I’m glad the dog was OK but honestly if you’ve got a pet small enough to be eaten by coyotes then maybe it shouldn’t be off-leash in coyote territory.
17 Likes
Humans kill more humans than all coyote ever will
13 Likes
We have had several attacks on people. It’s only a matter of time before it’s a child who can’t defend themselves.
Dallas and the surrounding communities are very proud of their untouched green spaces which harbor these populations. We love them but the bobcats, cougers, and coyote can be problematic if the population looses their natural fear. Once that happens, you pretty much have to kill them.
5 Likes
Eating terrier wouldn’t be a good day for a coyote though.
Maybe a Yorkie.
3 Likes
That sounds to me like an elaborate construct intended to support an us against them worldview.
I don’t really buy it.
2 Likes
The same holds true for malaria, but I’m still going to use bug spray. Coyotes got a few dogs a year in my neighborhood until last year where the Harvey flooding brought enough pigs into the area to feed them.
5 Likes
I would be willing to bet on the fact that there are far, far more attacks on people by domestic dogs every year than there are by wild animals such as coyote.
14 Likes
except that it’s pretty much all coyote territory. I live in a city with a population of about 1 million and they’re here . When the leash laws started to be really applied and domestic dogs didn’t run free (30-40 years ago) first came the hares, then those who predated upon them. Coyotes, occasional cougars, bobcats. I do agree with you about small dogs, though. Even birds of prey are a risk for a small dog; I had a great horned owl take a run at my 30 kilo basset once!
7 Likes
9 Likes
That is awesome!
7 Likes
They’re an invasive species. In the absence of larger predators (wolves, for the most part), coyotes have spread into many areas. But coyotes don’t eat the same things that wolves ate. What they do eat are pets and livestock. Our neighbors’ chickens, for instance, or my parents’ cats.
There’s a wikipedia article that does a pretty good job documenting coyote attacks on people, but the reality is that even though these attacks are increasing in frequency, they’re still very uncommon. The real damage is further disruption to ecosystems we’ve already put under stress.
7 Likes
Nah, just haze them. Hazing Coyotees is the opposite of hazing fraternity members, you reduce odds of death/injury and increase liklihood they stay away when you haze a coyotee.
http://uwurbancanidproject.weebly.com/living-with-foxes-and-coyotes.html
5 Likes
I live on an island in New England with a few active coyotes, and have seen them trotting down in-town roads and cutting through backyards. I’ve known neighbors to have lost pets to them. Most interesting active measure I’ve seen is an alpaca who mingles with a herd of Black Angus cows at a local farm. He’s said to have chased off at least one coyote, and seems to have some kind of innate herding instinct.
7 Likes
7 Likes
That’s sort of the conventional narrative, but I’ve read solid research that indicates coyotes are mostly just returning to a distribution they had previous to European settlement. They’re certainly not “invasive.” People just aren’t used to having them around. (And half the problem in California is newly built suburbs that encroached on coyote habitat, forcing people into contact with them.)
10 Likes
Hazing works well but only if they haven’t gotten too used to humans. From the conclusion to the study I linked to above (comment 18):
“Once coyotes have begun acting boldly or aggressively around humans, it is unlikely that any attempts at hazing can be applied with sufficient consistency or intensity to reverse the coyote habituation. In these circumstances, removal of the offending animals is probably the only effective strategy”
6 Likes
A book I read recently written by guy interviewed here outlined how federal agencies tried to wipe out the coyote like they did the wolf, to aid ranchers, and it didn’t work because coyotes respond to population decline by pretty much “ramping up production”:
Also about the livestock/ranching issue, and why coyote eradication situation is complicated:
Coyotes killed a young woman in Canada a few years back, of course, so whatever you think about coyotes being dangerous, there is that fatality for wildlife control agencies to think on when responding to complaints:
7 Likes
Here in Northern Greater Toronto, we have coyotes. I can hear them some nights and I see the occasional one at night. However, some people put out their garbage the day before, and that night is a wildlife buffet once the raccoons get the kitchen bins open. Coyotes getting used to entering people areas and feeding on the scraps will only lead to trouble. All of these people have garages where it can be prepped and put out on the morning of the pickup. sigh
(And I could do without the crows leaving steak bones in the birdbath after they dunk their leftovers.)
9 Likes
I think a lot of the more aggressive, larger fearless coyotes that are being seen lately are in fact coydogs or at least have some percentage of admixture with domestic dogs.
Wild Coyotes don’t bother me at all, even in urban areas. Although some feral cat hoarders do tend to illogically get upset when the animals they are hoarding in “colonies” on other people’s property fall prey to “nature, red in tooth and claw”.
There was an incident near me where a cat hoarder was finding her outdoor feral cats killed and their internal organs nearly surgically removed and the internal cavity squeaky clean. Her assumption was cat-hating psychopaths or Satanists killing her cats. Reality (in the form of a game cam) showed that it was coyotes, Using the cat like a quick snack taco bowl, licking it clean and then leaving the crunchy bits behind.
4 Likes
Housecats that roam free are an invasive species. As for chickens, their enemies are numerous and manifold. Raccoons, weasels, dogs, cats, foxes, skunks, possums, snakes, hawks, bears, owls and bobcats. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some other North American predator. If your chickens are being killed, that’s on you to fix, because chickens are designed to be eaten.
12 Likes
