Spotted: “Coyotes” guarding local school playgrounds

We got a tip from a reader who reported that she’d seen coyote statues at a local school.

So we reached out to MPCSD spokesperson Parke Treadway to get more information. She promptly replied:

“There are coyote statues at Encinal and Laurel Lower Campus. They were an idea that came from Encinal Principal Sharon Burns’ father, who lives in Canada. She was talking to him about Encinal’s population of Canadian geese on the field and the droppings they leave behind. He mentioned that in Canada they use fake coyotes in parks to deter geese (and relieve the goose poop issue).

“Principal Burns thought it might work for crows, too, and it does! The coyotes have been a brilliant solution as other crow deterrents haven’t worked and [the school’s] custodial teams were constantly washing crow droppings off the lunch tables and surrounding ground. Now with the coyote statues our play areas are cleaner and water use is down.

“Laurel School was facing a similar dilemma with its geese, so they also purchased two coyote statues which have been named Oak and Sequoia. The fact that the coyote statues deter both geese and crows is wonderful.

“Principal Linda Creighton of Laurel Lower Campus also reports that ‘We have had over a dozen worried passersby call to warn us about the ‘coyotes’ on campus and they all get a good chuckle and breathe a sigh of relief when they learn that they are just Oak and Sequoia, our coyote statues.'”

Top photo, courtesy of MPCSD shows coyote statue mounted on the roof above the kinderhathet play yard deterings crows; second photo by Pixie Couch.