Surprisingly only nine people attended it. I was hoping for more.
Volume was amplified so the ones not using the microphone could be heard at the same level without having to crank it up.
Volume was amplified so the ones not using the microphone could be heard at the same level without having to crank it up.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00:00I'm the Clio Watch Canada and my role in Toronto is to do investigations if there's problems
00:00:07with Clioes in a certain area. Also to promote and to give you facts on how to deal with keeping
00:00:15Clioes away or how to deal with the dog situation in Clioes as well. Thank you. So we want to start
00:00:24and also too like I live in Madison Square on Spartan and I had a meeting there with all
00:00:30the residents because we're just next to the Humboldt River and we have tons of coyotes in the back
00:00:36you know where the dogs are and so that was a big concern for the residents that live in those
00:00:40buildings as well and we had about 15 residents that attended that meeting and it was a very
00:00:46successful meeting so I'll pass it now on and they can give you your presentation and then we can
00:00:54open it up for questions. So what I think we'll start with, we'll start with Shawna Wileye and
00:01:00Clio Watch Canada to talk a little bit about what it's normal and things that we can see around
00:01:05Clio's behaviour and then we'll talk about and then I'll jump in about what Trimodal Services does
00:01:10in relation to all that information in the future.
00:01:13And this is definitely going through. Please feel free to add on, this is a long presentation that I'm
00:01:21going through.
00:01:24It's already in the beach.
00:01:26There's a microphone here, should I go to the end right now?
00:01:30Yeah, maybe that must be better?
00:01:34Hello, everybody here okay?
00:01:38Okay, so we'll just give you a little bit of background and
00:01:42please feel free to jump in at any time as well if there's anything that you want to add.
00:01:48So coyotes, you know they are you know related to dogs, they are all from the
00:01:55Canis and Trans family of animals and that's why too that we see a lot of issues sort of
00:02:02sometimes coming up between coyotes and dogs and you can see it in Libertyville which we'll
00:02:06talk a little bit with you later. Just sort of the history of coyotes. We often hear this term
00:02:13of coy wolf. Has anybody heard that term of coy wolf? Yeah. So that's not something that we typically
00:02:18use to describe our eastern coyotes. It's a bit of a slang term but essentially as this map shows
00:02:26coyote and wolf populations intermingled about 100 years ago.
00:02:31So our eastern coyote today does have some wolf genes in them as well as some dog genes which I
00:02:40don't know if Anne wants to speak to later maybe. But all that to say that's completely normal.
00:02:46The eastern coyotes that we see in our neighborhoods today are the same eastern coyotes that were wandering
00:02:52our neighborhoods a hundred years ago. There has been some change in the last 100 years. We did see
00:02:59the term foils in the media quite a bit in the last 10 years or so but just to be rest assured that
00:03:05something hasn't changed with coyotes recently. Sorry that's just a bit. I'm flying through but this is
00:03:13actually a much longer presentation that I'm going through a little more quickly. So just to kind of
00:03:18give you some perspective on the size of coyotes because of course you know people can be intimidated
00:03:24when they see them. So you know we have in the blue there that's about the rough size of a wolf.
00:03:32The green figure there would be your you know your golden retriever dog and coyotes in the black and
00:03:40then the smaller little bee foxes. So coyotes typically they're about 30 to 35 pounds. The ones that we are
00:03:48bringing into Toronto Wildlife Centre they are tall they're very fluffy so they can look a lot bigger
00:03:55than than they actually are. They're typically tall and pretty tiny feet. So I'm just going to get
00:04:01through some of these things. So one of the things that you want to talk about why you see them a lot
00:04:05is because they are a very intelligent and highly adaptable animal that will make use of urban spaces.
00:04:14Sometimes people will ask us at Toronto Wildlife Centre well where did they come from? And the reality
00:04:20is that they have always been here. They do move around a lot. They have quite large ranges but they
00:04:27haven't come in from elsewhere right. It's not like we have this vacant vacant space in the city that
00:04:33they don't live in. They've always lived here and when we start seeing them more often usually it's a sign
00:04:40that there might be an attractant around that's causing them to come near or it could just be that
00:04:45they're out and about more because they're denning, they're raising pups. We also tend to see them more
00:04:49in the winter when all of the leaves are off the trees. So a lot of what we see unfortunately the
00:04:57stories that we hear about coyotes are actually quite misleading. You know we've even heard stories
00:05:04growing up right the big bad wolf lots of different stories and in the media we do hear a lot of
00:05:11triggering language about coyotes. Now sometimes there are incidents but they are extremely rare right.
00:05:22Coyote attacks on humans it's a very very rare occurrence for even a bite or a scratch to occur.
00:05:29There was a study done back in 2010 that found across Canada on average there's about 2.5
00:05:37bites or scratches from coyotes to humans every year compared to over 400,000 dog bites and scratches
00:05:45on humans and I think that's important to realize because it does just give us some perspective
00:05:48in terms of the the problems that may that are you know are created more from the sensationalization
00:05:59of them. Just on that topic because I don't want us to lose our trail of thought now one of the questions
00:06:06that comes in Toronto Animal Services every time we talk about those kinds of statistics when we reported
00:06:11we got bitten and again there's a sensation that is taken on but for example there's usually something
00:06:16every person is injured like for example I know of a case where a person was bitten but they were reaching
00:06:23in right they actually tried to kick the coyote and the coyote bit their feet they're feeding them right yeah
00:06:31they're feeding them but in this particular situation then it became a sensational headline
00:06:35the coyote bit my foot but what they did not tell was what was happening before the coyote bit their foot
00:06:42but before but by the time we can even clear that narrative because we also don't want to seem
00:06:47insensitive to the victim's experience the fact is there's usually some other aggravating facts or we've
00:06:52seen situations of people or dogs that are wandering in the ravine for example and they're happy to happen
00:06:58upon a den or they want to try and take a picture of the pub right so there's usually aggravating so when we
00:07:04talk so yes those situations happen but what we're talking when he's talking about the human attacks
00:07:09we're talking about actual coyote abnormal behavior that hopefully that makes sense
00:07:17thank you yes that's a really um important uh clarification um so yeah so we're going to move on
00:07:25from that a little bit but just you know to say too that even the word attack is often misused um
00:07:31oftentimes when people say they're showing a coyote attack what they actually mean is a coyote encounter
00:07:36and that may have been scary for them it may have been very close to them um but there wasn't
00:07:40necessarily uh contact made um and we know this too just from speaking to people through our hotline
00:07:48um when we sort of dig a little deeper with the story that they're telling us we do find out
00:07:52that that's what has often happened so just kind of getting into some some myths that we often hear
00:07:59about coyotes um that they stop people or their prey uh stop people and their pets as praise anybody
00:08:06heard that one before yeah i don't know and i don't want to talk to take up this all the time do you
00:08:10want to talk to us learning at all okay all right okay i don't really take up all the time here um
00:08:18so it's definitely true that we do have to be careful with our pets right especially our smaller
00:08:24pets like our cats or small dogs um you know it can be confusing for a coyote to sort of necessarily
00:08:31tell the difference between its prey um you know like a rabbit and a cat you know to be coyote those are
00:08:38both opportunities for a meal um and of course you know they they need to hunt to survive so um you
00:08:45know for cats especially um we do recommend keeping them indoors or supervising them outdoor keeping them
00:08:52on leash keeping them in a cat safe predator-proof enclosure um smaller dogs coyotes are not stalking them
00:09:02as prey um you know sometimes it may be that they see it as an opportunity for a male like we have
00:09:09a small chihuahua for example um but other times it may be like the dog might be coming a little bit
00:09:15too close to their den site and you know they may be just pointing that dog off of that area what we do
00:09:22hear a lot from people especially that are walking their dogs is that they are being stopped by a coyote
00:09:28um and we see that a lot at this time of year especially as they're dining and having their pups
