Nassau County residents have reported a handful of coyote sightings in the last few weeks, prompting officials to release some safety guidance. But environmentalists say this is nothing to fear — it's actually a great sign of a healthy ecosystem. To learn more, WSHU’s Sabrina Garone spoke with naturalist and director of the South Fork Natural History Museum, Frank Quevedo.
WSHU: I'm sure our Connecticut listeners will hear this and think, 'What's the big deal? We see coyotes all the time,' but could you explain why it's so surprising for Long Islanders to spot these animals?
FQ: This is a new species that's entered a particular area in the last few years. We've noticed an expansion of coyotes from either the Bronx or Connecticut to the East End of Long Island. We're excited because there was a void of predators that existed here for many, many years. When the English settlers came in the 1600s, they pretty much exterminated the top predators that were once here on Long Island, such as bears, wolves, bobcats and mountain lions. Now that they are not here anymore — I call it an imbalance in the ecosystem. There's a lot more deer around, small game animals that are nuisances for a lot of people. So when coyotes were first seen here on eastern Long Island, it was a very welcoming sight for naturalists such as myself because we have a natural expansion of an animal that's not being brought here by humans to restore habitat. They are going to establish themselves at some point and create better biodiversity and a much healthier ecosystem here on Long Island.
WSHU: That's great to hear they're on the East End as well. I wasn't sure if this was just reserved for Nassau County, but they're expanding across all of Long Island at this point.
FQ: They're mostly working their way through Nassau County, then working their way east. Most of the sightings that are occurring are in Queens and Nassau County, at the moment. There have been some sightings on Fire Island in Southold, and I know there's a breeding pair on Fishers Island. Luckily, because we're part of the Long Island Mammal Survey with Seatuck Environmental Association, we have some trail cameras out that help monitor different mammals. Late October, around one o'clock in the morning, we captured an eastern coyote passing through our trail cam right behind the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. They are not breeding yet on the East End, but just to have one walking on the grounds where we work every day was pretty exciting for us!
WSHU: This might sound like a silly question — how are they getting out there? Like Fire Island — are they swimming?
FQ: Well, they are good swimmers! Hearing from scientists who are actually studying the pathways of coyotes coming to Long Island, we believe they're either swimming from Connecticut, from Fishers Island to the North and South Fork, or taking the corridor of the Long Island Railroad. From past experiences of people in the Bronx or Nassau County, they find these coyotes in corridors where there are railways and roads. There have even been sightings in Mattituck, so those most likely swam over from Fishers Island or Connecticut.
WSHU: Why do you think that is the case? What is it about Long Island that attracts them this way or compels a coyote to swim across Long Island Sound?
FQ: These coyotes had evolved to live in the prairies of the mid-west. When English settlers came, they took down a lot of trees and utilized their habitat for farming expansion, so there was a major movement of coyotes eastward about 150 years ago. They worked their way through Canada, down the Adirondacks, down the Hudson Valley — we documented the first coyotes in Westchester, I believe, in the 1970s — and then in New York City. The first coyote on Long Island was documented in 2009 in Queens, and then in 2013, the first was seen on the East End of Long Island in Bridgehampton on a farm field. So, this is a natural expansion. Long Island is the only place in the continental United States where they haven't inhabited yet. But we're seeing it. It's going to happen. It's the new norm that people are going to have to coexist with coyotes once they establish themselves here. This is a welcoming sight for another predator to come in and control the biodiversity, which is so necessary to keep Long Island and the natural environment thriving and healthy.
WSHU: And for anyone who hasn't spotted one in person, how do you know you're looking at a coyote and not somebody's stray pet?
FQ: It's difficult. It could be very easily mistaken for a red fox or a large dog. These eastern coyotes are anywhere from 25 to 40 pounds. They look like dogs, but they do have certain field marks. Their tails, for instance, are always directed downward, unlike a dog that's usually in an upward direction. That's a pretty good indication that it's an eastern coyote.
