Attack on boy fuels fear of coyotes
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 - By JUSTO BAUTISTA and SONI SANGHA
Bergen County Record

In Tenafly, officials at the 120-acre Knickerbocker Country Club hired a "wildlife professional" to trap coyotes that have been intimidating golfers and stealing golf balls, apparently mistaking them for eggs.

In Tenafly, five coyotes call the Tenafly Nature Center, the borough's preserved woodlands, their home.

"I haven't noticed an increase in coyotes, but the number of sightings has increased this year," said Jennifer Kleinbaum, the center's executive director. "Coyotes are a good thing for the environment, if they can support themselves it means the environment is in good enough balance for them to find enough food and for them to be born and to continue living and dying in a natural way."

Limbardo said he doubts the coyotes spotted at the Knickerbocker Country Club are from the nature center. Forty-two of the club's 160 acres are wood-lands.

Trapper Frank Spiecker, owner of Harbor Wildlife Control in Old Bridge, was hired to trap the club's coyotes.

More On This Story .......

Coyote Attacks Toddler in Middletown, NJ
Posted by The Star-Ledger April 09, 2007 3:18PM

A coyote attacked a 20-month-old boy outside a Middletown home Friday night in what authorities are calling the first coyote attack on a human in New Jersey history.

Wildlife authorities have set traps in the township since the toddler was bitten on the head and neck while playing in a back yard on Kings Highway East, township officials said today.

Liam Sadler of Crestview Fla. was treated and released from an area hospital after the coyote tried to drag him away from the yard while he was playing with other children at about 8:15 p.m., according to Township Administrator Robert Czech.

The state Division of Fish and Wildlife was called in Saturday when police, acting on a description of the animal given by witnesses, concluded it was a coyote, possibly one suffering from mange or some other illness.

"It is extremely rare," said Larry Herrighty, chief of the division's Bureau of Wildlife Management. "This coyote was reported to be mangy, which may explain the behavior. It could be that the coyote was very hungry because it's unable to forage normally, so it attacked the child."

The state set several snare-style traps in the area, which is heavily wooded. Authorities said they are hoping to catch the animal, which may be responsible for several other attacks on pets in the area. On about March 28, said Czech, two small dogs were attacked and killed in the township.

Other pets have been reported missing, he said, explaining the problems seem to be restricted to the heavily wooded area around the Earle Naval Weapons Station.

Raccoon Attacks Girl, 2, at Backyard Pizza Party in Jefferson
BY MATT MANOCHIO - DAILY RECORD : Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A raccoon like the one pictured here attacked a toddler during a pizza party in Jefferson on Tuesday. Authorities are trying to catch the animal to test it for rabies.

JEFFERSON, NJ -- A 2-year-old Oak Ridge girl was attacked by a raccoon that raided a pizza party around 1 p.m. Tuesday, police said.

"The raccoon has not been captured yet," Sgt. Bill Anderson said. "It's still at large."

The girl, whose identity wasn't released, was scratched on one of her arms during a gathering on the home's deck on 10 Johnson Place, he said.

Anderson said the township's animal control department has set traps for the raccoon in case it returns to the area.

"At this point we're not sure if it was sick," Anderson said. "We think it was just looking for food."

Frank Spiecker, a professional animal trapper with Laurence Harbor-based Harbor Wildlife Control, Inc., said that female raccoons with babies to feed can be seen during the daytime, especially when the weather is warm.

"Aside from that it's not really normal to see them outside during the day," he said. "Since it is spring you will see them more regularly during the day than any other time of the year."

As for the girl's health, Spiecker said a rabies shot is a must.

"If they were my children it would be an automatic," he said. "Even if they catch the raccoon, they can not positively identify it as being that raccoon. I would take the precaution and get the shot."

Rabies, according for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a disease that attacks the central nervous system. It's usually fatal if not treated, but is preventable if vaccination occurs before the onset of symptoms.

Dead turkey found in back yard, no foul play
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
By KIAWANA RICH - ADVANCE STAFF WRITER
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A wild turkey turned up dead in a Staten Island woman's back yard, but rather than a turkey shoot, it seems death was due to natural causes.

Renee Rampulla of the Dongan Hills section, said an Alter Avenue neighbor alerted her to the turkey carcass Monday night. After the city's 311 help line didn't, she said, she called Harbor Wildlife Control of Old Bridge, N.J., yesterday and owner Frank Spiecker collected the remains last night.

Spiecker said it appeared the roughly 18-pound turkey met with a quiet end: "It doesn't look like anything happened to it and there were no holes on it."

The possibility that someone might do violence to one of the turkeys that plague residents of Dongan Hills, Ocean Breeze and South Beach isn't exactly far-fetched.