00:09:33um what has actually happened is that coyote has perceived that that dog and that human have walked
00:09:40into their territory right so uh coyotes don't know what our city boundaries are that parks are for
00:09:47everybody um they stake up space and they think okay this is this is my home here and there you know
00:09:52they're pretty patient in their territory they're not chasing everybody down but if you are in that
00:09:58area they are going to watch you and make sure that you leave their territory so i always like to kind
00:10:03of compare it to if you were in your house and you were looking at your win out your window and a
00:10:09stranger walked up onto your property you would probably look at their window and be like why is
00:10:12that person standing there and even if they start walking away you might kind of follow them and be like
00:10:17this is kind of weird i'm going to make sure that they keep going and even if they walked further down the
00:10:21street you might put your head outside your door just kind of look down follow them down a bit just
00:10:26to make sure they're gone so that's very much what a coyote is doing when it's following uh people um it
00:10:32is what we call escorting them out of their territory would either be my dad um i just want to bring up one
00:10:44other point and that is that if you have your dog or your cat in your backyard to leave it safe
00:10:51please remember that there are also owls and hawks that live in your area and you must be careful
00:10:57because they do come down for a small jihuahua and i actually have a video that i'll send to mickey so
00:11:04that you can see it a friend of mine left her dog in the backyard which was maybe the size from here to
00:11:11the door and uh the top to land it right beside the dog and try to get him so please don't think
00:11:18that only coyotes are in your area you have to watch for boys that are in the air as well
00:11:24i just wanted to add real quickly uh this is something that vicky mentioned because it's a
00:11:32question we get asked all the time well what do you mean that they're here you know just escorting
00:11:37you out of their green space this is this is my space and why what do you mean they've always been
00:11:42here but i've never seen them before like this i think if you most of us here um if you've ever
00:11:49if you've been living in the city of toronto for a while if you think about what our architecture and
00:11:53infrastructure looked like 10 years ago to what it is today i think that should be a you know i think
00:11:59that should be a humbling reflection about our the environment has changed you know it's it's the joke i
00:12:05i usually say to people and it's not to make light of a situation but the joke is why did the coyote
00:12:09cross the street he was just trying to get to the other side that that's honest to god the answer
00:12:15because they use corridors when they move and we have built subdivisions and housing and different
00:12:22construction projects right in the middle of their corridors and they meet and they learn how to
00:12:26navigate that space but during that space we have their dens they set up their homes their lives
00:12:32and they just don't want you too close to them and you know something that's really interested and i
00:12:38hope that this is i'm sorry i just want it's a bit of a triggering comment but i i think it's really
00:12:43important for example the dog that was killed down in the liberty village it was recovered intact
00:12:48hen did not devour him or eat him or even attempt to eat it right because so the whole idea that they're
00:12:53hunting them as prey was dead in the water right there because the animal was not even in any way it just
00:12:59wanted to get rid of its competition and strength thank you jasmine and just to reassure people as
00:13:07well um i was the proud owner of a four and a half pound chihuahua for many years and i live in the
00:13:14beaches which we have a large coyote population there um and you know i think one thing to keep in mind if
00:13:22you do have small pets like that is that you do always have to be very aware of where they are at
00:13:27all times so um i never did let him go outside on his own if i was outside with him he was right beside
00:13:33me on a short leash he recommended longer than three feet long and i would pick him up you know if there
00:13:39was ever any kind of of danger he was attacked one time in his life however it was not by a coyote it was
00:13:46by my neighbor's off-leash dog again i think that's another important thing to keep in perspective
00:13:52um it's big german shepherd he's very lucky um but that happens much more often so again just keeping
00:14:00these incidents in perspective we don't want to necessarily go not as coyotes or dogs but just sort
00:14:06of understanding their behaviors and how we can take responsibility for them all right myth number two
00:14:12so coyotes lure dogs away from their homes to ambush them so that's another one sometimes that we
00:14:18that we um hear but uh a lot of the times you know dogs um are playing they do what what dogs tend to do
00:14:28um and if anyone knows or has had a pet dog knows that they love to chase things right so oftentimes
00:14:36when we see an interaction especially with a larger dog and a coyote it's not that the coyote has stopped
00:14:42them or ambushed them it's in fact that the dog often off leash has started chasing the coyote and the
00:14:50coyote is um reacting defensively and i will say that you know i do have quite a bit of patience but
00:14:56they will have a limit um as any living creature would right and if it's being chased that's quite a
00:15:01terrifying uh incident uh for those coyotes we know that in liberty village too that the coyotes there
00:15:09so many people are following those stories that they were harassed regularly by off-leash dogs
00:15:15and that can also lead to change behavior by the coyotes right they can start acting a little bit
00:15:19defensively if they are repeatedly chased by off-leash dogs so i'm just going to skip through some of
00:15:27this is a long presentation and we don't have time for everything today so i'm just kind of
00:15:30getting to um getting to some of the other key points did you want to add anything about dogs
00:15:43so one um question that we are getting a lot right now is why can't we just relocate the coyotes so um
00:15:52every animal has its home range where it knows where to find food it knows where to find shelter
00:15:59it's carved out its niche um or its territory if we trap and relocate wildlife studies have shown us
00:16:08that they just simply don't survive the move it's an incredibly stressful uh thing for them to have
00:16:14to go through and when they are moved into a new location um oftentimes they do have find they have
00:16:21a hard time setting establishing themselves and in case of coyotes too we have those territorial issues
00:16:26where they may they're very likely going into the area of a of another coyote um and it may not go so
00:16:34well so uh tracking and relocating it just it isn't an option uh for any wild animals there are even laws
00:16:43against relocating wildlife um by the ministry of natural resources uh the fish and wildlife conservation act
00:16:51you can't actually move an animal more than a kilometer away so in the case of coyotes they do
00:16:58have wide ranges when they move and they move around on their own but a kilometer you know a coyote
00:17:04could very easily also come back um to that same location also if we're having incidents with a coyote it
00:17:10really isn't fair to move it into another community as well right so what we really advocate for is that we
00:17:17are um learning how to properly coexist with these wild animals sort of taking responsibility for
00:17:25the things that might be attracting them or causing any issues in the um in the first place
00:17:31um did you anybody want to talk about pet safety or no should i pick a flyer that i gave you
00:17:36a flyer that's called for the love of leach um and this has a lot of information on how to keep your
00:17:55pets safe and how to make sure that the dog is not awfully strung around and chasing other animals as
00:18:03well as coyotes one thing that we do recommend is that you only have a short lead i have a beagle so
00:18:10i have a four foot bleach and he does not have a collar because many dogs can pull themselves out of
00:18:18the dog collar so we have a harness and we have a collar on him so that i double leash um beagles tend to
00:18:25be gone in a minute so that's why we've done that but if you have a dog please make sure that the collar
00:18:32is on securely okay because otherwise you may not realize how fast they can get out of that collar
00:18:39on their own yeah very good point um and i already mentioned earlier the three foot leech is what we
00:18:46recommend retractable leeches are a problem right especially with small dogs we have heard stories
00:18:52where the lead is you know 15 feet long um and coyote has come into that small dog because it's quite a
00:18:59distance from its owner you want to keep them really close by to you at all times like i mentioned um
00:19:05picking up the small dogs um don't let them outside oh this is a video of um of the coyote jumping
00:19:13offense just to kind of let you know they are a good climber so even if you have a fenced in
