[0:05] here tonight then um than for for being here tonight it's wonderful to see

[0:11] everybody thanks G for getting it all all taken care of and this

[0:16] here I'm

[0:23] just at the end here um so the idea for tonight is that um I'm just trying to

[0:30] educate on coyote so I'm trying to give you just information more information my

[0:35] goal if that you leave this this room uh knowing one at least one more thing than

[0:40] come in this room so that's the goal that's the plan and hope to achieve

[0:45] it so just to give you a little overview of what we're doing here um I'm going to

[0:51] tell you a little bit all about paries in general so a pretty recent Barrier

[0:55] Island presence I'm going to talk about the appearance of I'm going to talk

[0:58] about the behavior of I'm going talk about their their Pack Unit talk about

[1:03] Cy and then talk specifically a little bit

[1:07] of sure I slow down a little bit sorry about that kyes and sea turtles okay so

[1:13] that is a big case study that we're thinking about moving forward on this

[1:18] island and other sh Islands so um then we're going to get into some

[1:23] perspectives from the Atlanta coyote project local Barrier Island communities

[1:28] um and DNR as well well and then we're going to think about how we can apply

[1:32] these perspectives to cook as a whole moving forward how we're already doing

[1:37] that as well it's cool to see cool to hear that so whenever comes to coyotes

[1:44] they were not always here shocker I know they did not originate here they are not

[1:50] indit to this area um they were originally native to the Western Plains

[1:56] west of the Mississippi River that's not to say that they are of here as they

[2:00] have come on their own accord to be here um due to just opening of the the

[2:06] ecosystems and the niches for them to be able to get here um but they are not

[2:11] inmic here um they're what basically happened um prior after the 1800s in the

[2:17] early 1900s mid 1900s a lot of Predator control programs as well as over hunting

[2:24] eliminated a lot of the wolves that were the primary apex predator the top

[2:29] predator uh in this region and and Beyond so we had red wolves in this

[2:34] region specifically um small population left is controlled and protected right

[2:39] now they were essentially eliminated back in the the early 1900s and then the

[2:45] mid 1900s uh the gry Wolves were also over hunted you probably heard a lot

[2:50] about that Yellowstone wolves all that sort of thing uh out west and now um

[2:55] basically what happened is once the the grave wolves were were Bally elated

[3:00] coyotes were able to start their their Eastward expansion they were able to

[3:04] start making their way to the Mississippi River beyond the Mississippi

[3:09] River and then no more Red Bulls so what does that mean more vacancy in in the

[3:15] ecosystems over here they were able to continue and and prosper and now you

[3:20] pretty much see them everywhere in the United States they are everywhere so

[3:26] deforestation of course played a big part in this as well and aing in there

[3:30] expansion um you know less suitable ecotone and habitat for them allowed

[3:36] them to to also come this way they didn't to South Carolina until the

[3:41] 1970s okay so it was actually not that long ago in the grand scheme of thing

[3:46] that they made it to South Carolina they did not become widespread in the South

[3:51] uh until the 1990s okay so that is really it's very

[3:56] recent history they become widespread everywhere in this area in this region

[4:00] um now it wasn't until the early 2000s that coyotes arrived to Barrier Islands

[4:06] at the Atlantic coast so barriers and the point of me saying all this is to

[4:10] really emphasize I want to keep emphasizing this this is per new that

[4:15] they are here it is not a it is not it is something that research is continuing

[4:20] to develop on what are F here how are they behave on verys and that sort of

[4:27] thing uh so yeah education management that is the name of the game right now

[4:32] that is why we here tonight and that is why we will continue this conversation

[4:36] hopefully moving forward now CES can be found on varer

[4:41] Islands both connected to the mainland and also disconnected from the main man

[4:46] so yeah that's kind of a thing you always think about PES can swim they're

[4:50] actually pretty good swimmers and not to say you're see in

[4:54] the open reg I think that would be pretty rare to see but they can go

[4:57] across P Creeks they can go across marshes and make their way to varer

[5:03] islands that are separated from Main um also you'll find them on Islands

[5:08] connected by by and land bridges you'll find them Ona on seabook on all of these

[5:14] other Islands as well so because they're so recent some of the areas of research

[5:20] that we're looking at right now include gene flow so how much um how many

[5:27] different packs are reacting with one how many different packs are just kind

[5:32] of intervening um that's one thing we're

[5:35] thinking a lot about as we as we start here um you see up here transient coyote

[5:40] activity what does transient mean well that is basically a year old or more

[5:45] coyotes that are actually leaving their family pack and wandering off to find a

[5:50] new family pack often times males looking to find a new mate so that would

[5:54] be transient coyotes that often happens you know everywhere else but is that

[5:59] same on Islands it might be a little bit more difficult to reach new island that

[6:04] still happen um Range so coyotes can range their range size go anywhere from

[6:10] two miles to 40 miles they are very adaptive okay they they have a lot of

[6:15] different range sizes um out in rural areas they might utilize all miles

[6:22] around here sebr Island the square mileage as well um are they utilizing

[6:29] more here on SE Island that's one of the

[6:32] questions you know are they Island H are they just staying here even though it's

[6:37] a small space because they have the resources for continuing research

[6:41] happening with them uh reproduction um yeah are they having

[6:46] their their young at an earlier age are they having their young um at a

[6:52] different seasonal time SP than they are in other places that's off some

[6:56] continuing research and then diet how does the diet uh change between between

