Interview Analysis

            When I started my research on coyotes I thought the most challenging part would be conducting my interviews. My past experience with interviewing for research involved difficulty finding people to actually interview. Even with the aid of using the Internet I also had a tough time deciding who would be a good person to interview and what questions to ask.

            I got my hopes up when at the beginning of this semester Professor Wolff stated that we would be using Twitter to aid us in finding experts on our topics. I had never used Twitter before and was a little skeptical because I had heard that Twitter was basically frequent status updates people posted, but Professor Wolff seemed to believe that this was a research tool we could utilize. Unfortunately, while some people had some luck having people find them on Twitter, I did not. We did go over in class how to search for people using TweepSearch, but my results for coyotes got mostly people with “Willy E. Coyote” in their profile.

            I soon turned to Google and managed to find two organizations “Project Coyote” and “Coyote Hunter” that I contacted to see if I could interview anyone. For Coyote Hunter I attempted to become a member of their forums to arrange an interview with one of their hunter members, but my account was never activated. Project Coyote did get back to me and I managed use email to interview Geri Vestein who dealt with the Northeastern area.

            Since I needed four interviews for this class, I also decided to interview a neighbor of mine that I had heard killed a coyote in Cumberland County and Steve Eisenhauer, a member of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust. Mr. Eisenhauer got back to me right away and actually was my first interview. However, when he commented about how he had to explain to hunters that they can’t shoot coyotes. This comment caused me to rethink interviewing my neighbor, since I didn’t want to do anything that could get him in trouble.

            Without having my account activated for Coyote Hunter and feeling unsure about interviewing my neighbor, I had to find two other people to interview. I ended up turning to two of my friends, who like me have lived in Cedarville for most of their lives. I picked Saul and Bruce for two reasons. One I wanted their interviews to help bring back a more local feel to my research because my other two interviews focused on the entire state of New Jersey. The second reason was that Bruce is a hunter and Saul worked on a farm for a number of years so I thought the two of them could give me some unique perspectives.

            These last two interviews went better than I expected. I kept feeling like I was taking an easy way out by interviewing my two friends, but I actually gained a lot from interviewing them. While my two other interviewees gave me facts that I can definitely use, my face-to-face interview with both of my friends gave me not only more personal information, but also helped me learn about some different viewpoints. Saul stated that he wouldn’t go out of his way to kill a coyote, but wouldn’t hesitate to shoot one if it was on his property which could reflect his protectiveness over his newborn son. Saul also stated that the farm he worked for never had any problems with coyotes (most likely this is due to the farm he worked on being an agricultural farm) but that coyotes would actually help the farm with its rodent problems. Bruce had seen a coyote killed by a car locally and stated that he had heard people could get a license to hunt them in New Jersey, something I will have to research further. Bruce went on to say that he believed coyotes were keeping down the deer population and that he wouldn’t mind hunting a coyote (from the way he talked it seemed as if this would be some sort of challenge for him to tackle). While getting more personal interviews definitely will add to my final piece, I do find having to transfer what I wrote down to the computer a bit more tedious then just coping and pasting an email which is why my last two interviews haven’t made it to my blog as of now.

            I do believe that all of my interview have provided useful information and hope to include parts of all four into my final piece.

Duck Story

In class earlier this week we talked about how writing is a social activity. A writer’s work is not completely theirs since they have been influenced by other people in many different ways. Our assignment (though this could just be a joke and I just didn’t realize it) was to write a story about a duck and then talk about how different people helped enable us to create that story.

My dad one time volunteered me to help out at an Easter event years ago. To help I had to dress up as a duck and have kids sit on my lap and take pictures. This even took place in the park at Pennsville. While the event only took around four hours, I believe I managed to hit around twenty kids with the beak of my costume. This was not intentional; it happened a lot when I was trying to make sure the kid was situated on my lap. I had a lot of difficulty adjusting to my face being an extra foot longer than normal. At the end of the event I went behind a truck to take my costume off so that I was out of the eyes of the kids. Unfortunately, some kids had decided to follow the giant duck and saw the duck take his head off. I realized this when I heard crying and turned to see some kids running away.

While I was the one to experience this event as a giant duck, the story would not exist if it wasn’t for others. For starter, my dad was the one that volunteered me for this event. I actually had a school event I wanted to attend and couldn’t due to this event. Also, the children that attended the event as well as the people who organized the event made the experience of dressing up as a duck possible. Without them I would be writing a completely different duck story. The most recent influence on this story is my class. If it wasn’t for my classmates and professor, I wouldn’t even be writing this story. Therefore while I am technically alone while writing this, in no way is my creation of this story a solitary action.

