Drones used to track coyotes

INDIAN HARBOR BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A team wildlife trappers deployed to Gleason Park Monday morning described their efforts to trap coyote as “high-tech redneck.”  

Trappers Leo Cross and James Dean huddled around a folding table with computer monitors on it.  Nearby a pilot flew drone over a wooded section of the approximately 30-acre park. Coyotes have been spotted near the popular recreation area where people exercise and walk their dogs. 

The trappers have been tasked with relocating the wild animals. The hope is that the birds-eye view captured by the drone’s camera will help the trappers snare the animals faster.  “[The drone is] able to cover a lot more area than we’d be able to hike through,” Cross said.

The trappers are looking for signs of the animals’ den so that they can set a trap nearby. Dean said he hopes the camera will show them “heavy dirt pulled back from a tortoise hole that wouldn’t be typical of a tortoise. That would give us a better idea that it’s possible coyote den.”

Dean said it could take a couple of weeks to trap the coyotes.