[7:02] the chy in a rural area to an urban area to a bar these are all lines of research

[7:08] that were that is contributing to the new and developing aspect of

[7:14] this so let's think about their appearance for a second um I'm sure a

[7:18] lot of people who who in this room has seen a coyote before yeah a lot of

[7:22] people have seen the coy they've been around for for a little while one thing

[7:26] you'll notice they have those pointed upright ears

[7:30] very slender snacks okay much more so than your typical domestic dog they will

[7:35] also have a very buy tail and something about their tail you might see it right

[7:39] here a very characteristic black tip on the tail boxes also have bushy Tails but

[7:45] boxes they're not going to have that black tip most dogs some might but most

[7:50] dogs do not have that black tip so that is very characteristic of coyotes if

[7:53] you're wondering what it is you saw um the Eastern coyote mean the

[7:58] coyotes be find around here are often bigger than the ones you can find out

[8:03] west uh that has to do resources you know your desert coyote that tends to be

[8:07] smaller than your Eastern coyote um now that said Eastern coyotes the coyotes

[8:13] you find around here are usually still between 25 and 45 PBS at an average of

[8:18] 30 PBS um often times I will hear that there was a 75 or 100 PB coyote you know

[8:25] out there out y that's probably not true I would

[8:30] world record most likely if that was true um but one of the reasons it is so

[8:35] difficult to size estimate coyotes because they are hanging out in the

[8:39] early morning hours and then early evening and late evening hours it's dark

[8:44] you might not you know start things look bigger a squirrel looks

[8:49] bigger so that is one reason you often hear them overestimating

[8:54] size males are du to be larger than females of course adults are larger than

[8:59] juven mil as well although they do grow fairly rapidly after a year they will be

[9:04] getting close to the size of their their their Al male female and then TRS they

[9:11] will have oval pints very ovular little you know tow

[9:17] pads and often times the toe pads are very similar size to the pal okay and so

[9:23] you won't really see that with dogs dogs often times have a much larger Palm size

[9:28] than they do the the pads you see up here those those pads are those toe pads

[9:32] are very similar in size to that Palm size the front PS are always larger than

[9:37] the rear PS and often times you will U see the claw marks in the sand or in the

[9:45] mud wherever it's the track is located compared to a bob let say you'll see

[9:49] around here simar similar looking track but they don't have those retracted The

[9:53] Falls so they're not going to be having their falls out as they walk around um

[9:57] so often times we see the calls most lik coyote or do often times the coyote have

[10:03] the most visible toe Mark the

[10:10] front here just a couple of months ago actually on our property um collected by

[10:16] our barer Island nationalist there's some of them sitting right over here

[10:19] right now uh they've been doing a lot of camera research and collecting a lot of

[10:24] of really good data and really good images but there's one that that coach

[10:28] you up next to one of our cameras back in November um yeah trademark appearance

[10:34] right points at ears lenders now winter time okay this is November in the winter

[10:41] time they will have a lot thicker fur they will also appear a lot bigger in

[10:45] the winter than they will in the summertime a lot thinner bur in the

[10:48] summertime simply because it's hot they don't need as much F you'll see the same

[10:52] thing with dogs and cats and you know all sorts of things that it's just one

[10:56] train Park of them there's another example of tracks and

[11:02] here's a really good uh visualization of a typical coyote track front and back

[11:08] compared to a typical dog track those coyote tracks are going to be smaller in

[11:12] general it depends on the breed of course those top pads will have the more

[11:17] Clear Toe markings claw markings and you can see those pads those uh Palms are

[11:24] about similar size to the tow padge for a coyote but not so much for a doll

[11:31] they go everywhere they enjoy all ground so that you will find you will see them

[11:37] you know markings in the sand you'll see it in the mud this is by one of our

[11:41] freshwater sloes in the maritime Forest over on St

[11:45] Christopher property obviously freshwater spu freshwat is a hot

[11:49] commodity for any animal on a Barrier Island I enjoy it over there as

[11:57] well I think this a really good visualization as well to show you

[12:01] General size comparisons between a coyote and all these other animals that

[12:06] can often be associated with them you see that characteristic black tips tail

[12:10] for the coyote a general lab will be twice the size of a coyote a general Fox

[12:15] will be half the size of K those Tails will look similar except for the black

[12:19] tip and then your typical domestic cat although my parents have a cat that

[12:24] would give ayote money but the typical domestic cat it's going to be a lot

[12:30] smaller okay a lot smaller and can appear as pre to a coyote and that's why

[12:37] we're going to get more into domestic pets in a little while but they can

[12:41] appear spr lot of different color combinations

[12:46] for coyotes you can see them red you can see them kind of blonde you can see them

[12:53] gray and silver uh and you can also see them with black H as well uh that is

[12:58] called melanism coyotes Believe It or Not

[13:03] 5.4% of coyotes in South Carolina are known to have melanism known to be this

[13:09] black color so that's actually a bigger stat than I thought whenever I first saw

[13:13] that um but they the melanistic blackties have been seen on D Island

[13:20] they've been seen on Sullivan's Island they've been seen M Pleasant a little

[13:22] bit as well so they are in the general area so it wouldn't be impossible to see

[13:28] one um in their everyday DRS as I mentioned their coach sing much

[13:34] more much much more in the winter time compared to

[13:38] the we have very thin Co I'll show some images here in a moment as

[13:44] well all right these are this is one coyote that

[13:50] very recently of course has been on C on Christoper property that we've seen back

