Coyotes are here to stay, Parks Department says

Riverdalians have some new neighbors, and the yellow-eyed, red-necked, grayish-brown creatures are not leaving anytime soon, according to the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

A recent close encounter with a coyote came on the morning of April 12, when David Beim and his wife were having breakfast at their Dodgewood Road home.

“We have no pets and we enjoy having wildlife around us. I cannot guess the dimensions, but to my eye, it looked similar to other coyotes I have seen,” Mr. Beim recounted.

In photos he took of the incident, the coyote has just stepped out of a forest and into his backyard, almost as though weighing its options on what to do next.

Not all coyote sightings are as innocuous. On a summer night in 2013, Aaron Mittman’s dog was “seriously injured” in a scuffle with a coyote. The Cockapoo was hospitalized at Riverdale Veterinary Group with “four or five” puncture wounds to its back, he said, and was quarantined for two weeks after the incident.

While recent coyote sightings in Manhattan have drawn crowds of police officers, park rangers, television crews and even helicopters, Riverdale has seen the animals for years.

Coyotes made their official reappearance in the northwest Bronx — and New York City — in 1995. In February of that year, “Major,” a 29-pound female, was struck and killed on the Major Deegan Expressway.

For animals the Parks Department does capture, officials try to find the “best possible environment” for them, explained Sarah Aucoin, director of the Urban Park Rangers and a Kingsbridge Heights resident. But officials are constrained by the need to keep the animals within their jurisdiction — and within city limits.

Calling Vannie home

At least two breeding pairs of the animals live in Van Cortlandt Park, Ms. Aucoin confirmed. While coyotes captured in Manhattan are frequently released in the park, they are often loath to stay. Like other members of the canid family, coyotes are territorial, and Van Cortlandt Park’s ample supply of rabbits was marked by earlier generations years ago. The animals can live to be up to 12 years of age.