00:19:19yard like this that is not keeping a coyote or a boss um so you know your cat or your small dog that's
00:19:28one on your rock around the side is still risking the backyard like that the ministry's website as
00:19:35well has a lot of burning stations uh nothing means actually supervising your pets but there's lots of
00:19:41different ways like coyote rollers um just making sure that there's a lot of track to the senior yard
00:19:46and i think to vicky's point about the relocation we've been talking about part of the reason we're
00:19:53seeing conflict is because there's something attractive whether somebody's intentionally
00:19:56feeding them and unfortunately my office is way too many people and sometimes the feeding is not
00:20:02necessarily for the coyotes if we're trying our peanuts and they're bring on they're trying to feed
00:20:08other animals like the pigeons or the seagulls or and then they bring the squirrels in but the squirrels is
00:20:14what the coyotes feed them so if you create a honey pot of squirrels why work hard when you can work
00:20:22smart right so that's why the that's part of the reason that the prohibiting feeding of wildlife
00:20:28has passed because of the kind of rippling effect that it has um so ultimately we have dogs harassing
00:20:36wildlife we have attractions with our directory indirect we have a lot we have changes in our
00:20:41infrastructure in our city and ultimately part of the reason we'll talk about aversion conditioning
00:20:46and this is why we talk about peaceful coexistence if we want to educate coyote to live with us he
00:20:51needs to understand that that's his things out there and this industry is mine and why is it not
00:20:57as simple as just keep relocating or or euthanizing them because coyotes have been there for hundreds
00:21:03of years and all we're doing is creating a system problem it'll keep happening another coyote is going to move
00:21:08into that space they're going to have access to the same food the same triggers and the issue will just
00:21:14keep happening so we're not actually creating a solution that is long term yes i have a question
00:21:23how could somebody that can't see be aware of what's wrong yeah so i think um of course it might
00:21:31you know make that more difficult i wouldn't want to speak to what your your specific situation is but
00:21:36um i think a lot of the same things apply so for example do you have a pet bed home that you're
00:21:42concerned with no i have a guide dog which is different a guide dog yeah so your guide dog i'm assuming
00:21:47would be kept close to you shortly yeah exactly so right there that's a really strong safety measure
00:21:55to protect yourself it is highly highly unlikely that a coyote is going to come out of nowhere and attack a
00:22:02dog that's right beside you like that well it could because uh some parts have been put back to nature
00:22:07like jack the park and they could be hiding in the weeds whatever she might not see him but he will
00:22:13see her so i'm a sitting duck and she's a sitting duck well one of the things that it's what is
00:22:19interesting about the comment and this is why we talk about a community response like no one's person is
00:22:24responsible and i say this because there's and this is one of the common conversations we have with
00:22:30people who feed you are fine you are comfortable with this animal coming to your backyard the rest of
00:22:37the community or the vulnerable poor people in your community the people who are maybe who have
00:22:42different challenges in the community are not as prepared as you and you are creating a problem and
00:22:47unfortunately it it becomes this bigger issue where everybody is affected so you know that's why we ask
00:22:55for it's no one if we we as a community consistently and that's one of the things as well we find with
00:23:00coyote aversion we'll talk about that's why we like i like coming to these community events because i want
00:23:04everybody to have the same information if we do it consistently if we keep our yards clean if we do
00:23:11see a coyote that is kind of like looking a little he's a little too curious coming too far and we all
00:23:17take white version condition returning him to his face then we look after our community in that in that
00:23:21regard as well yeah absolutely and i think in terms of coyote behavior um you have to remember that as
00:23:30wild animals they're always looking out for their own safety right so it's really not in that coyote's
00:23:37best interest to ambush you and your dog out of nowhere right so they might react if they're being chased
00:23:45because they're they might need to defend themselves um but to sort of you know just out of nowhere
00:23:53and like attack um if that kind of behavior is happening um you know like we have seen a couple
00:23:59times in liberty village there's usually a reason for that liberty village is a very kind of unique
00:24:05situation it's not typical at all of coyote behavior and we know why they're behaving that way right
00:24:12these are what we call trigger stacked coyotes um like i mentioned earlier they've been chased and
00:24:17chased and chased and chased so they're all on edge right they're very stressed animals there's also
00:24:23some suspicion that you know they may have originally been an ontario place and all of the um when all
00:24:30that was torn down we don't know for sure but it's a possibility so if they've lost their home they're
00:24:35being chased regularly by dogs um you know that becomes a very stressful situation for them it makes them
00:24:41behave differently but you know a normal like a coyote behaving normally is actually going to move
00:24:45away from you not closer to you yes okay so um okay there's no train of thought i'm under the
00:24:54understanding that coyotes go after the small dogs and not so much the large dogs am i not correct
00:25:01they're not going to try to get something that's as big as them it's not typical i mean we can never speak
00:25:07in absolutes right however it's highly highly unlikely that you know we don't see that happening
00:25:15a lot maybe jasmine can speak i'm not sure if you keep records of that at the city um what we hear more
00:25:20of is is the smaller dogs yes um when they are not sort of close in oscillation by smaller i mean like
00:25:27under 10 pounds like a small dog because anytime a coyote is entering a confrontation with another animal
00:25:33there's the chance that they can lose their life right so they can lose what they can lose their
00:25:38life right like if they're they could be life-threatening for them to enter engage in those kinds of
00:25:43interactions with other animals they can become injured right okay so self-interest for wild animals
00:25:49they want to protect themselves doesn't mean they won't defend themselves if they perceive a threat
00:25:54but they're not looking for altercations right i think that's an important thing to remember
00:25:59i feel not done i think one thing said that's important on the odd time and she said like you
00:26:05said it's very rare but for the odd time that there is a conflict between a dog that is a bit larger
00:26:11there is something else happening either they've went they've gone into a space where they're probably
00:26:16eating or there's a den or they're walking it's not you're not just walking in an open car
00:26:22to the large dog and it's just deciding to do that true okay so i'm not done sorry just brought
00:26:29up for willie i'll get to your next question in one second but again just going back to the
00:26:34perception piece we have to remember also that um your dog is much more likely again to be attacked
00:26:42by another off-race dog right so when we're thinking about threats we have to keep these things
00:26:47in perspective there's always risk we walk out of our house and there are just risks in the world
00:26:53um coyotes on the grand scale of thing are way down here really really low down so when we're
00:26:59concerned about another keen in attacking your dog again for my my own personal experience um and that's
00:27:06not the only time i've had a dog that's been attacked by another dog you're that's a much much higher risk
00:27:11right so yeah okay okay so no i just want to confirm that i i can definitely confirm that
00:27:20in my office because we investigate all kinds of dangerous acts and i can definitely say that
00:27:25unfortunately there's a sad reality of my staffs um day to day that we have there's a lot of dead dog
00:27:32victims we usually resulted from dog on dog interaction a dog on coyote it's majority they're
00:27:40all dog on dog um that the you know the percentage is so negligible for the coyote interaction it's yeah
00:27:49but it but it is a reality okay so just just so i concur so a lot of them that we're seeing we have
00:27:55a problem at liberty village but even in this area where there's ravines right where there's a lot of
00:28:02ravines that's where you'll see them they'll come out and i know at lambton square where i live
00:28:08we have the humber river and people have their dogs out without a leash so the dogs are running around and
00:28:15then the coyotes are remember we had that meeting um so they're mostly around where there's ravines
00:28:21and people feeding them and it's important that people when they have their dogs that they're on a
00:28:26leash because a lot of them just let their dogs run around even if it's not an awfully dog park they