[13:56] and forth you can see this is not that long ago January and December um of this

[14:02] this this year or December of this past year January of this year that's the

[14:06] snow day in the top left up there the same coyote going back and forth in the

[14:10] same area um I love that bottom image you can see very clearly during the

[14:16] daytime the the coach color the fur color that the coyotes that I noticed

[14:22] the the the color that I noticed around sebr Island specifically more of that

[14:26] gray reddish combination very very notable

[14:32] silver you can definitely note that black TI Tail as well for

[14:44] the they are found in rural environments they are found in cities they are found

[14:51] in suburbs uh they are found north south east west and on Islands now okay

[14:57] unbelievable that never Island they are on Islands so extremely

[15:04] good attt extremely good changing at adap to changing conditions and changing

[15:11] um to really whatever the world gives in okay so they are they are great at that

[15:16] they thrive in that they are very intelligent very resilient um and and

[15:21] very quick and and learn better than a lot of other typical mans of their

[15:30] the Navajo actually called them had several names for them some positive

[15:34] some negative the the Navajo hermen back in the day called them trickers they

[15:39] called them God's Messengers and they also called them song dogs um they have

[15:45] so many different languages pretty much or vocalization patterns is the better

[15:50] way to put that for them um but they could sound like a lot of things at once

[15:54] and I'll talk more about our mization here

[15:57] shortly I the word ecotone a minute ago um what that means is a habitat or an

[16:04] environment between two other maor environments they love the edge habitat

[16:09] they love having some forests and then also some open space as well they want

[16:14] the cover and they want the openness um whenever I think about Edge habitats in

[16:19] an area such as this golf courses come to mind um the fields we might have in

[16:25] the general area and the rural area of John's Island um they love going back

[16:30] and for between e Jones their territory size really depends on their environment

[16:34] they just need reliable resources just like any other they need reliable food

[16:39] they need reliable water they need reliable C they need all these things to

[16:44] Survive and Thrive and if you find them in an area that area is Meeting those

[16:49] Feats so that you're finding them even Urban are even Urban

[16:55] are because they are so resilient so adap so good at driving very anything

[17:03] and finding resources um you do tend to find smaller

[17:10] territory or smaller populations of coyotes

[17:13] on um smaller pocket of area so you tend to find fewer coyes utilizing the

[17:19] resources of that area their activity patterns are very

[17:23] much built around humans often times uh if humans are out in the valley don't

[17:29] want to be out of the B humans are out of the B they they choose a different

[17:32] time of day to do their wering and that's why they what was known as

[17:37] propus um little little audience participation what is not

[17:42] turn yeah hanging out at night what is have you ever heard the word

[17:46] di during the day hang during the day this is a new one right here propus prus

[17:52] that is hanging out in the early morning and in the the early to late evening

[17:58] evening Dawn and dusk so cusc they are one of those cusc animals just like deer

[18:03] deer are ausc have a lot

[18:09] of CLE for a second they are considered monogamous what that means is that they

[18:16] often make for life um if you have an alpha male or an alpha female and

[18:22] nothing happens to one of them often times they will um make for life and

[18:26] spend all their time you know together as long as they can um Now The Mating

[18:32] usually does occur in the winter time so we're kind of passing over the that hump

[18:37] right now so what that means is that um we might have had more transient coyote

[18:43] activity might have had wandering coyotes coming in to mate during the

[18:47] winter time and now we're kind of in a new phase as we enter into the spring

[18:51] where we might have pups soon okay so the coyotes might be having their young

[18:55] very soon and start rearing those young uh that rearing continues all the way

[19:00] through the summertime and then uh usually in the fall to next winter you

[19:06] will have young coyotes start to disperse and move on um it's not always

[19:13] the case sometimes the coyote pups will stay even after becoming a yearly even

[19:17] after living a year or Beyond being a young adult they they will often stay

[19:21] with the pack more often the males that will leave off and find a new pack um

[19:27] and often times the females will St that you can see you know a lot going on like

[19:31] I said very adaptive um so you never

[19:37] know but a pack a pack whenever I say a pack with coyotes it's not like your

[19:42] typical pack that you think of that first Pops to mind a pack is a family

[19:46] unit for coyotes so the alpha male the alpha female that's the the parents of

[19:51] of the coyote pack and then usually usually all part of that are offspring

[19:58] that have happened years from that alha female um and let's

[20:03] say you know an alha male dies or female dies then another you know coyote might

[20:09] join or you know a transient coyote might come in and join the pack you can

[20:13] see that as well this is just an interesting little U photo from my

[20:18] research on theis island of coyotes um theis is not too far from here it's

[20:24] located not attached by land but is located above pal between pal and C

[20:31] Island not too far from Island either and this was actually a case it was a

[20:37] little bit unique being kind of a hard to get to

[20:41] um basically there was an alpha male alpha female pups um some of the pups

[20:46] didn't make it I think one of the pups moved on and what you had with GRE

[20:52] coyotes to be Al Al daughter the sa um and the alha DI actually in this spot

[20:59] you see right here and we thought hey let's put a camera there to see what

[21:03] happens and every now and again those the alpha believe to be the alpha female

[21:09] um and one of the pups we just kind of spend time in that area interesting

[21:13] little little tip in there from

[21:18] 2019 and this is one of this is probably the most recent photo I have tonight to

