NAHANT — A group of Nahant residents have come together to protect the coyotes in town by educating citizens about the animal.
Francine Amari-Faulkner is one of the founders of the group, which runs a Facebook page called Nahant Coyotes. She said the group’s inception came after the Board of Selectmen approved the hiring of sharpshooters to eliminate the coyotes at the beginning of December. She, along with co-founder Deb Newman of Nahant, do not agree with the decision and want to protect the coyotes, she said.
The coyotes will reproduce to eventually replace the ones that were killed, she said.
“It’s been tested hundreds of times across the country, so if they wipe out a pack, you’re just gonna get whatever’s left of that pack. There will probably be a new dominant pair that will move in, and they will replace what is not there that the food supply can support,” Amari-Faulkner said. “So you’re, you’re not going to change the fact that they’re there.”
On its Facebook page, the group posts information about coyotes and how to live harmoniously with them.
“It’s all about education, facts and community outreach and empowering people to know how to coexist without hysteria,” Amari-Faulkner said.
Rebecca Dmytryk, an advisor to the group, runs Humane Wildlife Control Inc. based in California. Even though she does not live in Nahant, she became involved with the effort when she heard of the sharpshooter plan.
Dmytryk said she wants to help the town with a coyote response plan, which includes handing out packets introducing a bylaw that prohibits the feeding of wildlife.
“It comes with helping you put the right information out there to empower your citizens. So they feel safe. Nobody should feel like a prisoner in their house and there’s no need to, but that’s what we’re hearing a lot from the folks that are only given misinformation,” Dmytryk said.
She has also been helping with the development of a map that tracks coyote sightings in town, she said.
“One of the most important things in any investigation is where things are happening. What are the facts? And that leads us to where there might be hot spots where there might be feeding,” Dmytryk said. “All these high levels of activity, I guarantee you there is a food source there.”
Some of the food that is attracting the coyotes comes from the people of Nahant, Amari-Faulkner said.
“We’ve actually located several places in town where people are leaving out food, and those are the areas where there have been multiple sightings,” Amari-Faulkner said.
Along with the map, one of the initiatives from the group is teaching its members aversion conditioning, or hazing, toward coyotes.
“Coyotes have a natural aversion to us. They don’t want to be around us. Aversion conditioning reinforces that,” Dmytryk said. “Aversion conditioning is a suite of tools that you use to reestablish healthy boundaries, to reaffirm that aversion to people.”
Tools are not necessary to haze a coyote, but she said they can help people feel “empowered” and “secure” when facing a coyote. The group is distributing “scare sticks” — made out of small bamboo stalks and mylar ribbon — and teaching people how to use them.
There are also other items that can be used to haze coyotes, Amari-Faulkner said.
“You can carry a pop-up umbrella, and if you’re afraid, you pop it open toward the coyote that’s going to freak them out,” Amari-Faulkner said. “You can have those big black garbage bags … and you snap it to kind of inflate it. You do that over your head — fill up the bag and kind of snap it over your head — and it makes you look bigger, and the coyotes are going to take off.”
There is a lot of “miseducation” about coyotes and the current plan of killing them is “horrific” and “incredibly violent,” she said.
“They grieve, they love. They protect each other. They’re very much like people. They’re a family unit, so you know what happens when you lose family members? Same thing for them. They’re going to be grieving. It’s devastating, it’s traumatic, it’s unnecessary,” Amari-Faulkner said.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Rebecca Dmytryk was a co-founder of this group but she is not, she is an advisor to this group.
