Check out our coyote reporting form, that is now compatible with mobile devices and also allows users to upload pictures and video and post to social media. Help keep your community coyote aware!
Though there is a rise in awareness that coyotes are around, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding among residents about coyote behaviour and their role in our urban ecology. Coyotes help keep rodent populations in check. They usually steer clear of residential areas and humans, and prefer to make their homes in large parks and woodlands. However, they will occasionally seek food or shelter in residential neighbourhoods if the opportunity arises.
While seeing a coyote in Oakville is not necessarily cause for alarm, it can be concerning when coyotes come a bit too close for comfort. The town’s coyote hazing video explains what to do if you encounter a coyote on your property, and shows you how to haze or scare them away. If embraced by the entire community, repeated hazing ensures coyotes maintain their fear of humans and know our homes are off limits.
Feeding coyotes, running from them and allowing pets to roam off-leash have contributed to coyotes losing their inhibitions towards people. There are a number of things we can all do to help reduce human-coyote conflicts:
Mange is circulating in some coyote populations in Oakville which has led to these animals frequenting residential neighbourhoods to seek warmth and find easy food such as birdseed and garbage. Mange is not a threat to humans or pets and does not directly lead to increased aggression. To learn more please see our Coyote Fact Sheet (pdf).
Through the coyote reporting form, the town is working with the Oakville Humane Society to assist them in locating and treating infected coyotes. Please report coyote sightings and activity through this system. If there is an immediate risk to safety call 911 as the reporting system is not designed to respond to these types of calls.
Visit the coyote sightings map to learn where coyotes have been observed. This mapping reflects reported sightings and is not meant to indicate the number of coyotes present or a complete profile of where coyotes are present in Oakville. It provides the town and residents with useful information on understanding where the possibility of encountering a coyote may be more prevalent.
Capture and relocation of coyotes to more than one kilometre away is not permitted under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. Research shows wildlife relocated from urban areas usually return or become a problem elsewhere. In addition, when coyotes are hunted or lethally destroyed, they compensate by producing larger litters and expanding their range. Only in rare cases where an individual coyote is demonstrating unusual / aggressive behaviour or severe trauma or illness do animal control agencies capture coyotes.
If a coyote poses an immediate threat to safety, call 911.
Contact the Oakville Humane Society at 905-845-1551 if you encounter a coyote you believe to be sick or injured.
In addition, the town offers a number of other resources and links on coyote awareness and co-existence:
Living with coyotes fact sheet (pdf)
Coyote tips (pdf)
Project Coyote