00:28:32just have to run around and that's where they're running from application am i correct yes yeah okay
00:28:39so have you guys heard of the incident that happened at downsview park this person happens to be a
00:28:46friend of mine she told me the whole story her dog on leash small dog next to her by her leg as she's
00:28:57leaving the park going on the sidewalk okay a bus driver points out to her look there's a coyote be
00:29:07careful well she'd never seen a coyote before she thought it was a dog so what did she start to do
00:29:14she turned her head and said where's the owner that thing swooped in and took her dog and she chased it
00:29:21through the park and was beating it with a stick but at one point she realized she wasn't going to win
00:29:27the dog's in the coyote's mouth and now the coyote's starting to growl at her so she knew that she's going
00:29:35to be next he's going to attack her okay so it was a very sad story have you guys heard this yes but you
00:29:43know what's really sad you know what caused that conflict what people because a couple of weeks
00:29:50earlier there were about 10 20 photographers baiting those animals they were baiting them putting on food
00:29:59because they wanted the perfect shot my staff spent hundreds of hours there trying to get them to
00:30:05leave that is private land that is crown land they had to hire private security to get those people
00:30:11out and this is what we're talking about that when we do certain things we affect animals behaviors it
00:30:18was it was it's not out of the blue there was a lot of other aggravating factors happening and somebody
00:30:24innocently is you know it suffers the consequence to that yeah there's a lot less coyotes there's a
00:30:31lot less chance of that happening to anyone so therefore the the amount of coyotes that are in
00:30:37the city should be contained yes and it's not being okay it's not you guys don't care of any coyotes or
00:30:44anyone who cares who cares the homeowner or the resident they have just as much right to be here
00:30:49as you and i i always are down on brown hair boulevard okay so so we will speak to that okay
00:31:00so we can understand your concerns and because they are a wild animal that fear factor goes up but i want
00:31:09you to stop and think about in that horrible situation which of course we i'm a dog owner i'm
00:31:14a cat owner i'm a bird owner i love animals i would be devastated if any of my pets were attacked and
00:31:20killed but i want us to kind of just stop and think for a second what if that same situation happened
00:31:27but it was another dog would we still have this visceral reaction yes yes okay but then we have to think
00:31:36that happens 400 000 times a year for us again on people take the owners yeah it's the owners
00:31:44okay i think the thing is one other time yeah yeah i just sorry i just want to finish sort of
00:31:52addressing this one thought first my point is that a lot of times we differentiate between
00:32:00risks and the harms that come to our pets as a result of wildlife versus other risks and
00:32:05harms and smoke an owl can take your small pet yes right a hawk could take your small pet if they're
00:32:12off leash they can get hit by a car they could eat something in the park that could harm them
00:32:18our world is not risk-free right and you know for many of us um it can actually be a wonderful thing to
00:32:28have this these wild animals around us and it's really important like jasmine spoke to just there
00:32:35that we understand why we are being in that way right because this coyote is now being vilified because
00:32:41of what humans did okay well what's the fine for bathing or feeding wildlife for example i think in
00:32:48one of our parks there's somebody that brings their leftover you know chicken wings and whatnot and i
00:32:54wonder if we had a way to make sure that that was something that we really focused on would it be a
00:32:59recording system or a fine system or a combination of the two absolutely you can throw that into 311
00:33:05there is absolutely a fine associated how much is the fine just so i think it's 365 dollars not enough
00:33:12raise it i wonder i wonder if this could be something where we could focus our energy to say
00:33:18you know maybe this is people don't are maybe there's the odd person who isn't aware it takes one bad apple
00:33:23apple and the next thing you know we have a pair of coyotes that run down marie baldwin and up four
00:33:29and suppresses every night at 2 30 in the morning because my neighbor sees them almost every night
00:33:33and they hunt in pairs and they've eaten all the cats and wildlife in the area so basically i mean you
00:33:40know somebody's been feeding them apparently and drawing them into the park so you know you don't know who
00:33:46it is or when it is she and my other neighbors been trying to catch them or figure out who it is
00:33:50and that has been our uh our biggest challenge as a law enforcement agency as well we need to find
00:33:56out who it is we need to prove it that the court system is set up in a way that can we prove that
00:34:01the element of defense can we prove who this person is and even if i see you what if we i have
00:34:06posters simple posters that said warning do not feed the coyotes fine 365 dollars just something super
00:34:15like these are beautiful it's all good we do have those signs for people maybe they don't have the
00:34:20time or just would see a sign and say oh my god i'm going to get a 355 dollar fine i didn't realize
00:34:26that could be just something simple we do have signs we have signs we have to put into graphics on them
00:34:31right however the city is a big place and so when you report it yeah right if you report it to 311
00:34:37i'm going to look into it the problem is as well it's i don't want to get into the nitty gritty
00:34:42if you can have laminated eight and a half by eleven posters that could go up like on whatever's
00:34:47place believe it or not there's rules around putting up signs and posturing and stuff like that
00:34:53so however would that be instead if there's a particular community that we have seen
00:34:58issues with and we would ask private property hey would you be willing to hang the sign if it's a city
00:35:04people we have asked right yeah we have asked parks to put signs if i can just comment on that so yeah
00:35:11she can put signs anywhere but if people don't obey the signs like it would be good no but it's like
00:35:18it's like the inspector has to be there it's like the poop and scoop right people know we put poop and
00:35:24scoop signs in the parks and that how many people do you do you see walking their dogs but it could be
00:35:30that the one person that saw the sign 3-1-1 would put it two and two together yeah i speak in the
00:35:35wildlife this is the 3-1-1 poster with the fine i'm going to be the one to record it because i think
00:35:41you know there's lots of people that would you just have to have that little bit of extra reminder
00:35:50that's maybe something that the city can look at so now we have another question here um i have a
00:35:55question are they attract i think you're telling me they're attracted to garbage right to organic
00:36:01garbage i'm wondering if um in our parks oftentimes we see especially maybe after weekends the garbages
00:36:11are overflowing uh people have picnic there have have brought their kfc's or whatever and they're
00:36:17putting them in would it be um advantageous to try to pick up the garbage a little more often maybe on
00:36:27monday after a weekend or after long weekends because i mean i walk in the park almost every day
00:36:35and the garbage is overflowing and you've even got bins at the start of the green belt or something
00:36:41where it's not necessarily parkland yeah it's a ravine or a green belt but you've got bins here
00:36:47so maybe i'm not saying every part but a park where there have been coyote spotting so when you've
00:36:53had some concerns would it be worth it to say instead of once a week pickup it's twice a week or for sure
00:37:01it's after the weekend or or we piloted well actually you're right in that because in some of the bins in
00:37:08the parks and that you see people have barbecues and they just hold their guard out in the bins maybe a
00:37:13summertime blitz yeah and so yeah they're just dumping their i hate to say it's and dumping
00:37:19their extra on fridays and mondays yeah yeah maybe maybe that's something that we can look at so
00:37:25maybe just to pilot it and test it well it's not quite a pilot it's already kind of rolled out
00:37:32right and that's what i was uh i just wanted to notify whenever we get any kind of complaints whether
00:37:37it's for a school yard especially where there's playgrounds and schools and stuff like that
00:37:41we engage the school board and ourselves we go out my staff we go we assess what's going on and if
00:37:46we see that there's lots of overflowing bins we report that to the parks about we're animal
00:37:51services right we do not clean up the bins but we make sure that we contact the park staff or we make
00:37:57our recommendations um especially if they're sightings you can say hey we've got reports of sightings can you
00:38:03please hang signs can you please make sure the bins and you know outside of that that would become
00:38:09sometimes the other trying to get but it's also a resource issue and then also just a responsible
00:38:13accountable to human behavior like why can't we just clean up after us or why can't we just put our
