Dealing with Edina's Wily Coyotes

Edina—and the Twin Cities as a whole—has an undeniable . It's not really up for debate at this point.

Our fair city saw by coyotes during 2011, with starting coyote hazing presentations earlier this year to all about how to scare off the wild animals.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that Police Chief Jeff Long said coyotes have been one of the most talked about topics during his tenure. He gets so many comments from citizens, in fact, he decided to write all about it on his official blog.

The talk has not been as much about drugs, drunk driving or violent crime, as it has been about coyotes. When I went to college for law enforcement, I did not take any animal courses, nor did I think as Chief of Police, I would need to learn about the coyote habitat. However, with that said, I have learned a great deal about this animal. Many cities throughout the United States co-exist with coyotes. They are not going away and we must learn to live with them, too.

Still, some residents don't feel like shouting and clapping at the urban predators is getting the job done. Long said many residents have been asking him why the city doesn't do more to cull the population within Edina. The answer isn't quote so simple, he wrote:

There are many reasons we don’t trap or shoot coyotes. Basically, it does not work. Coyotes are not just in Edina. They live throughout the entire metropolitan area. Picture Edina as a piece of corn in a funnel. If you pick one piece of corn out, the rest of the corn will fill in the space. I use this example because coyotes are territorial. If you remove one, others will move in. Study after study shows this.

To learn a bit more about the reasoning behind Edina's current approach to dealing with our coyote population and, check out Chief Long's full blog post on the website.

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