A dead coyote was found washed ashore early this week on Lambert's Cove Beach, the second coyote to wash up in that location this year. An Island naturalist said the coyote likely came from Naushon, which hosts a large population of coyotes, and drowned.
Alison Oestericher and her Border collie Sen spend time each day walking along Vineyard beaches, with Ms. Oestericher taking in the scenery and Sen doing his best to herd the waves that lap the shore. They have seen countless strange things washed up on the beach, including one of Ms. Oestericher’s boots that she’d lost some months before.
On Monday afternoon, the pair were out walking on Lambert’s Cove Beach when they added another sighting to the list: a dead coyote that had washed ashore.
Ms. Oestericher was shocked to see the animal, although she wasn’t sure what it was. Sen jumped over it, uninterested. Ms. Oestericher called to a couple walking nearby, who said it was a coyote.
West Tisbury assistant animal control officer Allen Healy was called, as were state wildlife officials. Ms. Oestericher posted a photograph of the coyote to her Facebook account, and the image made its way back to Luanne Johnson and Liz Baldwin of Biodiversity Works.
“In the realm of dead things you find on the beach, this is unusual,” Ms. Johnson said on Tuesday. She and Ms. Baldwin brought the coyote to naturalist Gus Ben David’s after taking it off the beach and recording the finding with a database. State laws dictate protocol for handling furbearing animals.
“You can’t just go out and grab a coyote,” Ms. Johnson said.
BiodiversityWorks also has a database that is Island-specific, to note when coyotes are found on the Vineyard. This coyote is the second to wash up on Lambert’s Cove Beach in the past year. In March, a female coyote was found by Ebba Hierta and Chuck Hodgkinson.
“There are three that we know officially that have been washed up,” Mr. Ben David said.
Adaptable and elusive, coyotes live in every part of Massachusetts except for Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. They established a population on Cape Cod in the early 2000s, but have been living on the Elizabeth Islands since the 1980s. Throughout the years, occasional sightings of coyotes have been reported on the Vineyard but only one has been confirmed with photo evidence, Mr. Ben David said. That was in 2009, when Ms. Baldwin photographed a coyote on the north shore.
“When you hear of a coyote sighting, you don’t take them with a grain of salt, but it’s like a rare bird sighting,” Mr. Ben David said. “You ask a lot of questions.”
A few years ago, he said, a lone coyote was spotted in West Tisbury, near the Granary Gallery. Mr. Ben David said that he usually expects calls to come in at this time of year, during hunting season when there are more people out in the woods and likely to notice an unusual animal. But he has had no coyote reports so far.
“I don’t believe right now that we have any on the Vineyard,” Mr. Ben David said.
The coyote found on Lambert’s Cove had a pale red-orange coat of thick fur, tinged with shades of gray and brown. Its tail was bushy, with a noticeable black tip. The tail and tail markings are usually a good way to identify whether or not an animal is a coyote, Ms. Johnson said.
“The tail, the shape of the head, the coloring,” she said.
Mr. Ben David said that another giveaway was its snout. “A very narrow snout,” he said, “It’s different from a [dog], which is more rounded.”
Mr. Ben David said he was 95 per cent sure the animal died because of drowning. Hypothermia was a possibility, he said, but “a dog can be in the water a long time, and this one’s well-insulated. We never know for sure.”
Ms. Johnson said that Tom French, the assistant director of the natural heritage and endangered species division at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, had reached the same conclusion after she reported the coyote to him. In an email to Ms. Johnson, Mr. French noted that the Elizabeth Islands are “loaded with coyotes.”
“Making the swim from Nashawena to Cuttyhunk with the out-going tide pouring south through the channel would push them right to the Vineyard,” Mr. French wrote.
“You can imagine they’re swimming between the islands, they get sucked out into the currents,” Ms. Johnson said. And mating season is about to begin, so animals are on the move. “They don’t really know about currents, just like people,” Ms. Johnson said.
Mr. Ben David said it was very likely the animal had come from Naushon, which is directly across Vineyard Sound from Lambert’s Cove Beach. Naushon hosts a relatively large population of coyotes. At one point there were as many as 25, Mr. Ben David said. But in all his years visiting the island, he added, he had never seen a coyote with such a striking red color. A person looking at it from a distance might think it was a fox.
“The sides are usually darker,” Ms. Johnson said. “Coyotes do have a wide range of colors.” She said that the coyote was in its prime. “This isn’t some young, sub-adult male.”
Mr. Ben David estimated that the coyote had easily weighed more than 40 pounds before it had died. Male coyotes typically weigh between 34 and 47 pounds, according to the state department of fisheries and wildlife.
“We had a hard time getting it off the beach,” Ms. Johnson said. She said she had reached out to the state to see if someone might want to create a taxidermed mount for educational purposes. Its pelt was in pristine condition as well, and could be tanned.
“Everything’s perfect on it,” Mr. Ben David said.
“You basically try to make the best of it,” Ms. Johnson said.