Interview from Project Coyote

I asked Geri Vestein from Project Coyote these five questions.

1. Do you know if there a coyote population in Cumberland County?

 2. If there is a coyote population in Cumberland County, how large is it?  

 3. Where are coyotes most densely populated in New Jersey? 

 4. Some of my research indicates that the coyotes in New Jersey might be wolf hybrids. Can you shed any light on this issue?

 5. I’ve noticed on your website that Project Coyote promotes coexistence between coyotes and humans. What have your actions been like in New Jersey?

In her reply she said she felt that she might not be able to give me all the information I asked for, but her information seems to help answer most of my questions and is extremly useful. Here is the information she provided.

“I will tell you that you can count on the fact that coyotes are present throughout New Jersey, as they are throughout the US. They are filling empty niches left empty by the loss of the wolf.

 

When it comes to numbers and populations, there has been next to no research in most places in the country regarding coyotes populations; how they are affecting the ecosystems as a top predator; and how man’s relentless killing of the socially complex species is affecting not only them in a very negative way, but how it is affecting our relationship with them. Most research in this country has been directed to coyotes and predator control. However, the research of Dr. Gehrt in Chicago sheds a great deal of light on coyote populations, how they coexist with humans, and their ecology in an urban environment. Very good work.

 

I would be careful to use the word, “wolf hybrid” when it comes to coyotes. All coyotes in the East who possess wolf genes continue to be coyotes in behavior and appearance. Dr Kayes who has just completed research regarding coyote genetics in the East would confirm this as well.  When the first pioneering coyotes started heading East, they took two different routes: the northern through Canada, and the southern through Indiana and Ohio. Those that took the northern route met up with the Eastern Canadian wolves , who have suffered  a great deal of persecution, and as a result, their social lives are in Chaos.  That is why these wolves mated with the pioneeering coyotes.  Otherwise, these wolves would have killed these coyotes.  Then from there, the coyotes headed to Northern New England.  So many of our coyotes here in in Northern New England possess wolf genes.

 

I would expect that most of the coyotes in New Jersey are the descendents of those coyotes who took the southern route and did not mate with wolves.  However, wild carnivores disperse.  So some of the coyotes from the north may be dispersing into the mid- Atlantic states.  However, no research that I know of has been done on coyote genetics in New Jersey, so we really don’t know.

 

And finally, Project Coyote is very young network of Conservation biologists and Ecologists. Though very experienced scientists are a part of this network, it has only been in existence for over a year.  I myself  live and work in Maine, however there are many states where none of us are present. Nonetheless, many citizens of the United States contact us and want to assist us in teaching coexistence skills and championing laws to protect this species.  So we have just begun.

 

There is great need for our generation to learn coexistence skills when living with carnivores.  Either we learn these skills, or we continue to hand down to our children what our ancestors have done for the last 400 year…that is, kill. I will say as a biologist that our native wild dog deserves the protection by law from human abuse. When laws are not in place to protect our wildlife, as one scientist has stated,”The beastiality of man expresses itslf.”"

Outline of my Object Anaylsis on Coyotes

 

In class last week we spent some time talking about our object analysis projects, where we take a picture or pictures of an object and discuss different parts of them in detail. While what we talk about has to come from the object, it doesn’t have to be directly in the picture. For example, one could have a picture of a maple tree, and use it to talk about the history of maple syrup. For our project, our objects had to relate to our research topic. I chose a coyote for my object (I know that’s not terribly creative).

I will be using this picture for three things. I am focusing on the collar to talk about the ways researchers track coyotes. I will use the one exposed leg to talk about the traps trappers use on coyotes. I will also be focusing on the lack of any coyote pups to talk about the reproduction cycle of coyotes.

 

I will also be using this picture of a coyote. I will focus on the coyote itself to talk about the resourcefulness of coyotes since this particular coyote is using a drink case to cool down. I will be focusing on the bottles to talk about coyote and human coexistence. By looking at the whole picture I can talk about specific cases of coyotes finding themselves in cities.

Coyote in NYC

Recently there was a coyote caught in New York City. It must have been interesting to see 30 NYPD officers chasing and surrounding a single coyote. I found it interesting that it seems the coyote will be released in a city park. I’m glad it’s not winding up in a zoo or a reserve since it seemed to value its freedom enough to evade police for so long. It seems that having the coyote released into a city park shows that animals and people can coexist next to each other.

I’m also surprise a coyote would even wind up in New York City. I figured the NYC is so busy and filled with people, that most wildlife would tend to stay away from the city limits. I’ve been to the city a few times and have only really seen pidgins and squirrels. Then again  the only city park in NYC I’ve been in is Central Park, which seems to be the most famous. Perhaps there just isn’t much wildlife in that particular park.

