Update March 29, 2008. Outrage: Captive Coyote Permit denied; wild eastern coyote update. Update April 12: Still no permits - the status quo clones have won.
Captive Coyote Permit Denied
As I somewhat expected, the permit for the captive coyote study was denied (see attached letter here ). This is very frustrating for me for 4 reasons:
1. I was purposely planning on raising only 2-3 coyotes (instead of 5) for the exact reason of the intra-litter aggression that is mentioned in the letter (see link above). The problem with the first captive litter that I raised was that there were too many (5) in a small area and I admit that. Two (or 3) pups would be much more manageable for long-term management.
2. I was not in direct violation of the first permit and never intended to. When I got the first litter of pups from Falmouth, I raised them at my home for the first month until they were big enough for the zoo to take them which was when they were 8 weeks of age. Anyone who has raised dogs knows how tiny 8 week old puppies area. I was simply raising them so they would be big enough to be housed at the zoo. I was never attempting to directly violate MDFW’s permit in any way.
3. The letter indicates that an established facility is where MDFW wants the captive coyote study to take place. However, there are no facilities near me on Cape Cod, the site of our long-term field research. Most states, however, allow private individuals to have wildlife as pets. I practically raised the first litter of 5 coyotes for the Stone Zoo, I worked at the Bronx Zoo as a wild animal keeper for 7 months, and I received my M.S. and Ph.D. degrees dedicating to studying these animals. With my background and experience I am 100% confident that I would properly care for them. Plus, I am precisely planning on raising them on my 1.38 acre facility because of the long-term stability that this site provides. I live there and would be able to tend for them everyday. Additionally, we work with a local, established veterinarian clinic, the Hyannis Animal Hospital, who has officially endorsed this study.
4. My team has produced the benchmark study of captive coyote behavior based on raising the first litter of coyotes (see paper on ethogram here ). It is well known that captive studies are subjected to low sample sizes. However, that didn’t prevent the paper above (and others in review) from getting published. I don't quite understand where the message of obtaining road-killed coyotes and hunter-shot coyotes comes from; while I appreciate the ability to obtain samples (tissue and body weights) that has nothing to do with the behavioral component of the captive study.
I am just amazed how difficult it is to do research here in Massachusetts. I know that Massachusetts has strict laws, but I have the background to do this study and I am 100% confident that this study can be executed properly. Essentially, my planned captive study is never going to happen as MDFW indicates, unless I move my study site for wild coyotes to an established facility that already has captive animals. Of course, this is unrealistic as I have a 10-year history with our wild coyote research here on Cape Cod.
I am currently deciding if I should seek other venues to push this captive coyote study through. There is no reason that someone with my background can't conduct this study effectively. However, if I don't get permits by around Friday April 4, 2008 it will likely be too late as pups will be born and will be too big to socialize them to humans (wild canids have to be under 3 weeks of age).
Update April 12: Still no permits - the status quo clones have won for now.
Being a wildlife researcher, specifically one that studies a controversial species like the eastern coyote is very frustrating. Since the March 28 posting I have gone to the Governor and the Executive Offfice of Environmental Affairs to request that I get a permit to study 2-3 eastern coyotes in captivity. However, as of this writing I have not heard back from them and doubt I will get the permits. And, assuming I don't get permits within the next couple of days, it will be too late to do the study this year since pups will be too big to take out of the wild (needs to happen before they are 3 weeks of age). It is so angering that I can't do this study, to ultimately help the species, yet I am sure many litters throughout our state will be found and destroyed this spring for various reasons (at least 2-3 coyotes certainly will be). Yet, apparently I am not qualified enough to do this study.
I will never, ever, get over the fact that an agency can make it so difficult for a Ph.D.-level researcher to accomplish his/her goals yet they let anyone (for a bleaping $30) go buy a hunting license and destroy unlimited numbers of these creatures. Wayne MacCullum, Director of Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, and others from his agency, defends coyote hunting in Massachusetts by saying that other states treat coyotes as a pest and at least we (Massachusetts) treats them as a valuable furbearer so people can enjoy their beautiful pelts. He also says that they have intrinsic value as well, yet offers no place in Massachusetts where they aren't subject to lethal control for half of the year.