In February, Franklin Piccone of Dongan Hills allegedly loosed a bottle-rocket barrage at a rafter of turkeys. He spent a night in jail and was charged with attempted cruelty to wildlife.

Ms. Rampulla's near neighbors, Dawn Longo and her husband, Ricky, said yesterday they've had enough of the dirty birds. "You can't pull out of your driveway because they are there. Even if you honk the horn, they won't move," said Mrs. Longo. "The turkeys are everywhere. More...

Gator seized in Old Bridge, NJ

MARK R. SULLIVAN/Chief photographer Frank Spiecker of Harbor Wildlife Control shows off a baby alligator that was taken from a Laurence Harbor man after he was seen walking it on a leash.

By SUZANNE C. RUSSELL
STAFF WRITER

It's not every day you see a guy walking an alligator on a leash near the basketball courts in Laurence Harbor.

So when somebody did Thursday, he called police.

And the police in turn contacted Sonja Svenningsen, township animal-control officer, who is such an animal tamer that she had the reptile sleeping in her arms: Its mouth taped shut, of course.

"It's cute. It's a baby, about 2 to 3 years old. The alligator slept in my arms," said Svenningsen, who was not sure of the reptile's sex or its weight, but estimated it to be about 15 pounds. "It's pretty as long as its mouth is taped shut."

She estimated the alligator was nearly 4 feet long.

Alligators have been dumped in the area and picked up by animal-control officers in the past, and a 10-foot tiger reticulated python snake nicknamed "Fluffy" was rescued on Route 9 in Old Bridge just last month. But, Svenningsen said, "this is a first for me."

Svenningsen got the call of the unusual sighting along the Laurence Harbor beachfront around 6:45 p.m. Thursday. Police told her a man was walking an alligator on a leash by the basketball courts on Laurence Parkway.

When police arrived, they found Jeffrey Foster, 25, of Roosevelt Boulevard, Laurence Harbor, walking the small alligator with its mouth taped shut.

Police alerted Svenningsen, who told Foster it was illegal to possess an alligator in New Jersey. Foster told police he got the alligator at a reptile show in Philadelphia about six months ago, police said.

Although no police summons was issued, the state Department of Environmental Protection will issue a summons for possession of a potentially dangerous species, according to Erin Phalon, DEP spokeswoman. The summons carries a fine of up to $5,000, she said.

Svenningsen said Foster told her the state DEP's Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife had stopped at his Laurence Harbor home earlier Thursday, saying they were going to take the alligator. He claimed Fish, Game and Wildlife officials said they would come back when they had something to put the reptile in. Foster could not be reached for comment.

But Svenningsen said that if Fish, Game and Wildlife officials had come to his home, they would have been prepared to take the reptile.

So when she saw it, she took it.

"He shouldn't have had it. It's illegal in New Jersey. It's a dangerous animal," she said.

Svenningsen said Foster told her he kept the reptile in a room with a light. He told her he also has a python, which is not illegal depending on the species. A permit would be needed for a python.

Svenningsen, who is fostering some newborn kittens, said he knew the alligator couldn't ride in her car.

After making calls to state Fish and Game as well as the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, she arranged for Frank Spiecker of Harbor Wildlife Control to take care of the alligator until state wildlife officials could arrange to pick it up.

Spiecker, who also lives in Laurence Harbor, said his wife, who is used to the pythons and boas he has cared for in the past, was a bit startled to find an alligator on their porch. He found a cage for the alligator where it could be safely housed. He removed the tape around its mouth but was instructed not to feed it, he said.

The alligator is expected to be turned over to Bill Boesenberg of Snakes-n-Scales and Turtle Tales, a Wanaque reptile company that presents environmental-education programs, Svenningsen said. Boesenberg could not be reached for comment.

COYOTES RISING
They're on the prowl in Central Jersey -- but what do they want?

By WALTER O'BRIEN Correspondent

In April, two coyotes approached a cow and two newborn calves on Joanne Powell's farm on the Bridgewater-Bedminster border. As one distracted the mother, the other killed and dragged off one of the calves, whose carcass was later found in the woods.

In spring 2005, a pair of coyotes settled in and raised several pups in the Sunset Lake area of Bridgewater. Soon, six neighborhood cats disappeared, said Don Meserve of Pluckemin, including his.

Living on the fringes of developed areas and hunting mostly at night, coyotes keep a low profile in Central Jersey. But there is anecdotal and statistical evidence to suggest their numbers are rising here and across the state:

From 1992 to 1996, there were 406 coyote sightings and mortalities (from hunting and road kills) in New Jersey, said Andrew Burnett, principal investigator for the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection's Upland Game and Furbearer project. From 1997 to 2001, the number rose to 569. In the five years ending June 30, it hit 1,303.

