STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Coyote?
Wolf?
Someone’s wandering pet?
The answer could be crucial for all of Staten Island.
There’s a video making the rounds showing some kind of animal dragging a deer carcass off the road. The footage looks to have been shot in Travis, perhaps on the fringes of Freshkills Park.
The nighttime video, shot from inside an idling car, shows the hungry carnivore biting into and then dragging the dead deer into some brush by the side of the road. A large stain and blood trail is left behind. It’s a Staten Island version of wildlife footage from the Serengeti or some other far-flung place where natural selection rules.
There’s been online debate over just what kind of creature we’re looking at here. It could be a coyote. Some folks say it’s a wolf. Others think it’s a neighborhood canine, one that’s been seen out and about in the area before.
I’m no expert, but I’m betting on coyote. There are Eastern coyotes throughout New York state, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation website.
And the presence of coyotes on Staten Island would hardly be a surprise, given the borough’s deer population. In fact, it would be more surprising to not have coyotes here. And wolves, for that matter.
The deer have been able to flourish for years here for a number of reasons. There’s plenty of woodland on Staten Island for them the live and breed and hide in. There’s plenty of foliage for them to eat, including what grows in the wild as well as what can be foraged from the gardens in people’s backyards.
But a big thing working in the deers’ favor all these years has been the lack of predators. Hunting is illegal in the five boroughs, so the deer haven’t had to worry about being shot by any humans. And non-human predators, the deers’ fellow members of the wild kingdom, have generally been lacking here as well.
Until now, perhaps.
Coyotes will kill deer. So will wolves. Animals have good instincts for survival. They’ll figure out where the food is. Maybe that’s what the Travis video is showing us. Maybe word is out that the pickings are good here.
How could these predators have gotten here? Likely the same way that some of the deer did: Via water. Coyotes can swim. So can wolves. The Arthur Kill isn’t all that wide.
So, bravo to the coyote or wolf or whatever it was that dragged that deer off the road in Travis. That’s the wonder of nature, baby. That animal provided a vital service.
Of course, there is a downside to all this. Because coyotes won’t stop at killing deer. They will also attack small dogs and cats, including pets found in fenced-in yards. And, true to their cartoon image, they are wily, doing their damage mostly at night, and generally avoiding humans.
But coyotes will also attack people. Two people were attacked by a coyote on a campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., earlier this month. The animal was captured and euthanized, according to NJ.com.
It’s going to be a problem for the city if Staten Island is indeed becoming a new home for these predators.
For one thing, it would indicate that the deer vasectomy program that the city has been touting the last few years hasn’t been working quite as well as advertised. If the deer population was truly being reduced in significant numbers, predators wouldn’t be lured here.
And the city will also have to deal with coyote attacks on pets and other animals, and possibly on humans. It will add a whole new urgency to the question of our deer population. There will be calls to more quickly and efficiently eliminate the deer in order to discourage coyotes and wolves, as well as calls to forthrightly eliminate the predators.
That video shot in Travis could be the shape of things to come.
Source: Coyotes, wolves will solve deer problem if city can’t (opinion) – silive.com