We must learn to coexist with the wildlife in our midst

The controversy surrounding the coyote in Seattle's Discovery Park brings up many questions about how we humans choose to live in relation to the wild creatures around us.

We are blessed with an abundance of wildlife in Washington, and many species have learned how to survive — and thrive — in the most urban of settings.

They usually go unnoticed, living in the shadows of a human-dominated landscape. All too often, we are unaware of their presence until a negative interaction occurs.

The factors that lead to human/wildlife conflicts are almost always human-created. However, once a problem arises, it is usually the wild animal that suffers.

Oftentimes, people want the animal to be moved to "a more suitable area," an option that would result in a displaced animal struggling to survive in unfamiliar surroundings. Some people demand the animal be killed. Others suggest sending the animal to sanctuary — essentially a life sentence of stress and captivity for a healthy animal who has never known confinement.

In the Progressive Animal Welfare Society's wildlife hospital and rehabilitation center, we have seen many victims of human/wildlife conflicts: a river otter orphaned after her mother made the unfortunate decision to build her den in a crawl space; three infant gulls snatched from their rooftop nest, placed in a paper bag and discarded in a dumpster; a mother raccoon trapped after entering an unsecured pet door in search of food and dropped into a rain barrel to drown.

But, removing the animal does not eliminate the problem — it only removes the symptom of the problem. At best, it buys a brief respite until another wild animal is lured in by the same conditions that attracted the first.

Wild animals show us daily they can adapt to our presence. We should follow their lead and learn how we can share our spaces with them. In order to do this, we must first acknowledge how our own choices can create conflicts.

How we care for our pets and manage our property directly impacts wild animals around us. Wild animals do not speak our language, nor do they share our concepts of property ownership and access. We are the species with the greater capacity for behavioral change, and we have the ability to understand wild animals in a way that they cannot understand us. If we do not make some accommodations, we will experience the same stressful conflicts over and over again.

It is no surprise that an opportunistic omnivore such as a coyote would take advantage of readily available food sources. Pet food left outside, garbage left in unsecured containers, and free-roaming cats and small dogs are well within a coyote's definition of acceptable food. If any of these are easily accessible, coyotes will certainly help themselves.

It is also no surprise that an intelligent, adaptable animal such as a coyote would become less wary of humans if he begins to perceive them as providers of food.

On the other hand, if pet food is not left outside, garbage cans are securely covered and pets are not allowed to roam freely, the coyotes will be forced to find alternative food sources, as will the raccoons, eagles, bobcats, hawks and all other wild animals found in our communities.

Local residents taking these preventive measures would be an effective and humane long-term solution for peacefully coexisting with coyotes in and near Discovery Park. A proactive approach to sharing space with our wild neighbors will prevent coyotes and many other wild creatures from seeing the human residents of the park and surrounding areas as their meal ticket.

Working together as a community, we can all take steps with regard to our own actions and property to ensure that similar situations do not happen again. In doing so, we will be providing a great service not only to the animals with whom we share this beautiful land, but to ourselves as well.