Coyote article... One part stood out...

LauraLeigh

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#1
Written by Dog Public
Photo by Steve Hollingsworth

Coyotes have adapted and now thrive in almost every biome in North America. Coyotes are a clever predator, and they are comfortable living near humans. It is for this reason that precautions should be taken if you in an area with a high coyote population. A coyote’s typical diet consists mainly of rodents, insects, and small mammals. If a coyote population thrives near your home or you travel to a coyote-prone destination, be aware: Coyotes will not hesitate to kill smaller dogs or cats.

What Can You Do?

A fence of at least six feet, installed with an angle will help provide a deterrent. Be sure the fence is buried at least one foot into the ground (with an apron base) to be sure the coyotes will not be able to dig under the fence.
Keep your pets secured either inside or in a kennel both day and night.
It is best to keep your dog on a leash when walking in areas with a coyote population. If you choose to take your dog off-leash, make sure he stays close.
While walking your dog, carry a walking stick, air horn, loud whistle, or an aluminum can filled with coins. These will all help to scare off a coyote.
Fruit trees and vegetable gardens should be protected as well to prevent coyotes scavenging for food.
If your pet is inside, do not leave his food and water bowls outside. Bring them in with your dog.
Check the surrounding areas of your home to be sure there are no small spaces that could be used as shelter for a coyote.
If approached by a coyote on your property or while on a walk, make eye contact, yell, throw things, use the noise makers listed above, and make yourself look as big and intimidating as possible.
Do not turn your back on a coyote.
If you regularly walk your dog in coyote country, try not to form a regular walking routine. Coyotes can pick up on daily patterns.
That part stood out to me, my dogs go out for a pee nearly every day at about the same time in the afternoon, when the one yesterday came out from behind the pool, at the time I thought... it's like he/she was waiting for them... Then I gave my head a shake... but now.... I am not so sure, maybe the darn thing DID know they'd be out about that time:yikes:
 

LauraLeigh

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#4
Shiver.... I knew they were smart... never knew they'd watch and learn patterns to that extent... I respect that level of intelligence, at the same time it scares the crap out of me!
 

Doberluv

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#6
It is soooo scary! I have to be more careful than I have been with my little Jose`. He is not as stuck to me like glue as Chuli is when we go outside. If Toker is out near him, I feel a little better because she could take on a coyote and I still go out with them. But I think I need to keep my little Boo boo closer than ever after reading that.:yikes: Although....I haven't seen them up close, but did hear them one night very close. There is a lot of wilderness so they're not as forced to come into peoples' yards around here, I don't think. But they obviously did that one night when they were making such a racket and it sounded super close. That was the only time I've felt like they were really close. So, I don't know. I guess, even if there is a lot to eat out in the woods, like rabbits and such, if there is an easy catch of a small dog, why not? It does send shivers up one's spine, doesn't it.
 

adojrts

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#7
They are smart and very adaptable. Laura and I have talked about this many times, because we only live a few miles from each other. Our area is loaded with coyotes, at this time they are very healthy and many dogs/cats have been killed by them. It isn't uncommon to see them during the day or to hear them hunting at night.
My neighbor had a large male GSD, the coyotes killed him a few years ago. My dogs never go outside at night unsupervised even in the backyard and they certainly never go outside of the yard at night unless on leash. Even during the day, when outside with a dog off leash, I am watching for them. I have had too many close encounters with them not to be careful.
 

Romy

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#8
Our next door neighbors had and indoor outdoor cat that would meow to be let out at exactly 10 am every morning.

One day Bill got up to let her back in from her potty break. This is the middle of the day mind you, daily routine. He literally had his hand on the handle of the sliding glass door, she was less than a foot from him through the glass, when a coyote flew out of the bushes and snatched her right in front of his face.

They weren't able to catch the coyote of course, and his cat died. Now all their kitties are strictly indoor. It still terrifies them because they have bostons, and take them out to potty every day.

