Coyote expert tells Nahant: Clean up

NAHANT – If you start seeing neighbors banging pots and pans and blowing whistles on a regular basis, they’re not celebrating New Year’s a month too late; they’re simply trying to scare away coyotes.At a public meeting Wednesday night regarding the coyote population in Nahant, Laura Hajduk of the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife gave residents advice on how to deal with the animals.”You need to make sure you’re not rewarding these animals in any way,” said Hajduk. “You need to scare them whenever possible.”Hajduk along with the Massachusetts Environmental Police provided residents with a presentation on dealing with coyotes after months of strong complaints from residents about the coyote population in Nahant.However, Nahant Police Chief Robert Dwyer said the situation isn’t as bad as it seems.”We believe there are only two coyotes on the island,” said Dwyer. “This is a small area of land and the animals move fast, so it is easy to believe that there are more coyotes than there actually are.”Hajduk advised residents to keep their trash in contained bins instead of loose bags.”Make sure your trash is not in any way accessible,” she said. “By containing your trash, the coyotes will have no incentive for returning to that area.”She said coyotes have the ability to remember which day is trash day is and which yards have accessible trash or food sources.”Coyotes are creatures of habit and if they are constantly being rewarded by finding food in certain places, they will continue to go back there,” she said.Hajduk said a common question from residents regards why the coyotes can’t just be removed from the town, but she said that the coyotes that are currently on the island are actually protecting the territory from more coyotes from entering.”If you remove the coyotes, it opens it up for other ones to come in and take over the territory,” said Hajduk. “More coyotes will not enter the town if they know that there are already coyotes living there. They know that the struggle for food sources will be too hard. You have to learn to co-exist with these animals.”Hajduk said coyotes are prevalent in every town and city in Massachusetts and there have only been three confirmed attacks on people in the past few years.”Attacks on humans are extremely rare,” she said. “They will fear you until they become habituated.”In order to avoid coyotes from becoming habituated, Hajduk told residents to harass the animals at every chance possible.”Coyotes will fear humans if you consistently scare them,” she said.Hajduk recommended making loud noises such as yelling or banging pots and pans, blowing whistles or sirens, and even said to throw snow balls or tennis balls at the animals. She said to vary the techniques whenever possible.”You need to make the coyotes feel threatened,” she said. “Do things to them that they wouldn’t experience in their everyday life and switch up the techniques.”She also talked about ways for children to deal with an encounter.”Kids should make themselves look bigger,” said Hajduk. “Tell kids to open up their jackets flap their arms and wave their arms above their heads.”Dwyer said residents should contact the Nahant Police Department if they ever feel threatened by the animals.Nahant Selectman Richard Lombard said when the warmer weather arrives, police officers will be regularly patrolling the Nahant Heritage Trail on four wheelers.”We spend a lot of money on those trails and want to make sure people can continue to utilize them without feeling threatened,” he said.