Calgary woman discovers coyote family under shed

A Calgary woman with a coyote and three pups living under her garden shed said her backyard visitors are cute, but she wants them gone before a child or small animal is hurt.

Cheryl Ehret first noticed a pup by her garden shed on June 2.

"I just went, 'Oh, a little puppy.' Then I went, 'No, that's not a puppy. I think that is something different,'" she said.

She ran to get her camera and spotted the mother coyote coming out from under the shed.

"It just shocked me to no end. There are coyotes living in my backyard," she said.

The pups are harmless – for now.

"They more or less just play and have fun. They jump on each other. The mom doesn't come out. She is very, very skittish. She hides most days. I think she is under there for the day, and comes out at night and hunts," she said.

Easy access through missing fence board

Ehret lives in the neighbourhood of Coventry Hills, on the northern edge of the city. She runs a before-and-after-school-care program out of her house, which backs onto a green space with a well-used walking path and a playground. The coyotes slip though a missing fence board to reach the green space.

Getting rid of the shed's tenants has proved challenging.

City officials told her to contact pest control, she said. Provincial wildlife officials made suggestions on how to get rid of the coyotes, but spreading male urine and mothballs around the shed hasn't worked. Her next option is spraying pepper spray under the shed.

"The other option is they are just going to come and shoot them, which I don't want," Ehret said. "They are cute now to watch, but when they get older and a little more aggressive … once summer hits I want to see them gone and her moving on with them."

Making a backyard uncomfortable for coyotes

Darcy Whiteside, a spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said the best way to avoid having coyotes in your backyard is to remove food sources, such as pet food, and board up any holes that lead under a deck or other outdoor structures.

Coyotes are evasive and difficult to trap, he said.

"We found live traps are very ineffective. To try and get them out and move them is really not appropriate for the environment that they are in. Again, if there is no public risk or concern, then we just kind of leave the wildlife to be wildlife as they are," he said. "Make it an uncomfortable environment and the coyotes will … take the pups away from that denning site and find a new area."

Even if Ehret can't get rid of the family, they won't stay very long.

"Once those pups come to an age where they are able to survive on their own, they'll leave," he said.