Stop the plane! Coyote crossing

by Annie Scott on

Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina is having an unusual problem which is increasing in frequency: Coyotes, one of our Top Ten Most Badass Animals Native to the USA, won’t stay out of the runways.

You’d think the noise, the frequent airplanes zooming by, and the lack of much flora or fauna in the area would deter them, but no. “The critters can wreak havoc, causing delays in takeoffs and landings. In September, an American Eagle jet struck a coyote on a runway,” reports the LA Times.

Apparently, airport and federal wildlife employees have been attempting to scare off the coyotes using cap guns and bottle rockets, but they’ve taken things a step further — or should we say “taken things a step out of their backyards from the 1950s” — and drafted up a wildlife management plan for the Federal Aviation Administration to review. The proposed solution is age-old: Build a better fence. (And keep the grass cut.)

[via LA Times]

Raising a pet coyote in Wyoming (with adorable pics)

by Jerry Guo on

I think any reasonable person would be against capturing and taming wild animals, so I bristled a bit when I first came across this website, which tells the story of a woman who raises a coyote out of a one-room log cabin in Wyoming.

But you learn that she found the coyote as a pup, orphaned after both of his parents were killed. Plus, the cuuuute pictures won me over. The woman herself also intrigued me. She’s 30, lives in a town of 300, and on a whim moved to Wyoming (when she was suppose to to New York City from San Francisco).

She’s apparently also an amateur photographer, with a separate site with photos from her solo trip across the states on a Vespa.