[21:25] today this is what a month ago yeah this is a month ago pretty much

[21:29] on on in the maritime Forest of C Island on St Christopher property um to this

[21:34] day this is the most coyes I've seen in a photo um and I haven't seen more than

[21:41] than two in person either and so I'm doing you know a lot of people are do

[21:45] this but I'm really trying to figure out how many do we actually have on seab

[21:48] island um how much like crossover is happening between our Island in other

[21:53] Islands it's hard to say I I think there could be more than three hanging around

[21:58] I would surpris if it is just the same three that are wandering across to God

[22:04] who knows but I do believe just knowing the time of year that it is right now

[22:07] this is probably an alha pair and a yearly or a little over a yearly most

[22:16] likely and I'm always curious to hear if anybody seen more than three at a time

[22:21] or yeah okay how many

[22:42] got I just want to break your attention first just to the top photo that is a

[22:46] coyote the summertime that look smaller than perhaps the winter coyote yeah lot

[22:52] less F there lot it's hot so that doesn't much f

[22:59] that's also from the island in 2019 KY are omnivorous that means that they they

[23:05] will eat meats and they will eat berries as well they love they love small

[23:11] animals rents specifically they have the number to eat birs I've seen that before

[23:15] actually um they will eat a lot of insects I see a lot of insect Parts in

[23:20] their scat I can't tell you how much

[23:26] SC I love it it's fascinating yeah a lot of fruit and berries around

[23:33] here specifically I see a lot of Hol berries in the the coyote scat around SE

[23:37] Island um especially during time there's not as manys out and out hanging

[23:44] out they can take down smaller deer and Bs and resources are scarce as well I

[23:49] know there's been a general decline in South Carolina of deer um parly due to

[23:54] coyotes among other factors um but it so far it tend to be uh that kyes don't

[24:00] usually hunt deer in the P mall or on island settings when there's plenty of

[24:05] other resources that's the research so far um they could also eat garbage uh

[24:11] composts pet food and pets as well and that's why it's so important um to to

[24:18] make sure that that all of those things are not left out and unattended

[24:23] especially those EV but pretty much if if something is attractive to your pet

[24:29] or let's say if something's attracted to a squirrel in your yard it's most likely

[24:34] going to be attractive to a coyote as well if there's something that looks

[24:39] edible and smaller than the coyote and is meat or bar then the coyote might

[24:46] find its way there because that is an attractive space for it and so we do

[24:50] everything we can to to make sure that that the space is cleared of any garbage

[24:55] compost pet food um and of course domestic animal

[25:00] all

[25:04] right this slide a load of crap I said that one last year too

[25:10] I um this right here um is a little bit of a poop study I did in 2019 over the

[25:19] course of a few months from May to I so I actually collected scat from coyotes

[25:26] on theis island and kind of lined them up after the end of the summer and kind

[25:31] of you can see the the types of things that these C were eating um just across

[25:35] these few months just across the summertime obviously this Chang is even

[25:38] more tremendously uh throughout the year full season so a lot more more berries

[25:44] and insect Parts maybe during the during the May months and then you start seeing

[25:48] a lot more animals bur mamal bur in June um and then by the time you get to

[25:54] August a lot more berries start showing up Muses that's where

[25:58] uh so their their dietary habits change throughout the year based on what is

[26:03] most available to them I mentioned that they were once

[26:09] called song dogs by by nalo in nalo language that's because they have a

[26:14] dozen different vocalizations that they are able to

[26:18] elicit and um the two most common that you're probably going to hear around

[26:23] here on C Island you might have heard them over the past few nights I know I

[26:26] did um would be a lone how so the lone how would just be um you if you're a

[26:33] solitary sounds like a dog how it's a coyote how and it will be announcing its

[26:38] location to the V pack MERS often times there is a response whenever there's a

[26:44] long how so whenever you hear one coyote how you might hear another coyote how

[26:49] shortly after either far off maybe across you know to another island or on

[26:55] the so that's something that you can hear um this is the wild the group Yip

[27:02] out is what it's called Uh this is what I heard a little bit of last night

[27:06] actually uh the group Yow is um I once heard it described this way so I'm going

[27:12] to describe it to yall this way as well but a cacophony of Yips screams barks

[27:18] and yels that's pretty much a really good

[27:22] it's a it's a cater Walling it's a that's a really good way to describe it

[27:26] I think um you hear this T like it sounds like tons of coyotes have once

[27:32] just kind of screeching really uh yeling who's heard that heard

[27:37] that yeah they will be establishing their

[27:42] territory by doing that creating what's called an auditory evence letting

[27:46] letting outside um competitors know that that's their face um it's also thought

[27:52] that perhaps they're communicating with a pack before and after a hunt whenever

[27:56] they're doing this groupy of house um one one thought of is just simply

[28:02] pack bonding and they just do it to do it like celebration I

[28:06] don't but what is known as the B effect is what you will this will often be

[28:13] described um and this is a very important thing to take away from from

[28:17] coyote sounds B translates to few as many so only three coyotes four coyotes

[28:25] can make themselves sound like 20 coyotes uh often times it will sound

[28:29] like you were hearing just an absolute mob of 20 to 100 coyotes and it might

[28:36] just be five of them new and so that is that is what the group if how is um they

[28:43] are purposely creating a lot of different noises all at once um across

[28:48] the space and doing

[28:52] that so a very important thing to think about especially now is the relationship

[28:58] ship between coyotes and sea turtles and before 10 years ago maybe that was

