Coyote Attack In My Neighborhood
 

I was driving to work, about 7:30 this morning, when I saw something that looked like a dog crossing the road...but it looked unusual...it was carrying something. As I got closer, it was prancing right across someone's front yard, carrying in it's mouth...a very floppy and dead-looking cat. But this thing wasn't a dog. It's legs were much too long, it had tall pointy ears and a thin, pointy snout. It was mottled gray, and a little smaller than a large-sized dog...with those long legs...trotting along right there a few blocks away from my house with a dead cat in it's mouth. In broad daylight.

Now, I've heard from several people in the neighborhood that they've had cats attacked "by dogs" according to them. And, everybody I see going for a walk always carries some kind of beating stick. We're adjacent to some wooded, undeveloped areas here. I think we have a coyote problem.

You need to get on the phone to Acme industries.

Right...I forgot to mention he was wearing rocket-skates.

a beating stick? I doubt very much coyotes would attack a human walking around unless they were rabid. Which is a possibility, I suppose.

but people should keep their pet kitties inside anyway.

Foxes are smarter.

I think the "beating stick" is intended to fend off a dog, which is what they think is attacking cats. Surely, coyote attacks on humans are rare, but they do happen...very rarely. Usually don't cause much harm, but hey, what would your stick/no stick preference be? At any rate, this thing was prancing around in broad daylight.

my preference? a BIG stick! :D

Thank you, Cloud, but wrong thread.

;)

for dogs, you dog!

I'm more worried about mountain lion attacks in my nick of the woods. now those things WILL attack people.

claw hammer for me, thanks.

i see coyotes in my neighborhood daily. sometimes they'll get a small dog, but they've never gotten mine. Hell, I even tied a raw steak around his back and set him loose on the hillside but he found his way back safely.

Cats? That must have been one old, sick cat to get taken by a coyote. i've seen my neighbor's cat take on two coyotes and walk away flipping them off. If more than two come around she just jumps up on the roof.

Humans? Very rare. I run at night on the mountain trails which is effectively their turf and they scatter when they see me. Coyotes will usually go for the easy pray like rabbits, and squirrels.

You may have a very aggressive beast there, but it would be an unusual one. Oh, and it doesn't matter day or night. they'll eat when they're hungry.

I can't imagine cats taste very good. But meat is meat, I guess. Hope it was a feral cat and not someone's pet, though.

maybe it was a roadkill cat?

Coyotes are pretty skittish from what I have seen. So many more animals are making their way into the urban setting because we humans are crowding their living space.

I think I'd go for a pocket nuke actually. It's a dog eat cat world out there and I've always been a pussy, so I wouldn't take any chances.

Actually it's the other way round in this part of the country. The Coyotes are moving into where people live and displacing the foxes. Living near people provides more food with less competition than out in the boonies.

a very quick perusal of sites googled from "coyote urban" has some interesting information; the most alarming of which is a warning to keep young children safe in areas where there are a lot of coyotes.

Like Chicago.

Dingos ate my baby anyone?

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/urban...an_cities_9663

Someone needs to shoot it. You can kill them with a .22 rifle. They are a pest in this area and you can get a small bounty in some areas for each one killed. Their pelts are beautiful.

I think cats are the real pest in all areas. They have decimated native bird populations til there are nothing left but starlings(an invasive species),in fact cats are classified as an invasive species and in some areas steps are being taken to control their populations. I know in Wisconsin it is legal to shoot cats on sight,the bird and rabbit populations are undergoing mass extinctions due almost entirely to cats. So instead of trying to curtail the coyotes appetite for felis domesticus,I motion that we encourage them. Lets toss around a few ideas,Ill start. Perhaps presenting injured or in someway immobilized cats would help,maybe even dabble some beef broth or gravy over them. A box full of newborn kittens is sure to please,again with the broth and gravy. Im sure there are others. One more thing,the next time someone thinks about posting that 'coyotes are in his neighborhood' perhaps it should be rephrased to more correctly represent the truth maybe 'I am invading a coyote's neighborhood'.

I disagree with everything you've written except this part. Same goes for all those folks living out in the AZ desert complaining about rattle snakes--the snakes were there first, no?

As far as kitties being a nuisance I am partial. I own three kitties and I wuv them. I also keep them indoors.

shoot, although your post is, (I hope) tongue in cheek, there are kernals of truth in it. Cats are omniverous predators. And I'm a big ol' cat person.

But imo, pet cats, unless they are farm ratters or something, they should be kept inside, both for their health, and for the health of small animal populations. Cat husbandry, is really in its infancy, compared to dogs. Did you know commercial cat litter was only invented in 1947?

A bigger problem, though, is that people don't spay and neuter the animals, and you get big feral cat populations, especially in cities. The feral cats and feral coyotes will have to work out their differences themselves.

and . . . people are the biggest pests of all.

Oh, snap! You told me, huh? Except for the part about what you're saying not being accurate. Coyotes have vastly increased their range since human settlement has taken over wild areas. Yeah, that's right. And the coyotes that have expanded into human territory are far more successful than coyotes in wild areas. What a raw deal for those poor coyotes, huh?

