Tega Cay wraps up coyote trapping; how much of a problem is it?

City officials were pulling up coyote traps Monday at the end of a two-week operation that resulted in the capture and euthanization of four coyotes in Tega Cay.

The coyotes, two males and two females, were partners, according to Tega Cay Mayor George Sheppard. The mayor said the count wasn’t high enough for him to determine that Tega Cay has a coyote problem.

“We answered the questions of the citizens telling us that we had a problem, and (catching four coyotes) doesn’t signal a problem to me.”

The five-person Tega Cay City Council voted last month to hire a local trapper to lay down foot-hold trapping devices in several locations around the city where high coyote activity and sightings had been reported.

The traps were laid Feb. 13 and kept in place for two weeks.

Traps were checked every 24 hours. The coyotes were euthanized because it is illegal to relocate them, according to Sheppard.

“Speaking for myself, I think we’ve realized that yeah, there are coyotes in the community, but it’s not rampant,” Sheppard said. “We’ve done our due diligence.”

The Charlotte Observer reported Monday that coyote sightings reported to Mecklenburg County Parks & Recreation spiked in January, reaching their highest levels since 2014.

Sheppard said Monday it’s possible that the Tega Cay city council could decide to lay down traps each year. He said that topic would be discussed at the March council meeting.

Officials voted last year to approve a coyote management plan in response to resident complaints about the presence of coyotes and reported attacks on pets.

The city documented 51 coyote-related calls to 911 in 2016 from late January to early November, and used the data to map coyote activity.

This story was originally published February 27, 2017 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Tega Cay wraps up coyote trapping; how much of a problem is it?."