In 1975, the DEP estimated the New Jersey coyote population at fewer than 100. In 1996, the estimate was 1,500. In 2002, the estimate was 3,000.

Central Jersey police are receiving coyote-sighting reports from residents, some of whom responded to a Courier News request for specific details. Another reason for increased sightings, said Burnett and Catherine Schrein, manager of the Somerset County Parks Commission's Environmental Education Center at the Great Swamp, is that as Central Jersey develops, there are fewer places for coyotes to hide and more sets of eyes to see them.

The greatest coyote danger to humans is rabies, officials say, but any creature smaller than a coyote -- such as cats and smaller dogs -- is a potential meal.

Perhaps happily to some, coyotes are a natural predator of rodents.

"About 80 percent of their diet is gophers, mice, rats, and the rest is plants, berries and insects," Schein said. "If they get hungry, they might go after small deer or your garbage."

Coyotes steer clear of humans -- at least those who do not get between a coyote and its food. In 1999, a coyote unsuccessfully tried to drag Mildred Rathie into the woods in Boonton after she broke her foot defending her neighbor's dog.

Although coyotes have occasionally bitten unlucky humans in New Jersey, they have never killed one, Burnett said.

Predators on the move
The evolution of coyotes in the eastern United States began with the eastward migration of western coyotes. One study, Burnett said, describes a migration eastward across Canada, then south through New England.

As early East Coast settlers drove out larger (up to 100 pounds), more aggressive timber wolves -- no friends to coyotes -- the coyotes moved in.

The campaign against timber wolves almost drove them to extinction; they are confined today to Minnesota, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Yellowstone National Park. Coyotes, Burnett said, are unlikely to ever be so threatened.

"They are just that smart," said Burnett, who among other things studies how hunting affects the furbearing animal population -- including coyotes -- in New Jersey. "They are extremely cunning. There are coyotes in Central Park, and there are coyotes in downtown Los Angeles at night."

Powell, of Bridgewater, whose calf was killed by a coyote, is also impressed.

"We've seen them (coyotes) when we're doing night checks, but I think beef cattle, which is what I have, are pretty aggressive moms," Powell said.

"I think it was a pretty extenuating circumstance that this cow was distracted enough that they were able to get the calf," said Powell, who is president of the Somerset County Board of Agriculture. Wherever coyotes are found, said Burnett, "they live on the outskirts of developed areas and go in at night," looking for food.

Coyotes weigh from 25 to 40 pounds, and males are heavier than females. They are about the size of a Labrador retriever with scruffy blond and brown coats. Yet they are so elusive, police responding to sightings almost always come up empty-handed. Bridgewater police Chief Richard Borden confirms sightings in his town, and even in his own back yard. "We definitely have had coyote reports over the last few months," Borden said. "But by the time an officer responds, the animal is gone. Which is good."

"They generally keep moving," he added. "We've had no reports of aggressive or violent behavior at all."

Coyote sightings
The Somerset animal shelter gets a few coyote reports every spring or summer.

"People get nervous when they see a coyote, but there's not much we can do," said Delia Hollerieth, animal control officer and volunteer. "We confirm that coyotes do live around here and try to give them peace of mind." If a homeowner is still worried about a coyote on their turf, their next call will probably be to a wildlife removal service.

"We get three or four calls a year in the spring, when they're looking to feed the young pups," said Frank Spiecker, owner of Harbor Wildlife Control in Laurence Harbor. "We've seen them in bushes behind condos going after the garbage at night. Where people can't use firearms, they have less reason to fear us. We're likely to see more of them."

John Nesti, owner of All Wildlife Removal Service in Monroe Township, gets more than a dozen calls a year, and he does have some concerns. "I've had calls where a cat has disappeared or run up a tree and stayed there," Nesti said. "People might leave their dogs outside and come home to find a leash tied to a tree. It's common out West, and it will start happening here.

"We need to keep the population in check so they don't seek new food sources," he added. "If you let nature control the population, they'll die a slow death from hunger and disease. That's when you'll see more aggressive human encounters. But we don't want to wipe them out, because they do keep smaller pests in check."

Lori Space-Day, a zoologist and coyote expert at Space Farms Zoo & Museum in Sussex County, said coyotes are no danger if you use common sense.

"Coyotes only hunt at dawn and dusk when people are less likely to be around. They keep to themselves," Space-Day said. "Just as you would with bears, don't keep pets unattended outside at night, and keep their food inside." "Make loud noises and make yourself seem more threatening," Schrein said. "That coyote is going to take off."