I still remember my friend in Tucson with the mini schnauzer telling me about how she used to walk her dog in Reid Park at 6 am every morning. She stopped after several coyotes surrounded her one morning and kept trying to grab her leashed schnauzer away from her. This is in the center of a HIGHLY populated university town (pop. over 1,000,000)
 

FoxyWench

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#9
we had one here that decided my neighbors deck was a perfect sun bathing spot to watch the little ones...

we are fenced and i still dont leave the dogs out unsupervised (we also have the risk of hawks, a local large eagle, 3 bobcats and a turkey vulture who doesnt know hes only supposed to eat pre-dead things...i call him gorie!)
but seeing that coyote sitting there watching.
i put the dogs away and walked right on over with a VERY large branch and a pocket full of rocks.
(not that i suggest this for anyone, but im rabies vaccinated and have more than enough experience wrestling coyotes ) i told him to git...he kind of looked at me like "yeah right human" so i threw the rocks at him...he got up but still wasnt sure, then i gave a good wave with the branch about 3 inches from his head...

he ran and i havent seen him back since, nor have we heard any of them howling...
ive got a feeling he whent home and told his buddies about that crazy woman wearing bright pink being a raving lunatic...mabe he thought I was rabid lol.

they have been known not only to snatch wandering pets, a neighbor lost her bichon right out of her fenced yard, they simply slipped under a week spot...this was after i told her to not leave her dog out unsupervised as coyote sightings were getting more frequent...*sigh*
and they have been known to attack small children.

they usually have to be incredibly starving, (or ill) to attack a full grown adult, but its not unheard of either...
we keep a shovel by the patio doors now as a just in case, its an easy grab and a good reach and could kill if nessicary.
im thinking about learning how to shoot in the neer future as a just in case too.
 

Pops2

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#10
the best coyote deterrent is the coyote version of the original scarecrow, a dead coyote hanging in a prominant spot on the property.
 

smkie

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#11
IT's such a mess. Deer here are the problem. THey are shooting them in the parks now and not poachers either. They have to. People are all upset about it right until they have a close call. Now turkey are as almost as common as the deer. My son said this one refused to get out of the road. he would inch up in his car and the bird would move a couple inches forward but refused to move out of the way. I think coyotes are an incredibly beautiful animal, same as deer, same as turkey but too much of anything is bad. I would be terrified to own a small dog if I were in an area where they were prevalent. I also wouldn't want to be looking at a dead one either. Especially hanging in my yard.
 

Doberluv

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#12
My goodness! Those are some horrible stories. I've never had any that bold where I've lived. I wonder if where you guys live...if there's more human encroachment on the wildlife areas...if that makes a difference...like they don't have as good a chance of getting their own food without going for human-dogs. lol. I guess to them...whatever is easiest.
 
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#13
I live in a very rural area, and we have a major coyote problem. Due to weather conditions they have eaten very well over the past few years and thier numbers are growing faster than we can keep up. Our provincial government recently announced a program that will pay $20 for every coyote shot by anyone who can legally shoot a gun. They are incredibly smart and I've seen one coyote entice a dog out of a yard where the rest of the pack was hiding and then ambush the poor dog.
 

FoxyWench

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#14
here that is absolutly the problem dober...
infact the town just sold 5 acres of protected wetland to a development company on one end of town and 20 acres of park land on the other side to the same company, this is also the same company that bought 2 10 acres lots of "green space" over the past 2 years.

why?
to build cookie cutter town houses.
the town needed the money and the majority of folks in the town dont realy care for "nature" so aproved the sale of all this protected and green space...
now weve got about 30 acres of houses sitting empty (because they cant sell the damned things) and the turkey, deer and coyote (and even bob cat) are now having to wander through peoples yards just to follow their usual hunting trails.

