It isn’t all that unusual to see average sorts of wildlife wandering about Tacoma, but this year has been rather different. In addition to the raccoons and deer that residents are used to, coyotes are more in the mix as well and there is one in particular that has become a local urban legend.
Spotted in Hilltop months ago, this coyote has gotten a lot of attention for a severe facial deformity or injury in that its upper maxilla (jaw) is missing, giving it a grotesque look and there is concern over how it can even eat or drink. Photos of this coyote, dubbed online as “Jawless Jerry” and “zombie coyote,” have been posted by numerous Tacoma users of Facebook and Instagram, and in the Facebook group #TacomaCoyotes.
“I live in the Stadium District, and I see people posting about him all the time. He’s making a go at it though,” said Joe Brady, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation at Metro Parks Tacoma. Brady covers the regional parks and attractions side of the department, so he sees a lot of wildlife activity in these locations.
Brady said resident coyotes live in Pt. Defiance as part of its whole ecosystem along with raccoons, deer, possum and more. That coyotes tend to be reclusive leads to very occasional sightings within the park, and they will go outside the park boundaries in search of food. Humans feeding raccoons at the park has been a longtime problem, which brings additional concerns where coyotes are concerned.
“That bolsters the population of raccoons and guess who feeds on raccoons? Coyotes,” Brady said. “Animals tend to go where the food is.”
In the evening and nighttime hours, there are all kinds of wild animals that come out and move about our city’s urban and suburban areas. Zach Hawn, Conservation Coordinator with Pt. Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, is a lead staffer for the Grit City Carnivore Project, a research partnership between Pt. Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, and the University of Washington-Tacoma. Learn more at gritcitycarnivores.org.
GCCP is part of the larger Urban Wildlife Information Network run by the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Cities across North American primarily, and a few international partners outside of North America, all collect data on urban wildlife in a unified way to look at cross-city analysis of how urban wildlife reacts to human factors and development.
Tacoma’s involvement in GCCP began in 2018. Project staff set up and monitor a number of motion sensitive cameras to look for urban wildlife throughout the city. Hawn is in charge of Pt. Defiance’s involvement in the research.
“Tacoma has a lot of urban wildlife,” Hawn said. “Raccoons, deer and coyotes are the most populous, eastern gray squirrels and Douglas squirrels… Every once in a while, we’ll get striped skunk on our cameras which are always fun to see, and possum… A lot of those nocturnal animals that we don’t see during the day we are able to see because our cameras operate 24/7 in the monitoring season.”
Hawn said he hasn’t necessarily seen an increase in these species in our area, but the fall season is when young coyotes are dispersing from their family groups so people may see more coyotes right now.
“It’s just young coyotes trying to find their place on the landscape and sometimes that means we see them more often than we would more experienced coyotes,” Hawn said.
GCCP’s study model is based more on distribution as to where these animals are at spatially versus the number of them.
“It’s hard to tell if a raccoon that passed a camera 30 minutes ago is the same one you’re seeing now or a different one. We’re not seeing any higher frequencies in detections of any of the species that we catch on our cameras,” Hawn said.
Another potentially misleading factor is social media in that one wild animal, like a coyote, can be seen and photographed in neighborhoods throughout the city, making it seem as if there are many of them running around.
“I would not be surprised if in some of our larger natural areas like Pt. Defiance and Swan Creek, coyotes are mating and rearing pups so that’s where the populations are coming from,” Brady said.
“We encourage folks to just be aware. If you do come face-to-face with a coyote and there’s a problem, the normal things apply when dealing with wild animals – make a lot of noise and make yourself look big. I have never heard of a problem between a human and a coyote, at least in my experience and certainly not at Pt. Defiance Park.”
Hawn recommends using “a super-high-tech tool called a ‘Super Duper Coyote Spooker’ and it’s just an aluminum can full of pebbles or rocks,” he said. “The professional word is to ‘haze’ the animal. We encourage making them wary of you and your area to keep them moving on. Making noise, using reflective tape… It is perfectly okay and advised to make your presence known with noisemakers and help the animals move along to another area.”
Ana Maria Sierra set up the group #TacomaCoyotes on Facebook about five years ago. Sierra lives near the University of Puget Sound and has seen many coyotes over the years.
“We were seeing coyotes all over the place, walking up and down Union Avenue and around UPS especially during the school year when students drop food here and there. What’s really fascinating is how they’ve adapted to urban environments,” she said.
“There is a lot of ignorance about coyotes and that’s why I started the group. I established the group so that people wouldn’t get so hysterical about all this. The way we reduce hysteria and learn to live peacefully, compatibly, alongside wildlife is by having information about them. Just as they’ve adapted to us, we need to adapt to them. We need to have respect for the coyote. They are the most resilient and clever animal on the planet in my opinion.”
It isn’t just wild animals on land to watch for. Keep an eye on the sky as well for eagles, hawks and other birds of prey. Brady spoke of a surprising find in Titlow Park where this is concerned.
“We had a bald eagle’s nest at Titlow Park for years and years up at the top of a big, tall cottonwood tree. When that tree finally died and fell over, the nest came down and it was made up of a countless number of dog tags and collars from cats. It’s the world that we live in. Nature surrounds us on every corner even though we live in the city.”
Tacoma’s close proximity to bodies of water offers a different sort of encounter with wild creatures, such as orcas. Brady said that right now, spotting them is at a peak.
“A lot of orcas this year,” he said. “There’s a ton. People are really missing out if they’re not looking for the orcas because they’re all over the South Sound and in Commencement Bay right now. Pt. Defiance is a great place to see that from.”
Bridget Mire is a Coastal Region Communications Specialist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Pierce County is within her region, and she said the department asks the public not to report normal coyote sightings if the coyotes are going about their business.
“We want to prioritize species with a great conservation need,” she said. “We do get lots of reports of bears throughout the year, and from people who have seen a cougar, but unless it’s a public safety issue or it’s going after livestock or pets, we try to encourage people to take actions to keep those animals away from their property and neighborhoods.”
Mire advises ways to keep wildlife away from your home and neighborhood:
· Keep garbage receptacles secure with bear resistant containers or use ratchet straps to keep it securely shut.
· Put your garbage out on the day of pick-up and not the night before.
· Pick fruit from trees to negate this food source.
· Feed your pets inside and don’t let them outside unsupervised, especially during hours when coyotes are most active at night, in the early morning and evening.
· Keep dogs on a leash and cats inside.
· Keep birdfeeders away from your home.
· Supervise your children especially during hours when coyotes are most active.
Source: Tacoma Weekly