[29:02] something we never thought we would even have to think about was the relationship

[29:05] between kyes and sea turtles that that is something um that we need to think

[29:09] about now and already are thinking about going forward um coyotes are in fact one

[29:16] of the many many predators of Waterhead sea turle Nest it is hard to be a baby

[29:22] sea turtle there everything is out to get a baby sea turtle always has been um

[29:29] so yes coyotes are becoming one of the the more common predators that we see uh

[29:35] on SE Island on island on on you Island all these islands in the general area um

[29:42] and yeah that's kind of the reason one of the many reasons modhe heads are

[29:47] adapted to laying so many eggs in general as I said everything's out get

[29:52] of ABC Turtle it tends to be the only one in a th two one in 10,000 it's kind

[29:57] of a range of of young waterheads will make it to

[30:01] adult and be able to have their own nest so yeah is one of

[30:09] those as ours and you know fire and fish and birds and everything

[30:17] else so here's some statistics U from both K Island and sebr Island um between

[30:25] 2012 and 2014 coyotes approximately 3% of the eggs late on not that many

[30:31] between 2015 and 2022 depredation that's just another

[30:36] work for pration um this pretty much went away for a little while and then in

[30:41] 2023 they around 7.6% of the eggs laid on kioa and then in 2024 they ate around

[30:48] 11% of the eggs laid on kioa so a little bit of a stri there um one of the

[30:54] reasons for this is because uh it is thought that the kyotes turtle eggs is a

[31:00] learned trait um so basically something that they opportunistically whenever I

[31:06] say opportunistic it means they find the opportunity to they realize oh these egg

[31:11] no good let's try they try oh this is pretty good let me teach this to my

[31:16] young often times you'll see a little bit of of a stall after that first like

[31:21] predation and then a few years later you'll start to see that a little

[31:24] bit that's that's normal that's what can see um just a little tidbit uh this is

[31:29] just more of a a clap to everyone who helps out with with the sea turtles um

[31:34] prior to development of human Aid 95% of of lhe sea terminals were prated by

[31:39] animals 95% of the eggs were prated before human

[31:44] health human age so that's just Team all these other te doing such

[31:51] a great job increasing that number um I'm going to jump down for a

[31:57] second Brook Island um we did see more iot impacted uh numbers this year than

[32:03] last year so 2023 Ked 10% of the 40 nests only fully 81 nest and then

[32:11] partially 83 in 2024 that's past summer they affected 24% of the 57 Nest so four

[32:19] were fully um used as as food and then 10 parti so that number did kind of

[32:27] increase really 2023 was the major spike in coyotes impacting our EGS and so this

[32:33] is another example of that learn Behavior I learn in 2023 so natur you're

[32:37] going to see a spike in 2024 as well um some some silver lining here some good

[32:44] news is when Nest are screen when a screen or a cage is put over a lad SE

[32:50] tur Nest it is shown to be 100% nearly 100% you never say 100% but nearly %

[32:58] effective at stopping coyotes once in this cage and Screen the coyot screens

[33:04] the coyotes will not enter

[33:11] that and here's a little example of this back in 2019 on theis island so um

[33:19] once's right up here these are taking just a couple of days apart June 16th

[33:22] and June 19th um on the left what you see is what we call a wild nest in the

[33:30] world it is a nest that was undiscovered by people a couple nights before for

[33:36] whatever reason maybe the tide was high and walked away to tracks this or that

[33:40] that that Nest was not found and not caged um that coyote got to that Nest

[33:46] the same I you see picture here on the right side is the same coyote um a few

[33:52] days later and we saw we actually had several things of footage of this coyote

[33:57] visiting this cage Nest uh and walking all around it but never tampering with

[34:01] it there was never anything um that impacted that nest and the majority of

[34:07] those those TR did hatch so that's just a little example of the cage Nest versus

[34:12] versus the wild Nest how once they C is affective that prevents from eating

[34:19] those eggs one question I hear all the time is

[34:24] rabies in coyotes and so um yes rabies can happen in coyotes although the

[34:31] incidence is extremely low um the primary carriers of rabies in South

[34:35] Carolina are raccoons skunks foxes and Maxs and that is reported by the

[34:40] Department of Public Health of South Carolina so the CDC I know we're going

[34:44] back several years back in 2010 I can't remember how many years ago that was but

[34:48] back in 2010 the CDC reported 10 cases of rabes in coyotes Nationwide um and

[34:55] over 2,000 rabid Rec over 1,400 rabid BS so as you can see just relatively

[35:02] speaking H are not as as much not as often carriers of Ries there was one

[35:09] confirmed C case in South Carolina in 2023 I believe that was the Lexington

[35:14] County um and then one confirmed coyote rabies case in 2024 and that was in

[35:20] Charleston County in M pleas not2

[35:35] atanta coyote project is one of those and that is um something started by a

[35:42] scientist at Barry College I went to bar College was actually one of my college

[35:45] mentors Chris Mau he co-founded this this this project um and basically what

[35:53] they do is is look at at Urban coyotes but they also look beyond that is

[35:58] Suburban coyotes and Island coyotes and have extended their research quite a bit

[36:03] and their Monro a little bit prevention before the problem so trying to make

[36:09] sure that any given space um if cyes entered that territory um we're it's

[36:15] going to have the least impact proxity so that's the idea um throwing away all

[36:21] those those food items that are attracted to the coyotes um hazing

[36:26] coyotes that is something that that uh you might not know but it's a good idea

