Urban coyotes are increasingly common across North America (White and Gehrt 2009), with large populations in most Canadian cities, including Calgary (Lukasik and Alexander 2011) and Edmonton (Murray and St. Clair 2015). Although coyotes rarely attack people, they may pursue pets, approach people, and den underneath houses, making them a potential threat to the safety of people and their pets (Poessel et al. 2013).
Many governments, including the Government of Alberta (2019) and the City of Edmonton (2018), recommend hazing as a humane way to manage bold, urban coyotes. The City of Oakville has produced an excellent video about hazing here. This technique has only recently been studied (Bonnell and Breck 2017; Breck et al. 2017; McLellan and Walker 2020; Young et al 2019). So far, there are few guidelines for implementing these approaches. The Humane Society of the United States recommends hazing by clapping hands, stomping feet, shaking noisemakers, spraying the animal with a hose, and throwing sticks or rocks in the direction of the coyote. However, low-intensity hazing may not intimidate coyotes and could even contribute to their habituation to people.
Aversive Conditioning extends the concept of hazing (Bonnell and Breck 2017) by using a deterrent or a negative stimulus to discourage undesirable behaviour over time (Breck et al. 2017) with an expectation that repeated exposure will teach animals greater wariness towards people (White and Delaup 2012). In this project, we define hazing as the act of using deterrents to immediately change a coyote’s behaviour, while Aversive Conditioning is the repeated and consistent use of deterrents to reduce the occurrence of similar behaviours in similar contexts over the long-term (Hopkins et al 2010). Our lab has studied Aversive Conditioning previously in black bears (Homstol 2011) and elk (Kloppers et al. 2005, Found and St. Clair 2016, 2017, 2019).
Many governments, including the Government of Alberta (2019) and the City of Edmonton (2018), recommend hazing as a humane way to manage bold, urban coyotes. The City of Oakville has produced an excellent video about hazing here. This technique has only recently been studied (Bonnell and Breck 2017; Breck et al. 2017; McLellan and Walker 2020; Young et al 2019). So far, there are few guidelines for implementing these approaches. The Humane Society of the United States recommends hazing by clapping hands, stomping feet, shaking noisemakers, spraying the animal with a hose, and throwing sticks or rocks in the direction of the coyote. However, low-intensity hazing may not intimidate coyotes and could even contribute to their habituation to people.
Aversive Conditioning extends the concept of hazing (Bonnell and Breck 2017) by using a deterrent or a negative stimulus to discourage undesirable behaviour over time (Breck et al. 2017) with an expectation that repeated exposure will teach animals greater wariness towards people (White and Delaup 2012). In this project, we define hazing as the act of using deterrents to immediately change a coyote’s behaviour, while Aversive Conditioning is the repeated and consistent use of deterrents to reduce the occurrence of similar behaviours in similar contexts over the long-term (Hopkins et al 2010). Our lab has studied Aversive Conditioning previously in black bears (Homstol 2011) and elk (Kloppers et al. 2005, Found and St. Clair 2016, 2017, 2019).
​Photo by Astrid Blodjett
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Photo by Colleen C. St. Clair
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