Almost everyone is familiar with the story of the Coyote vs. the Road Runner in the wonderful world of cartoons. The relentless efforts of the Coyote trying to make a meal of the Road Runner but always being outsmarted at the last minute and losing out on his lunch made for great Saturday morning television. The funny thing about that cartoon is that fact and fiction are not that far apart from each other. The fiction part is pretty obvious. The fact of that cartoon is what people just don’t like to think about when they are eating their Wheaties on Saturday morning.

Predators are a fact of life in nature and for the most part are an integral part on our ecosystem. Most of them we will never see, and don’t pay attention to here in Western New York unless you are addicted to Discovery or the Animal channel. Some, on the other hand , are very prevalent here, and bordering on becoming a problem.

Let’s start with our old friend the Coyote. Most people associate the Coyote with the Midwest or Grand Canyon type of environment which is depicted in the cartoon. While they are as common as crows out there, they are just as common in the rural and even the suburban areas of Western New York. In fact, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) has issued a document on how to handle encounters with them along with how to prevent nuisance problems from starting. Coyotes do not pose much of a threat to humans as long as they maintain their fear of humans. While the odds of seeing one are fairly high, the odds of being attacked are extremely low, for now. The problems start when they become so common that they get used to developed areas. A good example of a situation like this is with our local deer population. It is really nothing to see deer in highly developed suburbs throughout our area. We really don’t even think about them any more. The problem is that deer are not predators and Coyotes are. The larger problem with Coyotes is predation on both domestic and wild animals. As the Coyote population increases, obviously food sources need to increase. This means that kills on things like Turkey, Rabbits, Grouse, and even young deer are now becoming more and more common.

There are other predators in our midst besides Coyotes though. Fox and Raccoons can do just as much damage to small animals as ‘yotes. While these smaller predators will not really affect domestic populations such as dogs and cats, they will raid nests, kill smaller animals, and do carry rabies.

When someone hears the word predator, the first thing they think of is 4 legs and teeth. We have another predation problem locally of a different sort also. The Double-Crested Cormorant has increased its position on the problem species list in recent years as well. The increase in population of the Cormorant is mostly accredited to cleaner environmental conditions and the regulation of pesticides. Cormorants are a diving waterfowl that feed primarily on small fish. The issue is that they are such voracious eaters and the population has increased so rapidly that they are having an impact on many different species of fish. The main impact is on bait fish such as Golden Shiners, Emerald Shiners, and Fathead minnows. Some game fish such as Smallmouth Bass and Perch can be targeted by Cormorants also. The problem with bait fish populations being decreased is the effect it has on the food chain. The less baitfish there are the less game fish there are and therefore the less sport fishing there will be.

The NYSDEC has control methods in place for all the problem predators in our region. Some of the methods include hunting and trapping while others consist of more managed methods. Cormorant management is handled strictly by the DEC. They are protected under the migratory bird act and can not be hunted by the general population. Methods that are used to manage cormorants range from oiling the eggs to manually removing eggs from the nests.

Below are links to NYSDEC pages pertaining to the subject of this article.
Coyote, Raccoon, Fox, Cormorant