[36:30] that ha coyotes it is perfectly okay to yell at a coyote it is perfectly okay to

[36:36] wave your arms at a coyote it is not going to think of that as a gret it's

[36:40] going to be scared of that uh you can throw stones and rocks at a coyote to to

[36:46] scare it off and to tell it hey this SP is not attractive to you don't go back

[36:51] that is that is hazing the general that is the general idea of that it is

[36:55] perfectly okay to Haze

[36:59] you might not want to do quite the same thing certain other Predators like

[37:03] allat but yes with Coy that is what you want to do um and yeah idea of the ATL

[37:10] KY project is passive management preventing the conflict before it even

[37:14] develops um creating education and understanding and at the same time

[37:19] recognizing that um people are highest priority and safety is always highest

[37:24] priority when it comes down to it

[37:32] is presented by a few um School of thoughts as well as the Atlanta coyote

[37:38] projects and what they label as the killing problem um but the thought is

[37:41] that because coyotes are compensatory breeders which means that they they

[37:48] basically do better at having babies when problems arise that's kind of what

[37:53] convin to word reading means um just kind of demonstrates that removal

[37:57] killing could be temporary again still a lot of research

[38:01] happening on barrier islands and how they react on Barrier Islands um but

[38:06] because the KY were here in the first place they probably found this base

[38:10] attractive and if you eliminate the ones that are here it might be a shortterm

[38:14] solution um but they'll probably come back other on will probably come back

[38:18] because they've gone everywhere and this place is one of those attractive spots

[38:23] for so they probably wouldn't return um there's another idea as well

[38:28] that if if coyes are removed certain Coy is removed there might be more food and

[38:33] resources for females produce even more offspring a transient coyote might come

[38:38] in and Mi with the the available pack member or MERS and have more pups um

[38:46] yeah all these ideas have been floating around a way as

[38:51] well and then just looking at some local Barrier Islands then also our old

[38:56] barrier here as well uh Gua has enacted a passive management practice uh they'

[39:02] started total metal screeing of all SE tur nest in 2023 continued that through

[39:08] 2024 um you saw that we still sealed spike in internal fation in 2024 but

[39:14] there were also more Nest um and then a good reporting

[39:19] mechanism they report all SS of Island Wildlife team the island does something

[39:25] very similar passive management uh same stuff with sea Turles screening

[39:29] all sea turle nests um and then a lot of scientific study has begun on on theise

[39:36] as well um this is something I tried to do was never able to collect any fur of

[39:40] a coyote but they're trying to collect fur samples and then be able to

[39:45] genetically analyze the F samples of many coyotes and see what the

[39:49] relationships are have a better idea of that sometimes you can see that with the

[39:53] behavior anyway it's helpful lot camera analysis um a lot of and they're able to

[39:59] report side to the Conservancy as [Music]

[40:04] well so to recap um iods are are still very recently here uh this is a new and

[40:15] and developing issue right now that we are working on passively managing so

[40:21] some additional resources that you can look at include the project website

[40:28] uh coyote biology control in South Carolina PR by the SCB andr the project

[40:33] coyote website we do have a 2024 SE management plan uh as well that can be

[40:40] found online I'll show you the link to that I know that link is also on a

[40:44] little pan we hand out at the end here um but the question is really to

[40:48] consider having all this information they about all these things is where do

[40:53] the issues begin what is the start of the issue is it something that was left

[40:58] out is it not having your pets leashed is it this or that um are those issues

[41:04] resolvable and preventable and then at what point is there danger and that is

[41:10] always highest priority at what point is there danger or need to

[41:14] control so that's important to think about believe we got a video

[41:23] here was January of last year I'll again

[41:33] on Cal property last

[41:37] year just a few like questions you might be asking right now how do I prevent

[41:42] coyote conflict right now here's some specifics and these are also ones that

[41:47] are also presented by C Island secure garbage bins secure compost PS clean

[41:54] grills after use avoid keeping food waste food and water HS outside

[42:00] controlling small manal being around bird feeders supervising your pets

[42:04] supervising and and leashing pets on walks especially at night time not

[42:09] leaving any pets outside at night um and generally just like hazing teaching

[42:15] kindies to avoid people uh and what all these kind of come together to say is

[42:22] make sure your space is unattracted to CES make sure there's nothing there that

[42:27] AAL song would enjoy if it

[42:35] to and then what do I do when I see a coyote well stay calm don't panic um

[42:41] coyotes are very rarely thre right at the onset uh they're very very timid

[42:47] creatures they're very likely much more scared of you U some really weird is

[42:51] going on now if if they get too close for comfort uh that is whenever you

[42:56] should start hazing them to make them feel unwelcome make loud noises throw

[43:01] things at wave your hands uh attack on a bet while rare is of course you'll see

[43:07] you see it in the news all the time um so yeah we just need to make sure we're

[43:13] not feeding or habituating coyotes uh make sure you're never leaving your pets

[43:17] unattended um offleash pets actually are often times the instigators that you see

[43:23] in a lot of those stories so an off each pet might might want to attack a kyote

[43:29] play with the kyot the kyot does not see that as playing and so then it becomes

[43:35] um tough so yeah just lack of any other resources there is what usually causes

[43:42] to to do that and then an

[43:47] attack on a human is extremely

[43:51] virtually pretty much never happens

[44:03] was about a year ago

[44:19] today management plan 2024 um tells you that if you do see a coyote or have a

