is to prevent conflict with them. They live in every city and town in the state, except on the islands – [Martha’s] Vineyard and Nantucket – so they are everywhere from Boston to the Berkshires,” O'Shea said.

“The important thing to remember is that behavior to be concerned about is when a coyote shows indifference when approached. That means when somebody really approaches it to scare it and it doesn’t run away,” he said.

When to be concerned:

• If a coyote follows a person while they are walking.
• If it approaches a person and tries to attack a pet while on a leash.
• If it shows any aggression towards people.

O'Shea said to call authorities if a coyote gets too close to human.

O’Shea said that coyotes typically stay away from humans and that coyotes that show aggression towards humans are likely either rabid or are habituated to the point where they are used to being in situations where they are in close contact with humans.

“Those kind of situations are rare but they do happen,” he said. “Coyotes normally and naturally want to avoid people and stay away from people and most of the time people don’t even see them.”

Tips for avoiding conflicts with coyotes:

• Don’t let coyotes intimidate you. “If you see them in your yard try to scare them away,” O'Shea said.
• Keep your garbage secured in containers with tight fitting lids. Take trash out only the morning that trash is scheduled to be picked up, not the previous night. Keep compost piles in containers.
• Small cats and dogs could be viewed as potential prey for coyotes. Free roaming pets are vulnerable to coyote attacks. Make sure your pets are close by and are under supervision.
• Don’t leave pet food out on your deck or outside. It may attract coyotes or other animals that attract coyotes.
• For those who have bird feeders, O’Shea suggested keeping the ground clean from any birdseed that may have fallen as much as possible because it will attract small mammals that coyotes prey upon.
• Close off any crawl spaces under porches or sheds.
• Brush back the edges of your yard in order to take away cover for coyotes.
• Clear fallen fruit from around fruit trees.
• Never get near the animal.
• Tell your neighbors about the preventative measures as well.

“The situation in Sherborn where protecting livestock and produce is important, fencing can be effective from protecting livestock from predation. They will prey upon livestock,” said O'Shea.

He said that livestock owners may want to consider building a fence to protect their animals.

"To be effective a fence should be at least six feet high and should also be buried underground because coyotes will try to dig under them as well,” he said.

For more information on coexisting with coyotes click here.