Get Better Acquainted With Coyotes Tonight

If you’ve spotted a coyote running through your backyard recently, you’re not the only one in Arlington. But before you panic, consider that out of every woodland predator, coyotes are the most direly in need of a publicist.

Bears can be more dangerous, but they’re represented in the mass media by beloved, cuddly characters: Winnie The Pooh, Baloo, Fozzie Bear, The Care Bears, and the list goes on. Wolves are portrayed as big and bad in folklore, but modern depictions of wolves in pop culture tend to skew more towards heroic and enigmatic. Especially in New England, most people think of coyotes as really big outdoor rats who want to eat our pets.

John Maguranis, the Massachusetts representative for the Project Coyote organization and a Belmont animal control officer, hopes to improve the reputation of these misunderstood wild canines tonight at the Community Safety Building at 112 Mystic St. at 7 p.m.

“Living With Coyotes” - a presentation Maguranis has given more than 100 times at parks, colleges, and law enforcement agencies - aims to enlighten communities about the ecological benefits of having coyotes around. Attendees will learn about coyote behavior, how to keep families and pets safe from coyotes, and how some of what we think we know about coyotes might simply be bad publicity.

More information on the event can be found here.