[44:25] coyote incident um you should contact the gay house and then there is an

[44:29] online portal to report your wild signings that is that is for more than

[44:33] coyotes that is for any wild you see on sebr island uh this the link is right

[44:39] here um you'll see it on the sheet in the back as well um but it is very

[44:44] important actually very helpful um for for a wide variety of individuals to

[44:49] report those sightings this is very helpful for those looking in the or any

[44:55] other so their behavior if there was some sort of incidence to happen to be

[45:00] able to pinpoint that back to a spot that thees might be hanging

[45:05] out citizen science is awesome helps identify hot spots increases education

[45:12] and then just any investigation that would need to come

[45:15] about then there's also a new and ads sheet the link is also on the

[45:21] sheet so whenever you go to that link for w by side you'll see that that top

[45:26] left module at first you click those binoculars and then you actually can

[45:31] kind of put your information um when you saw the S you'll

[45:36] see pretty much all the sightings that have been reported around C Island right

[45:41] here different Animal Icons that are are related to different animals um make

[45:46] sure you are putting that animal in the right dot when you do that because I'm

[45:49] not saying there was a coyote wasn't

[45:53] a I doubt it and so maybe that was to be somewhere over here just make sure

[45:59] you're you're placing that in the right spot as well so we can have the clear

[46:04] St possible to know what's going on and then you're able to this is kind

[46:09] of how it shows up you're able to cck anybody else's wild VI side see the

[46:13] information and also post um photos related to

[46:18] it this is great this is great see

[46:27] [Music] over to J

[46:42] coulees really great resource having naturalists having staff really close by

[46:47] for you that you have have someone you can kind of reach out to you know I'm

[46:51] I'm coming from the state's perspective so a lot of what we do we do education

[46:56] but we also have kind of regulatory arm where we permit certain activities that

[47:01] are not normally allowed um one of those is tring outside of seasons and that

[47:06] kind of that kind of thing and we've always been very receptive to whatever a

[47:12] community wants to do you know within reasion of course there's some things

[47:16] that you're not going to be allowed to do but as far as as trying to to deal

[47:20] with removal when it becomes a problem that the community has deemed it big

[47:24] enough that hey I want to do something different you know we will work with the

[47:29] communities work with seab Brook you know whether that's that's the permits

[47:34] you know there's there's actually exemption in the law under 5011 2570

[47:39] that allows every property owner every homeowner to essentially control or trap

[47:45] or shoot depending on where you live if you can discharge farm that you may not

[47:49] be able to do here within 100 yard of your house so long as you're selling

[47:52] your property anything outside of that or something the community wants to do

[47:57] CommunityWide we can certainly issue permits there's no cost for that um and

[48:02] we will certainly work with Community to do so um and that's a community type

[48:07] decision what what constitutes Behavior that's that's to the point that hey we

[48:13] need to do something different um you know some communities try to think that

[48:18] they completely eradicate time from a property and while it might be a little

[48:23] easier on a Barrier Island it's it's going to be a long and continuous fight

[48:28] and that's still never going to guarantee that nobody's ever going to

[48:31] have any kind of negative interaction A Pet's not going to get attacked or or

[48:35] something is going to happen and sometimes that LS people into a false

[48:39] sense of security um again if that's the route they want take all well and good

[48:45] we we will work with you to try to do so it will tend to be very expensive but

[48:49] because you have to be constantly tra um you know some great information

[48:54] that y'all heard tonight um um and and it is it's such a good

[49:00] resource to have such such knowledge close by I'm in columia I I come and

[49:06] talk you anytime you want but you know I can't do cor control you know it's a two

[49:11] and a half hour drive and I got the lovely uh trip through Charleston and

[49:16] brush hour traffic um but you know anybody who goes

[49:20] tra you have to check the traps every day um that's why that that kind of

[49:25] service has essentially been prizz there's product companies that do that

[49:29] kind of work um and we have directories of them but you know in most cases the

[49:34] successful type programs are the ones that do exactly what you're looking at

[49:39] doing it's monitoring your problem what's going on in community are there

[49:44] exhibiting behaviors that rise to the point where hey we've got to do

[49:48] something about this and and I was really not really glad to see the the

[49:53] rgis mapping that y'all have now so y'all can now

[49:57] accurately identify where problem spots might show up and so that's really a

[50:03] kind of good thing get the community involved as well um but again the

[50:09] department will work with the community however it wants to to proceed on any of

[50:13] all this stuff and and again anybody's welcome to reach out to me the community

[50:18] obviously has and we will certainly try to work with with with cook and and

[50:24] whatever they want to do here

[50:42] if you can be heard from where you are you don't have to come up otherwise it'd

[50:47] be nice if you walk up and ask your question

[50:52] Vol probably could be heard um what do we know about the to be high

[51:02] population my question was what do we know about the interactions between

[51:07] coyote populations and VOD cat populations um I will say just

[51:13] experientially what I've seen by camera or what I've seen in person is that they

[51:18] are living together in this environment um as apex predators so we have them

[51:23] both and they're not really necessarily L affecting one another at

[51:29] all J you see you know no I would kind of

[51:34] agree with that yeah they coexist in in the same place um given the proper

[51:39] opportunity certainly they'll cred especially young um but but it's one of

[51:44] those things you will have fs and bobcats in the same same area there will

[51:50] be some predation just like any other opportun thing might come along so does

