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Had a stare off with what I think was a coyote the other nite.
( It was to dark and to far away to see for sure. but I wasn't gonna try and get up any closer for a better look. )
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The thing just stood in it's tracks and wouldn't let me out the door of my storage building so I could get back into the house.
The stand off musta lasted about 5 minutes before it trurned in it's tracks and went the other way.
If you make a move toward a coyote it will BEAT FEET the other way BIG TIME. My closest coyote encounter was when a friend and I were walking through a field with the wind blowing and rustling the tall grass. The animal didn't see us until we had closed to within 20 ft but then it saw us and changed from a walk to a lope and changed directions of travel, away from us. Coyotes have never been a threat to ambulatory adults.
In the North American continent since the arrival of European settlers and kept records there are virtually no documented attacks by wild wolves and none at all I believe by coyotes. It is possible to be bitten by a coyote in a couple instances: 1. rabies, and2. if you grab one such as trying to free it from a trap or similar.
Pat
Pat I agree. We probably have more coyotes here in Cochise county than most places. When I first moved here I ask my closest neighbor a second or maybe third generation rancher what he did with coyotes. His answer was he has never lost an animal to coyotes unless it was sick or dying anyway and that his policy is to just leave then alone. I do the same. There is plenty of natural food for them to eat they come to my house every day and drink from my horse troughs and have never made any attempt to harm any of dogs cats ect. These are smart animals and if youstart killing themand their mates and puppies thay will assume you to be an enemy and tthen attack your animals in reprisal.
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These are smart animals and if youstart killing themand their mates and puppies thay will assume you to be an enemy and tthen attack your animals in reprisal.
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I agree that they're smart; i.e., they know how to find food and how to avoid humans, but I really don't think they attack anyone's animals in reprisal for anything. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] I think they'll attack whatever animal is the easiest food for them.
Neat photo. Yes they are smart and opportunistic but very unlikely to be motivated by revenge. Coyotes just deal with reality. I have heard lots of folks claim to have lost animals to coyotes but in the vast majority of cases it was dogs. When 2-3 or more dogs "pack up" they revert to wolves in their actions and will take down healthy adult cattle and are a realistic danger to an animal giving birth. Coyotes are not above taking a defective newborn or feasting on a stillborn and then may be wrongfully blamed for the death.
A friend of mine living in a fairly densely populated area in San Diego had a back yard adjacent to a canyon where coyotes prowled. A coyote took his little lap dog right off their back porch. This reinforces the opportunistic charge.
I intend to get some ducks, geese, and such for the three ponds in our back yard. I may just be feeding coyotes but intend to give it a try. I intend to build a floating island with nest houses for them. Coyotes are darned unlikely to raid them but I'm still thinking about any simple raccoon protective measures. A couple years ago a pair of Canadian geese raised three goslings in and around the ponds in our yard. Of course, Canadian geese are way smarter than domestic waterfowl. It will be an interesting experiment.
Our place is working alive with raccoon so apparently coyotes don't cut back the coon population very well. Even the few mountain lions we have seem interested in deer, not coons.
Coyote could be a danger to an unaccompanied infant or a child up to about age 5 but children are millions of times more likely to be bitten by a family pet than a coyote. A child was killed back in about 1980 in California. Coyotes are in general afraid of humans unless they have been conditioned differently.
Amazingly, many people feed coyotes, intentionally and even more often accidentally by leaving pet food, garbage, or whatever of interest to a coyote where the animal can get to it. Getting food near humans tends to reduce the fear of humans and so is a self inflicted risk on the part of ignorant or lazy people.
Pat
My wife was talking to her stepmother last nite and she was telling my wife that her neighbor across the road from her shot 2 coyotes the nite before that were attacking his dog.
It's about 7.5 miles between her place and ours. <font color="brown"> </font color>
YUP! Coyotes will attack dogs, sometimes just because they can (some sort of territorial thing I suspect) but at least sometimes as food. Coyotes will attack just about anything for food that is small enough to not constitute a physical danger to them. They are opportunistic and very smart and will gladly make a meal out of a pampered pet, free range fowl, or garbage. They eat nearly as much rats and mice as rabbits and eat about 25% carrion. They eat veggies too as well domestic animals and poultry, depending on what is available.
I recall seeing some footage shot decades ago in Beverly Hills. Early in the morning when the milk men were making deliveries at the front doors of residences the coyotes were coming along behind them and knocking the cardboard lids off the glass milk bottles and lapping up the cream as far down as their tongues could access it. This wasn't staged, it just shows the adaptability of coyotes to take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves. They are terrific survivors.
So far I have no reason to bother with them but if they were a threat to any of my animals and I couldn't protect the animal by simpler means I'd call them in and introduce them to a 22-250 round at 4000+ ft per sec.
Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]