00:38:19dogs on leash because of the kind of if that were the utopia we lived in we wouldn't need bylaws
00:38:25oh no i trust me i don't but we need bylaw to police the folks who don't and she's the bylaw
00:38:32no no i'm not trying to take your dog away i'm just saying oh no i don't know i don't know
00:38:39people don't call them no people you're right people and you know i've seen people just eat and
00:38:45throw their garbage i mean it's ridiculous what's the fine for an overflowing bin hold on hold on hold on
00:38:50is there a fine for that we're here just let us finish this so people are just throwing their
00:38:55garbage i mean there's it makes me sick really sometimes i'm walking down western road and i
00:39:02see all the i'm picking up the garbage and putting it into the bins so it really is a little problem
00:39:07we have one more question there and then it goes the second question what is the fine for overflowing
00:39:13garbage i don't know if there is a fine they're not supposed to pick the garbage up you are
00:39:19supposed to bag tag it and put it beside it but okay we have a question here so i i have so i don't
00:39:28have a pet but um i do have regular coyotes hanging into my backyard and i'm very meticulous about not
00:39:35leaving any garbage so even where the vicinity of where the coyotes hang around um versus where my
00:39:43garbage is and where our neighbors and we're very particular about ensuring that there is that so
00:39:49what i love to understand is how do i mitigate and what are some of the tactics that you use to deter
00:39:57them over time because i know like they just started coming in the last call it maybe six months and i
00:40:05just don't want them to start creating a dent in that area so the question is what do i do okay so it's
00:40:11interesting that you asked that because i was just taken out i was asked to go and look at a person's
00:40:17backyard who sees coyotes on a daily basis so five o'clock in the morning i sat on her back porch and i
00:40:24wait and sure enough the coyote came in jumped into her remember the old compost bins that everybody
00:40:32used again jump in got some french toast and drove off so the thing was there was no coyote issue this
00:40:41was a person issue that had to be addressed so if you have cameras okay so if you were able to put the
00:40:48cameras up it would really help to be able to see what is really going in your backyard do a check make
00:40:55sure that nobody is on the trail behind your place you need food um one location i went had six bags
00:41:02of food through the woods so again this is all because people want to see coyotes other people
00:41:09don't but the camera will tell you if the coyotes are coming at a specific time or what are they actually
00:41:16doing in your backyard are they just walking through or are they actually doing something in your backyard
00:41:21what was the time that they were were there and what kind of garbage um do you have so it's a
00:41:28great question because like those are things that i do observe because we also have a regular fox that
00:41:33comes by and i don't like the fox because the fox is very skittish it's afraid and i'm just like good
00:41:38we know each other's territory we're good but that the coyote is a little bit different because there
00:41:43were a couple times where i was blowing the whistle or trying to like you know like keep my distance but
00:41:49also like shoo it away so we'll show you we're going to show you a couple of techniques but the other
00:41:55couple things i guess the point is that they come at various times when they get some water in the
00:41:59evening but also right okay so you notice this is a pathway that they're going through well so where
00:42:05i live is like there's a lot of trees um and it's not far from humble river so okay i don't know and
00:42:13my hypothesis is that the construction that they're doing on eddington has now forced them to come
00:42:18yes and all of those factors are really important if it becomes an issue for you you can always
00:42:25send an email to canada and i will come over and i'll do a field assessment behind you okay
00:42:3390 percent of the time it's really obvious okay what is the problem and sometimes you can't see like
00:42:39diana said we've gone up to addresses and we've seen on the other side of the fence or between the
00:42:43fence where somebody will dump bread or the sandwich or um there's staff there's somebody
00:42:49who's actually a staff member their passenger they're leaving leftovers on the other side um we've
00:42:54seen uh for example properties abutting properties where fruit trees believe it or not unmaintained fruit
00:43:00trees is a big attraction because coyotes will eat it right and then also they're eating the animals that
00:43:05are eating the fruit right so sometimes it's not always that obvious you're thinking it's just to have a
00:43:10apple tree in my yard but yeah so the candies are coming it's true oh yes it's a baby
00:43:19so also too if it's at night time would it sit in your backyard and would it help if you had a
00:43:26system like the light comes on and it's scary yeah it doesn't do anything they don't care
00:43:35so we have another question so i just wanted to put something quickly on there too and because people
00:43:39don't really think of this i'll get to you right after i'm just going to finish responding to this
00:43:43one bird feeders okay but your neighbors might and they attract they attract rodents and just
00:43:52sort of to reassure all of you all of you the number one thing that coyotes eat is rodents right
00:43:57they and that's one of the reasons why they're so beneficial in our cities they eat a lot of rodents
00:44:02sorry sorry anybody who's in this room right now if you have the three garbage containers
00:44:13that you use for place get two bunch of cords and cross and put them put to the top of it
00:44:26and the side of it and the side of the container i've been doing it for five years none of my garbage is ever
00:44:35torn apart nothing gets into my garbage and i have nothing to lie about so you have to be conscious of
00:44:44what you do with your garbage if you leave it out you prepare to deal with animals it could be
00:44:54raccoons squirrels scogs coyotes or i don't know if any people have seen them but also the coyotes
00:45:03so we might have talked about that before you arrive but we sort of dispelled the bit but the
00:45:15coyotes doesn't really exist it's more of a slang term so so there is a trick so we'll talk about
00:45:21aversive conditioning i will i'll let ann and jasmine um okay and it's like a professional
00:45:27apartment she really is she chases coyotes but i i do want to thank um i just want to thank the
00:45:33gentleman for his comment about just making sure we're securing our garbage right there there's
00:45:37techniques of the way to secure your garbage you can contact solid waste to have your bench in place
00:45:41if you are having that or if you're living in a multi-residential building and you're fine because
00:45:46they're getting into the garbage and you're having a conversation with the property manager i know the
00:45:50last meeting i had um when president seattle wrote lunch he was referring to it was interesting because
00:45:55by the end of the evening they were talking about somebody a couple of balconies that was feeding
00:46:01right they were throwing it yes they were throwing the food off on the food over the balcony in fact
00:46:07in the building i live they were throwing their food over the balcony right so suddenly two and two
00:46:12started to come together much like you know part of that you know unfortunate incidents that we do
00:46:16experience and so there's little things that we can do because what we're about to show you
00:46:22is aversion conditioning but nothing will ride higher than an animal's desire to survive and that
00:46:31is and what do we need we need food so we can dwell on diversion in the world but if there's a million
00:46:37attractions of people continuing to feed it that's why we deal with these kinds of challenges from a
00:46:43holistic lens we need a community response and therefore you know what to do with regard which
00:46:47contains if you're down on a leash and if an unknown society is feeling a little too comfortable or
00:46:53isn't ex like i said explore what is it it might not be you could be something happening nearby and
00:46:57just making sure we're addressing those so when we deploy it first and reminding that parity that
00:47:01people are scared do not come close to me but that kind of lesson um stays with the animal if
00:47:07coyote numbers are controlled by spading or neutering but it also helps how do we identify a coyote den
00:47:16what what are songs in the like is there anything like no no yes obviously very well dated yes they
00:47:22are and they may have three or four that are in the area and we don't know which one they're using
00:47:27i have been doing this for 14 years and i've never seen a coyote again oh okay so did you say you're not
00:47:36going to tnr them there's no there's no trap litter release planned and place and all these are wild
00:47:42animals we're not going to neuter them and they've been here a long time they're very tired when their
00:47:46families grow out they move up and like i mentioned earlier it's not that there's necessarily more of
00:47:50them it's just that we have moved into their space and there's less green space that we're sharing with