[51:56] K have numbers considering their expensive OB studies with the

[52:04] new and coyotes I'm sure they do I don't have

[52:10] those stats available right now but I'm sure um you know they keep a lot of

[52:15] really good records good stats they've been reporting Wild by sightings for for

[52:19] several years as well I bet they have those numbers and anything that's been

[52:23] rising and they grabb the top G and were on their NE are

[52:33] they I know Jim Jordan the guy over at Kwa you know they've been doing B cap

[52:38] work for a long time actually one of the longest if not the longest ongoing GPS

[52:42] bcast studium that that I I've ever heard of uh and I think they've actually

[52:48] put some colge on Coes over the years I don't know currently what they're doing

[52:53] as far as that their big concerned right now is renti sdes

[53:04] can they swim to the so you know can they is an

[53:09] interesting question they probably could they have at least not that I've noticed

[53:15] not that DNR has noticed that would probably be one of

[53:19] those things that

[53:22] just to to do that would would take a real strong reason to go out there and

[53:29] they have a lot of resources on seabook on in the area they

[53:36] turkeys I haven't seen that you know like you say they're not great catching

[53:41] birds but given the proper opportunity certainly they they

[53:48] could they got a my camera I've seen that I a picture of it

[54:01] somewhere there you said that that U they attack people how uncommon is it I

[54:10] mean how many times has it i' I've been in my position since roughly 1999 I

[54:18] think I maybe know a five at least in South Carolina they did they kill the

[54:24] people no no there's only been done deaths since 70s since really anybody's

[54:29] been keeping track uh one was in early 1980s it was a young child in California

[54:36] and five or six years ago um a young hiker in Canada was K I was going to say

[54:42] how about the best of children just one just one one and when

[54:48] you look at that in relation to the roughly 40 something

[54:53] dogs dog related deaths to people every year it it kind of puts a little bit in

[54:59] for fact it's it's really rare fatalities

[55:03] are almost unheard of attacks are really

[55:12] rare you know any they're glorified dogs and they're very highly scent related

[55:20] just like if you walk your dog down the street if face if there's droppings on

[55:23] the ground they're probably going to smell they will do the same just like

[55:28] they a lot of things and so is it it's not a grow from 200 yards but if they go

[55:36] by it they will certainly probably

[55:41] investigate can coyotes be useful in controlling the deer population on

[55:47] seabook and and otherwise which otherwise has to be cold or sh every

[55:52] well you know there's actually been some studies here at Savannah Riv Dr John

[55:56] kilgo with the US far service um and and there's some fairly heavy Pham predation

[56:03] once pham's get till about two months of age they kind of do okay but up until

[56:08] that time they can be extremely vulnerable to chiro cred just it may

[56:13] depend on how many you have actually on the

[56:16] island I would say so far they probably not well overpopulated with be lots of

[56:23] other resources and so far BR there's been

[56:30] no coyot territorial like wolves coyote packs yes they are territorial um you

[56:38] know usually don't see two packs sharing the same area same location um that's

[56:44] part of that that B that I was talking about there kind of establishing a fence

[56:49] a little bit do we have any at this point any

[56:54] data to tell us give us a suggestion of what the actual numbers are here on sebr

[57:01] um given their range and as you said earlier you may think that there are

[57:07] many more than there actually are because of the range do we have any

[57:10] sense of numbers in this point assumptions and I think it changes

[57:15] throughout the year depending on how many PS are born depending on how many

[57:18] leave how many pass they come in um hard to say hard to say how many there are um

[57:26] I think you know I heard five you know I'm kind of of the the nature that if

[57:30] you've seen five at once that's probably the number but if there's more you know

[57:35] somebody see more than five at once then perhaps that's the

[57:39] number last year Steve mentioned that he had seven of them come through his yard

[57:44] okay so Steve saw seven last year Steve different Steve okay

[57:54] yeah a lot of we don't have specific

[58:03] information Nest Den something Den

[58:10] yes it can look different depending on the environment um it can be you know

[58:14] located in the maritime Forest it can be in kind of against the Doom um what you

[58:20] say J well I know uh Jim Jordan one of the first ones they found on K I think

[58:27] was where a tree had fallen over and the root ball had come up and they were kind

[58:31] of tucked up under that um yeah and this kind of thing it may

[58:36] just be just a Brushy a it may be salt P piled up um you know another places they

[58:42] may have actual Den something the Fox May dug up or maybe inside of a bank or

[58:48] could be in a rock pile or brush pile somewhere D we found the den in the

[58:53] dunes I haven't seen any dens here brush something

[59:01] the Christophers have not not found one they be on Conservancy

[59:09] box they definitely pass through they utilize um roads and Open Spaces just

[59:15] like you know a lot of other animals do so yeah they could pass through a lot

[59:20] they've been seen on the roads of of C Island Road quite a bit um they been

[59:25] seen on golf courses L right outside the lake housee

[59:31] yeah I mean from that reporting screen that was up there minut ago people have

[59:35] rep them pretty much everywhere on soing through our

[59:40] backyard

[59:47] back do we have Fox on the islands well I have not seen any boxes since I've

[59:54] been here actually I know they can I used to have a lot of red boxes um

[59:59] supposedly have like have or have had gr boxes as well right now I'm not sure if

[1:00:06] we do or

[1:00:10] not I'm not seen them on the cameras yet the trail

[1:00:24] cameras for

Town of Seabrook Island Coyote Meeting - 3/11/2025

Transcript