Copper Mt. Coyote is a Reminder Not to Feed Wildlife
by Allie Comeau on February 14, 2008 
4 comments
Division of Wildlife officials were called to Copper Mountain Ski Resort Saturday to deal with a coyote that had become aggressive with skiers and snowboarders. The young, but rather large, coyote had apparently bitten the parka of one kid and the snowboard of another. Unfortunately, officials determined the only way to handle the situation was to kill the coyote.
The rogue coyote had been seen for days hanging around below the lifts and officials assume people were feeding it. That would explain why it became aggressive — it was probably just looking for another hand out.
This sad story is a perfect example of why we should NEVER FEED WILDLIFE. Never ever. Wild animals are able to feed themselves — they do it all the time when we’re not around. Fed animals usually lose their fear of people, become aggressive and menacing, or get sick because their bodies can’t properly digest people food.
For your own safety and the safety of animals everywhere, let them find their own dinner. Save those trail bars and GU packets for yourself.
Here’s a video from MSNBC featuring an interview with Tyler Buck, the kid in that picture. His mom took that photo, which in itself is amazing — my mom would have been flipping out.
February 14th, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
Pretty interesting. I was actually up in Copper this past Sunday. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t think about what they’re doing when they encounter wildlife. We had bears at the scout camp I worked at in Lake George, CO and required campers to remove their trash from the sites before nightfall, otherwise they could have a black bear in their tent some night. We brought all the trash out to a massive dumpster a couple miles away and would often see one or more bears picking through the refuse as we came to unload. They usually didn’t even regard us when we approached in the truck. Of course, every now and then a bear would still be spotted in camp and it was always a big deal. A lot of people seem to ignore the fact that we are infringing on these animals’ natural habitat. Of course, it always makes headlines when an animal attacks someone or their dog, but we rarely hear about the hundreds of species that are silently going extinct because of over development, deforestation and pollution.
February 18th, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
Thanks for commenting, Beren.
It’s sad — we’re the ones infringing on their territory and they’re the ones paying the price.
February 18th, 2008 @ 8:49 pm
You’re right, Beren. Animals are going extinct due to over development, deforestation, and polution. Other factors include large scout camps that don’t use proper camping equipment, i.e. bear-proof canisters and trash cans.
People and wildlife can coexist. http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bearcanisters.htm.
February 20th, 2008 @ 6:00 am
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