Please acquaint yourself with the facts before telling me what you think I should have posted.

I'm all for culling animals that become a pest, and it definitely is a fact that some native animals have profitted from human habitation of their areas. We have similar problems here with kangaroos for example although they don't pose a threat to people in general, unless you happen to hit one with your car at high speed.

We do have problems with feral cats too. They should all be shot. They are vicious and as has been mentioned they can totally ruin a natural environment. Cats also kill for fun, so they're doubly worse. I've been in some areas of native bushland before cats arrived and the sounds of the environment are loud and sweet. You see small animals scampering about and there's plenty of birdlife around. I've been back to the same place after it's been infested by feral cats and there's nothing but deadly silence and no signs of life except the glowing eyes watching you from the trees, and when I say eyes in the trees, I don't mean a few. I mean hundreds. They are a curse and they should be shot.

I wandered into the wrong thread. I suddenly have an urge to spit a big chaw of tobacco onto the ground, wipe my nose with my sleeve, and say "ayup." Snort. Spit. Shoot.

Shoot, I don't see any location on your post, but around here, cats keep the rodent population in check, and we still have plenty of songbirds. Coyotes, however, are a problem for dairy farmers and for those with small children. They wait for a cow to calf, and then take it. They weren't here first, they are a recent immigrant to this part of the country.

I live near some undeveloped land and I can hear coyotes howl at night all the time. A few years ago I went out into my backyard and found half of a rabbit. I still cannot come up with a valid explanation to this. The yard showed no signs of a coyote getting in, and even if one did, why would it leave an entire half of its kill in my yard?

because YOU walked out at THAT moment , or it saw a chihullihi that was bigger than the rabbit to get ( eat )

I vote that everyone mails their cats to Spudcon. Air holes optional.

Zewb, are there any birds of prey in your area? My husband lived in California when he was little, and they had a pet rabbit they used to let out into their back yard, which was fenced in. One day, the rabbit disappeared without a trace... but they noticed an awful lot of large birds around the house over the next two weeks. The birds kept squawking something about a Bunny Buffet... ;)

Yeah, I was thinking about an eagle or a hawk or possibly even a large owl could have dropped the bunny.

They might not have lived there first, but they arrived because you did. Easy pickings are always going to be great bait for scavengers and hunters alike and that's what human population provides animals like coyotes in your country, and dingos in mine.

Nope, coyotes in this country are thriving and expanding their territory everywhere, despite culling and attempts to eradicate them. They are very successful at adapting.

Two words. Coyote Soup.

I think you misunderstood her. She was saying the same thing you are, coyotes and dingos thrive in the wake of people, because we generate good opportunities for them.

Yes I realize that spudcon. My point is that it's not the coyotes fault that they're profitting from human habitation. You can't blame the coyote for doing what comes naturally. Sure you need to cull them etc, but the reason they're there is because humans are providing them with what they need.

I disagree, but humans are the reason they're here. We've killed off all the competition coyotes once had for food, so now they are at the top of the food chain in the wild. We need to manage them like we do deer, only more so.

what competition for food did we kill off? wolves, maybe?

T-REX maybe?

That is correct, also panthers/mountain lions/cougars. Wolverines, badgers, fischers, mink, weasels, and birds of prey also compete with coyotes and have all been practically exterminated so that coyotes can become dominant.
As far as cats go, as a member of Audobon I am very aware of the fact that cats, both feral and domestic, are decimating the birds. The thing about domestic cats that is particularly aggravating is that most hunt and kill because they like to, not because they need something to eat.

So you are saying that those animals were exterminated "so that coyotes can become dominant." That sounds a bit purposeful, so I don't buy it. They may have been killed and an incidental event was the proliferation of the coyote in those areas where certain animals lived as all the animals you listed do not have as wide a range as the coyote. Who knows? Maybe the coyote is more like a roach, adaptable and reproductive.

Bad choice of words on my part Merc, but the result was the same.
We didn't intentionally kill the other predators so coyotes could become dominant, just as we didn't intentionally poison bald-headed eagles with DDT while trying to kill mosquitos. The end result is the same.
Killing off wolves and cougars *may* have protected some kids and livestock, but it has allowed deer populations to explode to the point where you can't drive down the road without hitting one, or plant a garden without them eating everything. Deer are starving because there are so many of them and not enough predators to keep their population down.
*It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!*

Fishers released into Olympic National Park.

It's not all regress.

A similar situation with deer in more populated areas. I can't believe they only get 40 pounds of deer a piece. Rip off. At least they are dealing with the issue.


Deer Hunt Goes Ahead After Years of Protest

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/ny...=1&oref=slogin

I don't see what you're disagreeing with.

It just seemed like you were infering we imported rodents and such to attract coyotes. Hey, maybe a good idea! Coyote Burger King.:o

I wasn't inferring anything. I meant what I typed and nothing more or less.

If coyotes only ate mice and rats, they'd be welcomed with open arms.

like cats :)

. . . though they eat lots of things.

like coyotes.

Oh, my head is spinning!

but not all the way around! ;)