Coyote bounty not needed for a second year: expert
Posted Oct 7, 2011 06:31:35 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The provincial government has announced it will offer a bounty on coyotes again this year. The incentive program offers trappers $20 a pelt.
“We’ve looked at our program and there’s a number of aspects to it,” said Natural Resources Minister, Charlie Parker. “There’s the education component, the pelt incentive, the wildlife conflict biologist and the aggressive targeting of animals as necessary.
“Those four components, we believe, are working and we’re going to continue with all four of them.”
But a Nova Scotia wildlife biologist isn’t impressed with the province’s decision to launch another bounty.
“Anybody that’s qualified can go out and take down a coyote, whether it’s a problem one or not,” said Bob Bancroft. “I fully agree with taking out the animals that have lost their fear of humans. It just seems that in this particular case, they’re paying 20 bucks to anyone that can kill any coyote.”
Bancroft says a public education campaign seems to have been more effective in reducing human-coyote encounters.
The government says it recorded 10 incidents involving aggressive coyotes from April to September last year – but there was only one in the same time period this year.
Trapping season officially opens Oct. 15. More than 2,600 coyotes were killed last year — about 900 more than were taken during a bounty-free hunt the year before.
