A coyote that was seen roaming a Scarborough neighbourhood for the last several weeks has been caught by the Toronto Wildlife Centre, but the group warns the outcome is “not a happy ending” for the creature.
In a statement issued Monday morning, the Toronto Wildlife Centre said the coyote had found its forever home at the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, Ontario, though the sequence of events was avoidable.
“This outcome could easily have been prevented by simply leaving this animal alone, and now he has lost the life he knows in the wild due to disruptive human behaviour,” the group said.
The Toronto Wildlife Centre said the coyote, from Pine Hills Cemetery in Scarborough, near Warden and St. Clair avenues, was captured thanks to the efforts of their rescue team, a wildlife veterinarian and Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
The coyote had been the focus of “much attention lately, especially in the media,” says the wildlife group.
On July 22, CTV News Toronto reported that 10-year-old Lily Kwan was walking her dog in the area when the collared coyote started chasing them. The coyote attacked the small dog leaving it with serious injuries and several nights in emergency vet’s intensive care unit.
Days later, a woman says that the collared coyote nipped her pant leg while she was gardening nearby.
The Toronto Wildlife Centre explained that the coyote is “either food and/or human conditioned,” which may explain its daylight encounters with residents in the neighbourhood.
Despite aversive conditioning techniques and efforts to educate the public about the dangers of feeding wild animals, the group said that people are still feeding wild coyotes across the city.
“Human behaviour needs to change, because wild animals fall victim as a result,” the group said.
