Island farmers were alarmed this week to learn of the possible presence of a visitor from the mainland: a coyote.
If coyotes get a foothold on the Vineyard, the results could be disastrous, for farmers, landowners and the native wild animal population on the Island.
This was the somber message from Augustus Ben David 2nd, a former director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and one of the Island’s most respected naturalists, who spoke at a gathering at the Howes House on Monday.
There is at least one coyote living on Martha’s Vineyard. Gus Ben David is 100 per cent sure of that, although he has only 97 per cent proof.
The coyote, or coyotes, have established territory on the north side of the Island, in an area covering part of Chilmark and West Tisbury.
A coyote, whose carcass was found on the North Shore last weekend, may have swum to the Island from the Elizabeth Islands.