Interview with Steve Eisenhauer

Here is a copy of the questions I sent to Mr. Eisenhauer and his responses (which are in blue).

1. Is there a coyote population in Cumberland County?  Yes 

 2. If there is a coyote population in Cumberland County, how large is it?   I’m not sure, but sign (droppings, prints and dens are often found) and their howls are also heard frequently.  I have only seen them a few times myself in Cumberland County. 

 3. What effect do coyotes have on the ecosystem in New Jersey? 

I think they fit in well but most deer hunters don’t like them since they take down some deer (mostly fawns but they can hunt as a pack and take down mature and especially weakened or wounded deer).  One of my hunter questionnaires came back last year with the note: “Saw a coyote.  Shot it.”  So I had to call the hunter to emphasize his permit is just for hunting deer and that he had to leave the coyotes alone. I’ve heard the State does pay some trappers to trap coyotes, but I don’t agree that this needs to be done.

 4. Some of my research indicates that the coyotes in New Jersey are wolf hybrids. Can you shed any light on this issue? 

I’ve heard of that possibility but don’t know it to be true.  You should do some internet searches on this topic.  Try to use the more scientific oriented search engines (you might have to check under “free scientific research” in Google to find these search sites) but regular “Google” should work too.

Facts According to Fleck

According to Ludwik Fleck, facts are not truths. Instead facts are ideas believed to be true according to society. When I thought about that statment, it made sense and kind of reminded me of a scene in Men In Black which starts at 0:35.

Basically society at one point said it was a fact the Earth was flat, which is no longer a fact. Not to long ago Pluto was considered to be a planet. Now if you want to get technique it is a fact that Pluto is only a dwarf planet. Facts can change with new knowledge but if society considers something to be a fact, any other thought is usually considered to be wrong. Tom Lee Jones’ character of Agent K points out “A person is smart, people are dumb.” A person attempting  to state something that is true would be ignored if it went against what society believes to be true.

Coyotes in my backyard

Two nights ago I heard a strange barking outside of my house around 12:30. I was in bed at the time and thought the barking did not sound like any dog I’ve ever heard. Unfortantly, I was tired at the time and did not think to look out my windows and investigage the strange sounds. When I talked to my mom the next morning she said she thought she heard some coyotes as well.

Here is a video to give you an idea of what coyotes sound like.

Interview Scheduel

For my research I will be interviewing at least four people. Some things I hope to learn through my interviews are what the coyote population is like in New Jersey and also why do people hunt coyotes since so far I have not found much information on either in my research. Here is a tentative outline for my interviews.

I just recently sent an email to Project Coyote which is a website about promoting coexistence between humans and coyotes. I hope to learn more about the New Jersey coyote population from them and if the coyote population in New Jersey consists of wolf-hybrids. While I don’t know if I will get an interview with them yet, the site seems to be composed of people who are passionate about their goal. You can also follow Project Coyote on Twitter. They seem to update often.

Another site I’m hoping to find someone to interview on is Coyote Hunter. This site is all about hunting coyotes and has a forum where people can go to compare advice and tell their coyote hunting stories. I am working on becoming a member of this forum so I can see if any hunter would be willing to be interviewed. I am hoping to learn why people hunt coyotes and what some of the regulations are.

One person I hope to interview is Steve Eisenhauer who is a member of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust. Since he is local to New Jersey I want to ask him about where coyotes are more densely populated in the state and if there is a coyote population in Cumberland County. I’ve met him in the past while on school trips in Myron. L. Powell Elementary School and he seems like he knows a lot about my local area’s habitats. I haven’t contacted him yet but I do have his email address and will be contacting him soon.

The other person I have in mind to interview is one of my neighbors who recently shot and killed a coyote while hunting. He was one of the people who told my mom not to leave our dog outside at night because there were coyotes in the area that could get him. I want to ask him about his experience and find out where he was when he came across the coyote. I haven’t talked to him yet about doing an interview but will be in the near future.

This scheduel will be updated when I have more details about how my interviews will be conducted.

Coyotes might be part wolf.

It seems like I keep finding more articles that suggest that coytoes around the PA tri-state area are part wolf. This article is quite recent and talks about how most coyotes in the area seem to be wolf-hybrids. This idea is similar to New Jersey’s fish and wildlife’s divisions speculations as well.

The article also mentions that a smaller group of pure coyotes were also found in the area. I think its interesting that there may be two kinds of coyotes in New Jersey.