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A $30,000 city contract to trap and relocate coyotes is raising debate about how to deal with a growing population of the wild canines.

Montrealers have been reporting coyotes for years, particularly in neighbourhoods on the north end of the island, said Émilie Thuillier, the borough mayor of Ahuntsic-Cartierville.

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Normally, coyotes, which often travel along railway tracks, fear humans and tend to prowl around at night, Thuillier said in an interview.

“There are coyotes in all North American cities,” she said.

But some recent sightings suggest the animals, whose presence has been reported in 11 boroughs, might be losing their fear of people, which is causing concern in the north-end borough.

Thuillier said there are hundreds of sightings of coyotes each year, but it’s possible many of them are for the same animal, so it’s hard to know how many there are.

In the Parc Frédéric Back in St-Michel, a huge green space in the old Miron Quarry that was formerly a landfill site and recycling centre, 19 coyotes were trapped last fall, she said.