TRURO - A provincial coyote pelt incentive program has been extended in the hopes of making communities safer from aggressive coyote behaviour.
The program will be extended by three years, said Charlie Parker, minister of Natural Resources. The program encourages licensed trappers to harvest coyotes by offering an incentive of $20 per pelt during the regular trapping season, which runs from Oct. 15 to March 31. It has been in place since the fall of 2010.
Biologists say more trappers catching coyotes may help change the behaviour of the coyote population by reinforcing the animals' natural instinct to avoid people.
Natural Resources has released educational materials provincewide, trained 13 trappers to target aggressive coyotes in selected areas, hired a wildlife conflict biologist, and implemented the pelt incentive program.
