[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