City of Ottawa officials encourage partnership with Coyote Watch Canada

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City of Ottawa staff are recommending spending $48,000 per year on a three-year partnership with Coyote Watch Canada that will create a “municipal canine response team” that will be called in to deal with conflicts between residents and coyotes and foxes.

The recommendation is one of 10 action plan items in a review of the city's 2013 Wildlife Strategy, which will be presented to a joint committee of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Environment and Climate Change committees on Monday.

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We'll have more details on the proposal and what it would mean for Ottawa if approved by city councillors.

What prompted the review of the City's 2013 Wildlife Strategy?

In October 2022, the City Council directed staff to review options to better manage human-coyote interactions. At the time, residents expressed concerns about the coyotes, who were not afraid of humans. One neighborhood group witnessed a small dog being taken away. On November 4, 2022, the city announced that it had humanely euthanized three “highly habituated” coyotes in a coyote control operation, outraging wildlife conservationists.

What is Coyote Watch Canada?

Founded in 2008 and federally incorporated in 2014, Coyote Watch Canada is an Ontario-based non-profit organization that promotes peaceful coexistence with wildlife, particularly coyotes, foxes and wolves, through science-based awareness, education, research and mitigation measures, said Leslie Sampson, founder and executive director of the organization.

Does the organization work with other cities?

Yes. We are in discussions with cities across Ontario, including Toronto, Guelph and St. Catharines, and we have a long-standing partnership with Niagara Falls.

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Could it have something to do with Ottawa's coyote population?

Yes. Coyote Watch Canada volunteers are deployed to respond to calls about sick or injured coyotes. In November 2022, one of our local volunteers found a coyote in McCarthy Woods with its neck in a trap. The city said the trap was unauthorized.

What would the proposed $48,000-a-year partnership cover?

The funding will go towards developing a municipal canine-control strategy. Pillars of the strategy, developed by Coyote Watch Canada, include surveillance, education, prevention and enforcement. It also includes the creation of a “meticulously” trained volunteer canine-control team that will be convened to investigate and make recommendations to mitigate human-coyote conflicts, Sampson said.

Enforcement? What can be enforced to deter coyotes?

Sampson said cities could also ban the feeding of wildlife, which encourages coyotes to become habituated, and require dogs to be leashed to prevent dog-coyote conflicts. Niagara Falls was one of the first cities in Eastern Canada to pass a bylaw banning the feeding of coyotes.

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What are some of the other recommendations in the Wildlife Strategy Review?

Other recommendations include hiring a wildlife resource specialist to lead Ottawa's wildlife response and management efforts, long-term protection of habitat, monitoring for wildlife-borne diseases and continued exploration of “alternative beaver management methods such as flow devices.”

What's the next step?

The report must go through three city committees – rural affairs, environment and housing – before being presented to the city council, which is due to happen on June 26th.

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