[Warning: graphic picture of Bambi below.]
Bambi became a venison dinner some time between Friday and Saturday.
Sent to MyRye.com by a reader, this deer likely spent its final moments being munched on by a coyote. Coyotes serve as natural predators to deer, keeping the deer population in check (we just don't have a bear population to keep the coyotes in check, but that would create a host of other fun issues).
(PHOTO: This Bambi was found on Dogwood Lane in Rye Saturday morning. According to a source that showed the picture to the city's trapper, Bambi's demise shows tell tale signs of it being a coyote meal. No word on who drew the short straw for the clean-up job.)
Oh, deer me… coyotes can be such impolite neighbors. They kill our pets, try to kill our kids, and now are killing those lovely innocent pastoral ruminants that occasionally double as ambulatory traffic calming devices, especially during rutting season. Doesn’t it make sense to everyone now that we need to hunt them down and eliminate, or “dispatch” them?
@Matt
In prior years we’ve seen letter after letter in the local “media” complaining about deer overrunning our city.
There were even suggestions that they be shot for the crime of eating shrubbery.
The legitimate response to the question of why there were so many more deer was that their natural predators – wolves and coyotes – had been eradicated.
Now coyotes are back as Mother Nature attempts to re balance the scales.
Left alone, we’d see fewer deer within a couple seasons. Gardeners and motorists should welcome that outcome.
Of course if we again “dispatch” coyotes, I predict the hysterical letters to the editor demanding that the city “cull” the deer will follow very soon.
I won’t comment on rutting season except that it tends to be a year round thing for certain participants in our civic arena who have the misfortune of not belonging to the distaff side of our fair city.
“the distaff side” – Hmmm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distaff
Left alone, perhaps we’d see fewer *children* within a couple of seasons?
It looks to me that the Coyote plan in place is not working. It has been said that “the Coyotes in Rye will never go away”.
yawn.
If we all study history, we actually do have the ability to hunt down and kill all of the coyotes. What is really lacking is the level of aggression required and resources deployed by the decision makers to address what is apparently a very serious and deadly issue.
Charmian –
We could eliminate the coyotes and cull the deer herd if we set our minds to it. I don’t agree with the defeatist attitude that nothing can be done to solve the problem. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.