He walks the streets alone, scavenging for food. He’s been seen as far west as the county jail on Detention Drive and as far north as Bethlehem Baptist Church on GA 197. He’s even traveled south to Memorial Drive.
He doesn’t have a name, but we’ll call him “Wile E.” (think back to the Road Runner days). He’s sly and cunning, enough so that, even after several weeks and numerous attempts to capture him, he’s still free.
There’s a coyote in Clarkesville and he’s got people talking.
“The last few days we’ve gotten a lot of calls about it,” says Habersham County Animal Care and Control (HCACC) Director Madi Hawkins.
Hawkins has spotted the wily coyote herself a few times. She suspects he was shunned by his pack and is now out on his own trying to survive.
The Department of Natural Resources is supposed to handle wildlife calls but Hawkins says, for some reason, DNR is telling people to contact animal control. Hawkins and her officers are responding. They’ve made several attempts to capture the coyote and nearly did at the jail. They had him on a catch pole but he escaped.
“We can’t get within 100 yards of this thing,” says Hawkins. “He’s running away from us. He’s acting normal, but there’s a lot of public concern based on it being springtime and possible rabies.”
Animal control is now tracking him. “He has his own little path around town,” Hawkins says. Wile E. spends a lot of time at Pitts Park but that’s not surprising, there’s a lot of food there between the feral cat feeders and cans filled with picnic and snack trash. “They’re scavengers,” she says.
Wile E. may just be following his natural instincts but natural isn’t a word that comes to most people’s minds when they see a coyote wandering about town. It’s unusual enough that most grab their cellphones to snap photos. On social media, people post pictures of him just trotting down the road.
Where the wild things are
Wildlife experts are quick to point out that when you live in a rural area surrounded by forest – nearly 40,000 acres of the Chattahoochee National Forest sit in Habersham County – you can expect to see coyotes and other wildlife. Even in daylight. It’s just that in certain instances, that wildlife really catches your eye. A bear in Cornelia, a suspected mountain lion in the Orchard; the wildlife’s out there and when you encounter it you must be careful.
“Do not approach coyotes or wildlife in general,” stresses Hawkins.
As of now, there are no reports of this solo coyote acting aggressively. Still, he could pose a threat to small animals. Pets should be kept in a safe space if left unattended outside.
Animal control is doing what it can to capture the coyote to safely relocate him. They’ve set out all of the department’s dog traps, baiting them with chicken in hopes of luring him in. So far it hasn’t worked, at least not on Wile E.
“We’ve caught a lot of possums,” Hawkins says.
HCACC officials have contacted DNR and hope the state agency will assist them in capturing the coyote. In the meantime, Hawkins asks the public to continue to report sightings to the DNR office in Gainesville at 770-535-5700.
feature photo submitted