00:47:55them oh how come there's not more of them but their pups being grown every year how many and then there's
00:48:00and then there's the ones that die to natural attrition to disease to buy a car or they move on out
00:48:06and mage um which if you've seen any of them that are missing fur they look kind of you know
00:48:11scabby and skinny looking um so dozens we have not dozens hunt we have hundreds and hundreds of calls
00:48:20at toronto wildlife center every year about manji coyotes it kills a large number of their population
00:48:26there really isn't as many of them but you know once they become visible then you're seeing often the
00:48:31same ones would it be less cool to do some staying maneuvering of some kind would that allow the
00:48:37population that survives not to start and get manji it's very difficult to catch healthy coyotes to
00:48:44start with even manji coyotes yeah our team has been doing it for 20 years they have a hard time catching
00:48:49them yeah but also it goes back to what jasmine is talking about that you know we we really um and not
00:48:55just for coyotes for so many our world is breaking you guys right like we know this right so it's not
00:49:02just coyotes we really need to start reflecting on on our human behaviors um and really try to sort of
00:49:11live more peacefully um in our like with our green spaces promoting healthy ecosystems and and living
00:49:19with our wild neighbors is part of living in those healthy ecosystems we haven't brought this up yet
00:49:25but if we remove coyotes from these areas that's only opening up that space for a new coyote to move in
00:49:33and that's exactly what will happen if it's good coyote territory that new coyote will will move into that
00:49:39space you'll see a lot of coyotes at cemeteries too um you know where my parents are there's so many
00:49:46coyotes and running around and i think at a number of cemeteries that was mentioned earlier but um but
00:49:54if you go to a cemetery which i have done is you will be able to see food at the cemetery stones a lot of
00:50:00people leave uh food for their their loved ones so that isn't interrupted as well you also have people
00:50:08that um will go into the woods and leave food for coyotes because they want to take photos of them
00:50:13but let's go on to aversion conditioning what can you do to make a difference i do this every day
00:50:21and i always in my my pocket i have a garden thing can we tell them when to do it though yes okay so
00:50:28before they show you what to do um so aversion conditioning is a way of teaching the coyote not to
00:50:32come close but there are times that you should do this and times that you shouldn't so for example
00:50:36if a coyote is off in a hydro corridor you know a couple football fields away from you that's a
00:50:43normal situation it's hunting sports food it's hunting to survive it's hunting robins most likely
00:50:48that's a situation where you don't need to do anything it's not that close in your space it's
00:50:53in the normal space we want to do the aversion conditioning when the coyotes are repeatedly coming
00:50:59too close they're in your backyard they're on your sidewalk you know coming into communities where
00:51:03they're not they really shouldn't be so keeping that in mind you don't want to scare them all
00:51:07the time but when they're in it definitely not the pups and not the humans okay so one of the things
00:51:13that i do and actually thank you for doing that you fold it up like this but before you do fold it up
00:51:19make sure that you open the bag so that it's easy to get access to i went out the other day to do this
00:51:27with the coyote i opened it up and the first thing that happened was the coyote came running towards
00:51:33me thinking i had food in the bag okay so when you're doing it you have to be very careful as
00:51:40soon as i went out he was long gone okay it's easy to do it with one hand you can do it with two hands
00:51:47you shove it in your pocket and i guarantee you that they don't like it i had a really strange visit
00:51:54out of this dog and the caddy went nowhere you have to pick up a stick and kind of you know swirling
00:52:01around as the coyote was kind of coming towards him and his dog so okay so i have no problems doing
00:52:08this there are other techniques that you can use and that is you stop go away kylie go away and they do
00:52:17they do respond to this i do this every day of the year she does i can punch her but she chases a lot
00:52:24i i may be old i'm almost 70 and i'm not looking great but i don't go after a coyote to be seen on my
00:52:32street or anywhere there's issues going on but the first thing i always do is make sure i have a bag
00:52:38in my pocket i use the hand to tell him to go away i use the bag to push him back so for example if the
00:52:47coyote was coming towards me you're my coyote
00:52:55it scared me yeah and what i'm going to be doing is like saying go away kylie go away okay i'm going away
00:53:06just to address one of the other comments too distance does play a factor so if that coyote is all the way
00:53:11at the other end of the room and i'm slapping my bag around i was like i know i can run faster than
00:53:16right but you're not scary um you know i've chased a few coyotes as well and there have the times where
00:53:21i've had to get within three or four feet of it and i'm not suggesting that you have to do that but it
00:53:26just as an example that sometimes just like we're all different people and have different boundaries so
00:53:32do coyotes some will be closer than others and that's a great point because that's one of that's like i'm
00:53:37glad you meant that the comment about but that's a number one comment i hear i hear oftentimes when
00:53:42people oh it didn't work but what we actually nail nail it down is was it done correctly and we'll
00:53:48talk a little bit of a voice and as vicky mentioned about distance sometimes when you have a coyote that's been fed
00:53:58if you have a coyote that has been fed and conditioned for a long time sometimes when you
00:54:02do that the first time or two times they may back up just a little bit because they're kind of
00:54:06figuring out what they just figured out was like oh if she stopped shaking the bag oh it's a five
00:54:13feet distance no it came back back you need to create that gap and sometimes people stop too soon
00:54:21because they're scared if they're nervous or your adrenaline is kicking in and it kind of create
00:54:27and that goes back to i said earlier about that mixed communication so the guy's like what's that
00:54:31going to stay especially one who's been fed for a long time so it does take uh like vicky mentioned
00:54:36probably gonna that probably need to do it a couple more times and really push an animal out and when
00:54:40the animal is backing up do not stop just because it stopped at the wall until it's retreating to a
00:54:46space that is appropriate i wish i could have brought the video because i was uh i'm doing some
00:54:53aversion um i was doing aversion conditioning and there's five coyotes in an area and i had a broken
00:55:01toe my age i'm overweight and i had all of those coyotes so as soon as i started walking towards them
00:55:09go go away and i made sure that i was the one in control he was not the one in control and they
00:55:15were all gone yeah but if you can't see you can't do that that's a good point and i honestly don't
00:55:22have an answer so we're sitting ducks i have an answer for it because i'm somewhat of an expert of
00:55:27coyote encounters 2019 till now i must have had at least a dozen and i'm like seven feet away from them
00:55:38and i've got my dog with me yeah and um you know i i uh music i put on van haley
00:55:58so you know and i get big and i get the most it's the last experience i've had
00:56:05i picked up my dog with one hand i had my big record hold on probably thought i was an animal too
00:56:11because i just started grabbing at the top of my lungs but what was interesting was he's just
00:56:17staring at me going what is it should i try to attack this thing too yeah okay but the music and
00:56:28then the noise noise it's the garbage bag noise that's getting so everything in the city that
00:56:35you've got it makes noise your voice makes noise yeah i go out at midnight walking my dog i've got an
00:56:42umbrella and my hand partially open ready to go i've got music on and i've got strobe lights
00:56:50so sorry not to interrupt you but vicky has a really really important point so i'm just gonna let her jump
00:56:56right in okay so we have to remember these are urban coyotes right so they've probably heard van
00:57:02helen for some of them asking from somebody's car before right so that's kind of what we have to
00:57:08remember too that's why this is different it's because it makes an unusual visual for them it's
00:57:13an unusual sound to them and it looks aggressive really right somebody's doing that in your face um
00:57:20so yeah that's why there's sometimes talking sometimes even like if they're used to people talking
00:57:24it might not be as effective as something like this i'm just even with the screen and this is not
00:57:29i i you know it's going to be a little animated but it's a reality i see it like you know i i watch
00:57:35people in people are fearful especially because it's their first time and they may be trying
00:57:39to get all the way