What he doesn't tell you is that Massachusetts effectively allows a legal, 5 month unlimited slaughter on this species. Literally, anyone that damn-well pleases can shoot 100, 200, or more, if they are so "lucky" enough. They can use bait to draw them in and dogs to chase them. Massachusetts now allows coyote hunting during deer shotgun season as well. There are 40,000 deer hunters in the state. Lets say that 10% of them are lucky enough to kill a coyote while they are deer hunting. Those 4,000 hunters would kill what I estimate the eastern coyote population to be in Massachusetts (I guess 3,000 to 5,000 and 5,000 eastern coyotes in a state the size of Massachusetts would be a lot of coyotes) meaning that they could theoretically kill every single coyote in the state. Now, coyotes are difficult to hunt and would never go "extinct" like my theoretical example illustrates but it does illustrate the agencies point of view of catering to hunters. They offer no bag limits to control killing by individual people. However, a person that leaves their pet dog in the car for too long can get a ticket for animal cruelty (of course, I am making a point at the disparity of animal protection laws between captive and wild animals and am not advocating leaving dogs in cars).
None of these statistics allows the wildlife watcher to enjoy seeing coyotes unless a hunter in your area doesn't kill a coyote(s) living there. Also, to my dismay Massachusetts has the most liberal deer season since colonial times. A hunter on Cape Cod is almost guaranteed to get a doe tag and thus can legally kill a doe, fawn, or buck during hunting season. However, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife has never done a deer census on the Cape and would likely find a much, much lower amount of deer than they think lives here. So, low in fact (and I have mentioned this before), that it is very notable when I see deer during my research travels and there are many places in the town of Barnstable where locals have never observed a deer. As a wildlife watcher (and my activities, such as buying gas and food, pump money into the economy on a year-round basis) I want areas where I can observe deer and other wildlife in abunance and not worry about them getting shot each fall. Massachusetts doesn't have one of these such areas (see my request for this to happen).
For the record I recently sent this letter to the MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MDFW):
"I am just amazed how difficult it is to do research here in Massachusetts. I know that Massachusetts has strict laws, but I have the background to do this study and I am 100% confident that this study can be executed properly. Essentially, my planned captive study is never going to happen as MDFW indicates, unless I move my study site for wild coyotes to an established facility that already has captive animals. Of course, this is unrealistic as I have a 10-year history with our wild coyote research here on Cape Cod.
"I have mostly been quiet about this last point as I am working under Eric (Strauss) for the wild coyote component but I must explain my frustration with how MDFW has never used any of our data in MDFW's publications of coyotes. We have literally published more than any other research team on eastern coyotes and I think you understand that we have a laughable amount of funding to go with our study which makes that task even more daunting. However, most of the information that you provide on coyotes comes from other studies and none of our work is quoted directly. Our numerous publications (http://easterncoyoteresearch.com/Publications.html), which are publicly available on my webpage, describe movement and activity patterns, denning and rendezvous site use, home range and territory sizes of coyotes, coyote body sizes throughout North America, coyote sociality, and captive coyote behavior, among others, all right here in Massachusetts. Yet I never read any of these papers on MDFW's descriptions of coyotes and most of MDFW data isn't supported by our research - namely, 10,000 coyotes in Massachusetts would be 2-3 times higher than what published peer-reviewed papers indicate for eastern coyotes (although I think that coyotes are now more numerous in our study area, mainly because of slightly smaller territory sizes, than when we published the paper on home range and territory sizes). While we might have competing agendas as I don't think that advocating hunting a social carnivore like coyotes is practical or ethically/morally sound, that shouldn't deny the inclusion of these peer reviewed studies into MDFW's description of coyotes. Finally, many fish and game departments advocate hunting to keep animals scared of humans, and Wayne MacCullum notes that in the 2008 hunting abstracts for coyotes, but there is no data to indicate that that is effective in preventing interactions with coyotes. In fact, some researchers have found sport hunting on a carnivore to be counterproductive with mountain lions as it opens up territories for sub-adult males which are less experienced (and often less wary) than the adult males that were killed. Now I am not sure if that is the same for coyotes but I do know (and I know MDFW discusses this on your webpage) that providing negative experiences for individual coyotes teaches them to be wary around humans while keeping them alive - killing them, of course, never gives them the opportunity to learn to avoid people and think of them in a negative away.
"In short, I have to admit that I don't agree with MDFW's assessment of denying me permits to raise 2 or 3 captive coyotes. I don't feel like your letter should provide finality to this potential project. There is no reason that someone with my background can't conduct this study effectively in the long-term and I would hope that MDFW would try and work with me in conducting this study rather than make it so difficult.
"I also don't send this letter in jest to anger staff from MDFW, but when reasonable (in my opinion) requests are not granted, I need to respond in some way."