Comments
Wow! I thought I was
Shocked and Concerned EdgartownWow! I thought I was imagining things when I walked out of my door on Dodgers Hole Road at approximately 1:15 am a few weeks ago. I was taking my dog out for a quick pee. As I stepped off the pouch and started to walk down towards the driveway I saw the rear-end of tan animal walking in the street. Large bushes line the border of my property at the street and the animal was walking north and disappeared behind these bushes. I thought it was my neighbor walking his dog. So, I paused to allow him to continue walking walking down the street and move ahead of me, so my dog wouldn't become distracted and would remain focused on "the business at hand". After a few seconds, I noticed that nothing was clearing the bushes. Whatever it was it was not continuing down the street. I slowly backed up and returned to the house with my dog for my flashlight/torch. I normally have it with me because the porch light only illuminates a portion of the front yard and not the street, but I was planning on being quick so I had omitted it. It only took me a few seconds to retrieve it and I began to shine the light in a sweeping fashion towards the direction of the bushes, which is approximately 45 yards away from where I was standing. Considering, my dog is older; I wasn't too surprise that he had not seen the figure and initially had no idea what was going on. But, he was on alert now. Having a horse-shoe drive I continued down the right-side portion. I had spotted the tail-end of the animal at the end of the left-side of the driveway moving towards the right, so I proceeded with caution making sounds along the way while scanning the area with the torch. At the same time, I hoping that my dog would do "his thing" as quickly as possible. This is when I began to rationalize the situation - maybe it was a deer... but I hadn't heard the notable sound of huffs on the pavement. OK... maybe it was a dog.. OK maybe a small deer that ran into the empty wooded lot across the street. But, why didn't I hear it making any noise or sounds as it ran through the woods? I didn't hear any sticks breaking or leaves on the ground being disrupted. Nothing! OK... maybe I was mistaken. It is late at night and I was a bit tired, perhaps it my eyes adjusting to the darkness. No... I know I was saw something and it was moving. So, where the hell did IT go? Maybe a dog? Had to be a dog!-
By now, I was making my way back up the driveway towards the house. It's important to note; next to my house, there is another wooded empty lot which runs adjacent to the left-side portion of the driveway. It has a wire fence running along the border of the two properties. As, I approach the house, I begin to hear the slight sounds of brush and debris being moved in the woods in front of me; from the empty lot. As I continue moving forward, I suddenly hear this sound from in front of me. A sound that I've never heard before in my life. A sound like something from the movie "The Exorcist". It was like a growl that morphed into some bizarre cry/scream/skeech with a kind of shrieky shrill bellow. It almost most didn't sound real. It was so strange. But, it was definitely not human. And, it extremely close and directly in front of me and coming from the wooden lot.
The luxury of being anonymous-I can tell you that I was a bit frighten. My dog paused along with me. I immediately shined the torch in that the direction and my dog began to bark, while we both made an aggressive movement towards the fence line. It was fight or flight, so "it was on". I began yelling some "choice expletives"-the usually motherly F-bombs"- and grabbed a few stones from the ground and threw them in the direction of the sound. My torch comes equipped with emergency lights and a siren; so, I literally let all the bells and whistles loose at that moment. I mean it was "Def-con 4", baby - so we let it rip. I gave full slack-release to the dog leash to allow the "old dog" to forge forward, while we displayed a "war-face/stance" that rioters would be proud of.
Needless to say, the sound of retreat soon followed from the woods. Leaving me and my dog feeling a bit like a James Bond Martini-"shaken... but not stirred". OK, a little stirred. Regardless, I was extremely puzzled. It was that sound the resonated, along with the imagine of the hindquarters I saw in the dark. I immediately went to my phone. Not to make a call, but to Google deer sounds and coyote sounds. And, the one sounds that was similar... a coyote. I did a little "wiki-research" and learned about the appearance (the downward nature of the tail vs a curled upward of a dog), their "skat",their hunting habit, etc. I am still uneasy about walking early morning/late night. Though it seem far-fetched; the eventuality of coyote on MV is real. I am waiting for an article on how to identify them and proper steps to take.
We need some on the island.
Paulli D EdgartownWe need some on the island. Too many rabbits,skunks and deer. A good predator can clean up the place.
Don't forget the turkeys
Stephen Leawood ksDon't forget the turkeys
Except they will kill our
PhilipExcept they will kill our cats, chickens and other (pet) animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch
HC Ryndhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euG7R11aXq0
I live in NH but spend a lot
Jo Eldredge NHI live in NH but spend a lot of time on MV. Coyotes are common here, and I have to tell you that we heard Coyotes out by the golf course in VH two years ago. No other sound like it, and there were a few of them talking to each other. They may be elusive, but there are definately coyotes on MV.
Back in September while
BD WTBack in September while traveling Beach Road and going over the bridge by Eastville beach a coyote passed from my left to my right towards the beach facing south in the lagoon. I was moving slowly, and I missed it by feet, but it was dead on in my headlights. Same markings, had the weight and gait of one. I had previously doubted there were any on island until that night.
I lived on cape cod for a
Michael Robertson C.TI lived on cape cod for a while and met a lot of people and I have heard stories of people seeing deer swimming from cape cod to the islands now I ddont know how true they are but I was told this and had no reason to doubt them. so I imagine the preditor would follow its prey I watched a coyote chase my brother when we were kids in the early 00's from my uncles four houses down
As a native from western mass
Lissa WilliamsburgAs a native from western mass, you DO NoT want coyotes on the island... The pure howl of their call still gives me the creeps after 45 yrs of listening to them- they are prolific breeders... Skunks not good either, but are easier to take care of than a pack of hungry howling coyotes ( I'm talking at least 15-20 in a pack) . I see them and hear them, no animal, small human (specially vineyard not enough food for them,so small children will work for for them in the pack) dogs,cats are sAfe from these invasive dogs!
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