00:57:44right but actually it's important because when people panic are we do kind of get a little squeaky
00:57:50on my page which is not as you know right like an exaggeration right right you take it back you
00:58:00feel like most time when we're panicking it was scary your kids are like versus something a little
00:58:05bit more assertive like like and just say get away get away very different experience oh my gosh use your
00:58:13voice like that i know sorry i think there was another question did you have a question sir
00:58:19i think somewhere it's really okay okay so the question was should you get loads sort of like taken on
00:58:35an intimidating like hated kind of um pose no there's a dog loose um so the reason for that is even
00:58:46if you get on the floor with a dog like that this is this is i'm staring at you i'm down on your eye
00:58:52level for dogs for canids bad right that's like i'm threatening you straight and then all of a sudden
00:58:59stand up with your hands raised that's why i was trying to figure out so they're trying to emulate
00:59:03a ball which is to stay big stay loud stay assertive and if you need to you know maybe
00:59:11just make a few steps forward and unfortunately you know unfortunately sometimes what we find is
00:59:17wilder people are panicking or thinking what to do when there's that pause the coyote is also pausing
00:59:22because they don't know because especially if they didn't vet for a while they're trying to figure out
00:59:27if you're a friend or foe because she was a friend she was a friend he was a friend and why is this
00:59:32one making the sound now so sometimes if there is a pause they also pause and it's kind of like a
00:59:38stare down what are you going to do what are you going to do what are you going to do what are you going
00:59:42to draw first yeah but it creates confusion like i'm just figuring it out who are you today because
00:59:49they don't know who is from who they're just trying to survive they're super smart and so sometimes
00:59:55it's really important that's why we're sharing this information if you do encounter one here's
00:59:59somebody's encounter one it's getting a little garbage bar full especially if you're going to
01:00:02a space where you know they are and just get right on there and don't don't necessarily just
01:00:07get that coyote out of there so we have a question for me back yeah so i guess my question is thank you
01:00:13for this information um just i guess from a school perspective uh because there has been some
01:00:19cities in the school would there be any uh unique or particular strategy that they could take
01:00:23in a school setting or would be also one of the things that i find when we go out to the schools
01:00:28unfortunately their children they're always dropping food yes right so it's really it's just
01:00:34really important that your groundskeeper you're making stamps stay on top of it this school in
01:00:39very particular one of the first things we all said was look what's out there all right so we
01:00:43really want to make sure that there's no reason for them to necessarily come too close but they will
01:00:48look at this and i'll let the ladies actually give you some other tips yeah i mean for toronto wildlife
01:00:54center we'll go to schools and have talks to the kids about um coyotes and how to think
01:00:59inappropriately and what to do which is wait it is the same thing you know give it get loud
01:01:05garage bags screaming that kind of thing um uh but like jesmond said making sure the schoolyard
01:01:11um is clean um and mostly like the biggest thing that as educators um you can educate them about
01:01:18coyotes is not running away because that's what i often see kids do and that's going to
01:01:22cause a chase instinct and the coyote not necessarily to even hurt the child but that's just like a dog
01:01:29if a child runs and a dog will chase same thing with coyotes i always have a question how many of
01:01:34us have been trying to catch our dog by running the opposite way like like i'm going now so i'm
01:01:39fading from going and suddenly you start running and you're like oh you came because maybe you can
01:01:43keep chasing it then he runs and that's just agreeing to him and it's just so that's like it's almost
01:01:49like i joke about the kind of dna it's like there's like a there's like a biblical thing in their
01:01:54in their in their dna you run i shall chase i just have one other comment um i work with the schools
01:02:01in my neighborhood as well i go in and we do just basic things kids go outside they spread their legs
01:02:08they put their hands up they cut their hands they snap the bay go away i mean go away but the school
01:02:14also has a system that if there is a coyote in the back they do ring the bell and that is the thing
01:02:21whistles do not work okay just a few more minutes whistles whistles do not work do not work if you
01:02:28think about where you see coyotes in parks the thing is that they are seeing kids are playing there they
01:02:35leave food behind so the whistle from the uh baseball team or the soccer means that food is now in this
01:02:42area so as soon as they whistle they know that there's something like that behind so as soon as
01:02:47kids are gone they're going right in so whistles are no good questions there's before maybe we can
01:02:59hand some brochure to lay at the back but before we do that i just want to say there's another issue
01:03:04that we have um i know we have that issue up in weston and we have it all over the city is rats right
01:03:12notice a lot more rats up yeah yeah no yes there are a lot of rats maybe we should get more coyote
01:03:25the rats are coming from the number of construction that's going on when you have the city uh doing
01:03:32sewer work and or you've got metro links digging up so the right so you come with the rats so uh because
01:03:40this has been an issue and it's been an issue citywide and i know that i've had a lot of complaints
01:03:45especially up in the western area and in this area that they've seen far more of rats than they ever
01:03:51have so there's a report coming forward to council in the summer and because other counselors are
01:03:58experiencing the same thing so what we're going to do is good we can only mandate it when the city work
01:04:05being done if the city's hired a contractor to do any sewer work or road work and they have to dig up
01:04:11then we can mandate this but we can't mandate it if it's a private owner that's building a new house
01:04:17or what so what we're going to recommend any construction that's being done by the city and
01:04:22the city hires a contractor is that when they dig up they they're going to put birth control
01:04:28into wherever they're they're excavating and that will help and that report's coming forward in the
01:04:35summer because i know that there's been a lot of complaints about it um you know western lawrence
01:04:42and we're having that even at eglinton and western road we got the eglinton line they've been digging
01:04:47so you see a lot people are experiencing more rats running around and so i just want to let you know that
01:04:54so it's it's a coyote but it's a rat when i say a rat i'm talking about the animal not the people
01:05:05because i know in green book in that area i've been getting calls about rats you know and especially
01:05:11if you have a ravine and that so i just wanted to mention that before we went to the last question
01:05:17uh hold up there's a woman and then you can go next there's a woman at the back that has a question
01:05:22did you have a question i think it's being addressed pardon it's being addressed oh okay
01:05:31are you going to do pigeons too well pigeons yes we did have a pilot yeah we did have a pilot
01:05:38and uh they with some of the bias and you know at west and lawrence i don't know if people know the
01:05:44west and lawrence area where people pay uh feed the pigeons and you have all this pigeon poop all over
01:05:50the place right and even at jay park plaza here i don't know if you go to jay park plaza you see
01:05:56people sitting on the benches and feeding the pigeons so there is a report coming back on that too
01:06:03how we can prevent that so that's also an issue but here we go again people feeding right and this is
01:06:09why you have the problem right you just can't they're just everywhere right and they're resilient
01:06:26and there's a mixed population of pigeons between what was the wild pigeon and the pigeons that were
01:06:30homing and just released and now they're kind of just joining those squats and then there's the feeding
01:06:35and the food um so for the over control for example to work it will again require some kind of community
01:06:42efforts for buildings and properties and businesses to set up either um you know as part of their pest
01:06:49control process because there are certain companies like able and um and orkin who are licensed to sell
01:06:56this type of over control but it's again and usually those companies are associated with your other
01:07:01pest management anyways you just need to let them know you also want to add the pigeon
01:07:05um pigeon on it so we whether it's a little different or if you want to just put up a feeder to
01:07:10implement that um like the like the control for pigeons which is the over control and over time
01:07:17um you should see that the population started to decline it's not it's not a i think unfortunately
01:07:23what our society we're so sad that we want everything now um and the expectations if we put it up in two
