Following numerous coyote attacks in Vancouver’s Stanley Park over the past several months, the Ministry of Forests says it will take further action to deal with the animals.
In a statement on Friday, the ministry said personnel will trap and euthanize up to 35 coyotes over a two-week period.
Conservation officers have already removed seven coyotes from the park.
The ministry said the total number of animals that will be removed will be “highly dependent” on how many are in the park and the success of the live traps.
“This is a very involved undertaking, as controlling wildlife in an urban park is complicated, but the results of the trapping program will help to determine next steps and a long-term solution,” the ministry said.
The trapping will be undertaken by professional contractors between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. daily. The ministry said the animals will be removed from the traps and “humanely euthanized.”
The location of the traps will not be made public, and access to the park will be limited by fencing that was being installed Friday.
Park rangers will also be on patrol nightly to enforce the park closure.
The ministry said other options were considered before euthanization, but non-lethal removal was not possible because the coyotes have become highly food-conditioned and comfortable around humans.
In addition, the number and severity of the attacks indicate this conditioning is widely spread through the park’s population, the ministry said.
There have been at least 40 coyote attacks in the park since December, including one in July that involved a two-year-old girl.
The latest attacks involved two four-year-old children.
It remains unclear what has prompted the massive increase, but the park board and conservation officers believe people feeding the animals are at least partly to blame.
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