ive never worried about them using the yard as a cut through we see tracks all the time, and sometimes catch a glimps...but they NEVER bothered with our pets ect...thered be the occasional "lost cat" poster which was likley coyotes, but you rarely heard them and those lost cats were MABE once every couple of months...
now theres new missing cat signs every week and instead of just passing through, there stopping and "watching" on peoples property.
the turkey are getting VERY pushy with the roads too, we have a 6 hour back up because a family of turkeys this past fall decided the road belonged to them.
noone could shoo them away, there were 3 VERY large toms protecting their girls which ive never seen that many toms in a flock before) and over 30 birds total, anyone trying to get out of their cars to move them along were being attacked by the toms (they can move fast conisidering there just cannon balls with feathers) the cops were there, animal control, noone knew what to do it came to "if we cant get them out of the road were going to have to shoot them"
then a frined of mine said "dude wtf" and just very slowly drove THROUGH them, the toms didnt want to move at first but he just kept going, they were either going under the car or were moving...

its not their fault, i mean someone just built a bunch of houses on a peice of land they usually spent thier days looking for bugs on...
but it caused quite a commotion.
 

Doberluv

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#15
Yup...it's amazing that I don't see more wild life than I do. Everyone that knows me and knows that I live not in just a rural area, but quite an undisturbed wilderness area in north Idaho...a remarkably unique ecosystem, as a matter of fact, notoriously, one of the last (almost) pristine wilderness areas left in the U.S...are surprised that I don't see more wildlife than I do. I know they're there. I have had a bear come on my property maybe a total of 3 times in almost 9 years, deer sometimes and coyotes maybe once or twice that I know of. I only heard them...didn't see them. Down the road, a Grizzly bear killed a bull moose behind someone's house in the woods. There have been moose poops in my yard a few times.

But besides my 5 acres and the acreage parcells around me that are established...not much in the way of new homes, there are thousands of acres of gov. land around me. So, I figure most of the time, the animals have enough to eat without having to come too close. The resorts here (rustic cabin type resorts) do get bear in their dumpsters sometimes in summer. Camp grounds warn about bear and feeding animals etc. So, they do come around, but it doesn't seem like a completely out of balance situation.

However, I do go out with my Chis and stay close, just because that one night when I did hear the coyotes VERY close, having a party. They sounded like they were in my driveway.
 

LauraLeigh

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#16
Here we are super rural, I live on 400 acres and am surrounded by farms our size or bigger, can't remember the last brand new home that was built on our road besides one in the little village at the corner. Here I have my doubts that it is because of new homes and developments, they are simply thriving! I had heard our government was putting a bounty on them though, and I am not sure how I feel about that to be perfectly honest... I am at work and trying to read and reply on my BlackBerry... LOL
 

adojrts

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here that is absolutly the problem dober...
infact the town just sold 5 acres of protected wetland to a development company on one end of town and 20 acres of park land on the other side to the same company, this is also the same company that bought 2 10 acres lots of "green space" over the past 2 years.

why?
to build cookie cutter town houses.
.
That is not the case out here, very difficult if not almost impossible to build a new house on agricultural land let alone gov. land. It just doesn't happen very often and there are certainly no housing developments.
 

joce

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#18
Our problem is this was all farm land thats now being built up into developments. The city people move out here and are shocked when fluffy foo foo gets eaten when they leave them tied outside. They have learned where they can get food without getting shot and where its easy. We never even used to see them ten years ago. I think they used to eat the wild stuff and not rely on house pets.

They scare me-a lot. We had issue with a neighbor leaving all her cats and moving this last summer. The coyotes moved in to take care of what we couldn't catch. The noises they made where unreal. It was like being in a scary movie. I had to go feed the horses who were freaking out and I'd see a coyote dart behind the barn and then hear these horrible screams.

Someone just told me about how they can "throw their voice" so it sounds like they are farther away when they are actually close to you.

We have seen more foxes lately to but I think someone here is doing a trap and release with them because they are not that scared of people and just showed up all of a sudden.
 

Pops2

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#19
coyotes will go out of their way to kill fox & since they don't tree well they usually slam the reds bad & the greys seem to do better then.
 

LauraLeigh

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#20
coyotes will go out of their way to kill fox & since they don't tree well they usually slam the reds bad & the greys seem to do better then.
Someone, can't remember who, once told me Fox and Coyote don't tend to share territory, that may be why then? (If it's true, I can't remember where I heard it.. LOL)
 

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