01:07:29weeks i shouldn't see any pigeons unfortunately that's kind of not the way it works and over time
01:07:34we should see a gradual reduction in the flocks i'll just add to that from a wildlife center
01:07:40perspective um keep in mind though pigeons are one of the main food sources for hawks for example
01:07:47right red-tailed hawks we need some of them around our city right like healthy populations are good for
01:07:53our birds of of prey and other wild animals that might depend on them for food as well same thing with
01:07:59rats you know if we had no rats left then we might see some other wild populations going down so i know
01:08:05when there's too many it can be sort of burdensome but we just really have to keep in mind again those
01:08:10kind of like interactions in our ecosystem even in our city ecosystem it is an ecosystem here right we
01:08:17have green spaces we have lots of uh different interactions happening um so just kind of keeping that
01:08:23in mind too when we're thinking about these populations the worst thing i see about the coyotes
01:08:28too is that the coyotes have no predator in the city so therefore they can multiply as they wish not
01:08:34really because the damage affects them pretty okay pretty terribly it really keeps them up first hours
01:08:40and roads as well a lot of people help on roads so we get a lot of them by road so by car and
01:08:46and it's also not i will let vicky and um and correct me if i'm wrong if you take a bit from a
01:08:53survival uh in a survival kind of lens they're not going to just keep procreating and everybody
01:08:59in the family just keeps getting bigger because then you're like taxing on resources as well there's
01:09:05always so much food to go around and that's why the families eventually do move out hey i live here
01:09:09this is my five kilometers you're going to have to move 10 so eventually and and between all of this when
01:09:15we have the families like we talked about many of them died from mange other diseases um hit by a car
01:09:23they may pops may just never make it to adulthood there's just different challenges and wildlife
01:09:28experience it's a scary world out there if you ever watch a discovery channel right so um just making
01:09:35it to adulthood alone is an accomplishment yeah i mean because for example with tals and there have been
01:09:41calls of uh coyotes for example we know that they have larger litters so because this has now opened
01:09:46up more space right so um i have two quick questions one is when is mating season now now okay and the
01:09:54second question does it make sense to go 3-1-1 if there's a priority setting or like like like what's
01:10:01going on bring it to me yeah absolutely there so when you call um when you find the 3-1-1 absolutely
01:10:07because we do um just even if you're just reporting the sighting now sometimes those sightings can be
01:10:12you're calling your calling here and you guys all live in the same area but it's the same guy who's
01:10:16walking down the street and they may look like oh my god there's 10 sightings but y'all tend to be
01:10:20as caught on by the same coyote so that's why the numbers are not always truly um because we don't
01:10:24that everyone but what it does do is we monitor like from like a heat mapping perspective and if
01:10:30we see there is an area that there's a lot of sightings coming up we start proactively responding
01:10:35to that before we end up an issue because if there's a lot of sightings um i know there was one
01:10:40um like i pronounced it wrong the last one of course if i made baby point or batting point
01:10:47yes when they were replacing all those um the sewers on any in the ravines we got tons of complaints
01:10:54up on the road everybody was like what was going on and they were trying so hard and then i looked
01:10:58at them i was like there's construction in the ravine i went out there and there's like 10 bulldozers
01:11:03three excavators hundreds of crews right so sometimes it makes sense and of course the crew was left
01:11:10so do the complaints but we kind of but then we want to make sure that in the meantime while those coyotes
01:11:15are figuring out what to do they don't decide to stay because everybody's going to keep their garbage
01:11:20clean keep their cocks on the leash and anybody who decides that they're going to hang
01:11:23out a little longer we're going to deploy a version condition to make sure we push them back out
01:11:27out of our space so yeah we we do we do map those as possible so we have approximately another few
01:11:34minutes uh so if we have do you have any further questions or i think fines should be higher to stop
01:11:43people from feeding them and signs could work if people know how to read them and pay attention to them
01:11:48so i don't know pr campaign i think would really help because i think it's just people just aren't
01:11:55aware they'd like to feed this animal they don't realize there's a side effect for the other species
01:12:00so i think that might be just don't feed anything or there's a fine and just really drive that home
01:12:05maybe do some you know higher and you know on that note a lot of people we encounter thinking that the
01:12:13wildlife actually need to do that they're starving we hear that a lot so in your communities reassure
01:12:19them that they are able to find their own food yeah i just wanted to say that also goes for water
01:12:24if you're leaving out waterfalls then you're providing service for the animals in your neighborhood
01:12:30so don't put out water don't put out birds so you know that you've got something to catch it
01:12:36underneath and honestly if you're really concerned look up on the websites for all of us we have coyote
01:12:45page talks about a lot of different things you can always leave a question on the page and somebody
01:12:51will get back to you just one quick observation regarding your promotional your signing campaign
01:12:59most people don't take notice of those council you know they send out mailings and people don't read them
01:13:04but there are certain but there are certain things that people will take notice of perhaps your
01:13:17tax bill yeah your utility bill i don't know if the city can do this but in bold letters on the top
01:13:26fine for leaving out food for wildlife 365 or a thousand i like and i'm just saying that
01:13:36that's what people take notice of but to spend on the mail there is i i'm sorry but oh the game's on okay
01:13:44fine i've got to pay my tax bill i've got to pay the great idea and then an idea of return
01:13:51this is by a big whole layer across the top of the of the of the
01:13:56any question over here uh it's actually not a question uh we i acknowledge that this is a good
01:14:05interaction about awareness on coyotes but uh thinking about it maybe we
01:14:11further need to educate the people more yeah yeah what to do and what not to do yes like we need
01:14:20to acknowledge that these are wild animals so it will be on our part to do things that needs to be done
01:14:31right yeah no absolutely that's why you know that's why we can mention sometimes yeah we're trying to
01:14:35arrange more of these and you know and a bigger space because i know the last year we had it was
01:14:41crowded but unfortunately there's a happy game on well the last the last one we had we had it at
01:14:46lambda score we had about 50 residents there and that's why i'm trying to host these meetings and i
01:14:52put it in my amuse trying to get as many people i mean i had one negative comment on facebook it says
01:14:57so is that the most important thing for you like you know comments like that right we can focus on lots of
01:15:03things at the same time one of the things that the city of toronto has on their site and we have on
01:15:09ours is um e-learning it takes 20 minutes it goes all through what to do to see a coyote what is
01:15:17mage and it's it's free you just go on city of toronto coyotes and it's a great video we also have it on
01:15:25coyote once again and the unfortunate part and the very truth about human behavior because we deal with
01:15:30human behavior at the end of the day to your point which is most people don't pay attention until
01:15:35it's starting to affect them but i don't want to see a coyote even with the emergency over there
01:15:40but most of the people don't look at the signs it's kind of if you're going to buy a yellow car
01:15:44suddenly start seeing yellow cars everywhere you're like why do you want to do so much yellow cars on the road
01:15:49um so if you know if you're gonna if i start seeing how you can start impacting me i start seeing it in my neighborhood then they may go up on eli if even if that
01:15:58if that i have sent out e-learning to people and they basically told me to just do something else with my
01:16:05time but it is kind of a version we need to get ahead of the information but it's a reality that
01:16:14it most of all is not so it starts to impact okay so what if we could download that you guys could do
01:16:21as fine and we just download it and print it at home and put it up ourselves if you reach out to
01:16:26me i will absolutely send those for the people like i'm thinking of just a poster that would say
01:16:33there's a fine for me wildlife
01:16:35so i want to thank everyone for coming but if you have any personal questions
01:16:51thank you thank you everyone for coming
01:17:07i have to go by the rules right