When coyotes approach children playing in the park in a small coastal town north of Boston, an adult quickly gathers Frary's day care group and tries to drive the animals away.
Frary doesn't want to have to tell a parent that the coyote picked their child.
Humans have not been hurt by Nahant's coyotes. After the disappearances of more than two dozen pets in roughly two years, the town is ever more on edge. Nahant is an island that is connected to the mainland by a narrow, 1.5 mile causeway.
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It is a hard place for coyotes to leave and a hard place for them to remain invisible to humans, as they often do in cities and more dense suburbs.
Nahant is the first town in Massachusetts to use federal sharpshooters to track and kill coyotes after the Board of Selectmen voted in December to seek the help of the USDA.
The plan has relieved many anxious residents, some of whom now carry whistles and baseball bats on strolls around town, and dress their dogs in "coyote jackets" covered with metal spikes to repel attacks.
"I love animals, and I don't want to see them killed, but some child on a porch is going to get taken" She didn't see the dog again after she left with the leash and collar.
coyote experts say that attacks on people are rare and almost never fatal.
There is some support for the plan. Opponents of the Nahant coyotes have argued for a more humane approach.
Francene Amari-Faulkner is a resident who has organized protests against the plan. She said that if the town brought in sharpshooters it would be a bloodbath.
A coyote problem on a peninsula jutting into the sea may be less than typical, but human aversion to the species is already established. Millions of coyotes have been poisoned, shot and trapped by humans trying to control their population, which has been seen as a nuisance. Their persistence could be their signature trait. They were present in Massachusetts by 2000, but only in the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Tony Barletta, Nahant's town administrator, makes a point of reminding residents that there is no going back, even after a few coyotes are eliminated. Residents will need to find a way to live next to them.
Barletta said at a recent meeting of the Board of Selectmen that they expected them to be in town. It's difficult to explain to residents that coyotes aren't a problem if you're afraid of them.
Massachusetts has less checks on the coyote population than many other places, with its abbreviated hunting season, local rules against discharging firearms and ban on most effective traps.
In Massachusetts, 500 coyotes are killed by hunters and trappers each year, while in South Carolina, 25,000 to 30,000 coyotes are killed by hunters and trappers annually. Even in the South, hunting has little effect on coyote numbers.
Theories have been created about coyotes patrolling porches and residents sharing videos of coyotes on their porches. Some locals think that the omnivorous creatures have wiped out all the island's resident animals and are looking for food.
State and local authorities stress that coyote attacks on off- leash pets are normal. The coyotes in Nahant have deviated from normal patterns in targeting dogs on leashes.
Sharpshooters won't be able to identify the most aggressive, so they'll use trial and error, kill several and wait to see if the atypical behaviors go away.
The people of Nahant will need to overcome their own fear in order to rein in a healthy fear of humans.
During an educational meeting hosted by the town for residents in July, Wattles said that if humans act submissive towards them, they will be the king of Nahant. They are not welcome and you have to teach them that.
He said residents can reestablish boundaries by engaging in harassment such as chasing coyotes, spraying them with water, throwing sand or gravel at them, screaming and banging pots and pans and disrupting them.
Some residents are concerned that it may be too late after seeing little impact from attempts to haze them.
Michael Hanlon, a part-time resident of the town, said he "yelled bloody murder" and swung a 3-foot stick at three coyotes who circled him and his dog Dewey on a residential street.
He went into his house.
Frary, the day care provider, said that her dogs have no fear at all. They're used to us now, and it's too late
She said coyotes like to laze in the sun on the golf course. Linda Tanfani complained to town officials after coyotes interfered with her game.
At the select board meeting, Tanfani said that it was not right for them to control her life. I'm tense all the time
Most coyote aggression toward humans comes from people giving the animals food, which can change their behavior, according to wildlife experts. Police in Arlington, a Boston suburb that saw three coyote attacks on children in 2021, determined that a resident had been feeding a coyote. The town had no problems after officers killed the animal.
It has been mistaken for something more mundane when a coyote attacks. John Malafronte, a driver for a clothing donation company, was standing in a parking lot in Swampscott, Massachusetts, smoking a cigarette and texting on his phone, when he felt a pinch and reached to swat it.
When Malafronte saw a coyote, he flipped his lid and got bitten.
Stanley Gehrt has been studying coyotes for decades and has tracked hundreds of them to learn how they live. He reminds suburbanites about the coyote's role in a healthy environment even though he acknowledges that removing coyotes may be appropriate in some circumstances.
Gehrt said that coyotes can help control populations of rodents, rabbits and Canada geese.
Humans are offered a bracing dose of humility by coyotes.
They are moving into our backyards because we have done everything we can to wipe them off the planet. We don't have control of everything, that's a reminder
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