Wile E.

Grizzly · Jan 14, 2012

<a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/118289/width/350/height/467/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="P1120834.JPG" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="23752" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/23752/width/350/height/467" style="; width: 350px; height: 467px"></a>
<a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/118291/width/350/height/467/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="P1120839.JPG" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="23753" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/23753/width/350/height/467" style="; width: 350px; height: 467px"></a>
 
Scourge of the coulee. A denning pair have made their home not far from our back gate. This one was aware I was there but didn't give a darn. I couldn't get too close, however, as it saw some food (a hare) and made off...

willrun4chocolate · Jan 14, 2012

Aw, wow. Nice shot.

Tech Tee · Jan 14, 2012

I'm not sure I would want a pair around my house. I have seen one in my neighborhood, and I'm not all that thrilled. I worry about cats and stuff. 
Of course, there's still about 50 turkeys in the woods, so they're not hunting *that* much. And I saw rabbit tracks in the snow the other morning.

RaisingArizonainNH · Jan 15, 2012

Do you hear them howling ever? We used to have a a few coyotes up in the woods behind our house many years ago. They would howl at night - eerie but cool sound. Only once did I eve see one - raiding my compost pile not to far out back. Keep the kitties inside !

Floridaboiler · Jan 15, 2012

Very cool!

wherestheportojohn · Jan 15, 2012

Clever Girl! <img alt="biggrin.gif" id="user_yui_3_4_1_2_1326635173578_151" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="width:16px;height:16px;">
 
we've got coyotes all over our farm....freaky cool and scary at the same time when they communicate at night while we're camping
 
We followed the snowy footprints of a single coyote yesterday. Mark, sniff, trot, trot, trot. Mark, sniff, chase...chase chase chase...miss. Mark, sniff, trot. <img alt="rolleyes.gif" id="user_yui_3_4_1_2_1326635173578_280" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/rolleyes.gif" style="width:16px;height:16px;">
 
 
we've got 'em here in town too, and they are oh so comfortable around the populated areas
 
So keep your kitties and lap dogs within sight, people! (Attacks are no common, but DO occur)

Tech Tee · Jan 15, 2012

<div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/76145/wile-e#post_2025721" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by RaisingArizonainNH <a href="/t/76145/wile-e#post_2025721"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif"></a> 
Do you hear them howling ever? We used to have a a few coyotes up in the woods behind our house many years ago. They would howl at night - eerie but cool sound. Only once did I eve see one - raiding my compost pile not to far out back. Keep the kitties inside ! </div>
</div>
 
Never heard them. I have a feeling only a few live in my town. 
The turkeys, however, we hear them all the time in the mornings. In the spring and summer, in the morning, they'll be walking in the middle of the street and you can't drive until they get out of the way (which they do, they seem to be pretty skittish)

Tech Tee · Jan 15, 2012

<div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/76145/wile-e#post_2025738" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by wherestheportojohn <a href="/t/76145/wile-e#post_2025738"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif"></a> 
Clever Girl! <img alt="biggrin.gif" class="bbcode_smiley" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif"> 
So keep your kitties and lap dogs within sight, people! (Attacks are no common, but DO occur) </div>
</div>
 
I have read that they can/have jumped fences and nabbed dogs, but it may be anecdotal. I sure don't want my dog snatched by a coyote...in my own back yard! 
I have a feeling that these things are overblown and extremely rare.

wherestheportojohn · Jan 15, 2012

There are two schools of thought: 
Domestic pets are a nice easy-pickings meal.<img alt="rolleyes.gif" class="bbcode_smiley" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/rolleyes.gif"> 
Domestic pets a seen as territorial threats. Coyotes can't tell a shitzu from another coyote, as far as canine instincts go.

4boysmom · Jan 15, 2012

I have family in AZ where coyotes are quite common. They don't have a stray cat problem. Don't leave your cat outside unless you want it to become part of the food chain.
 
We do have a few here. They are quite comfortable in the 'burbs. In our old neighborhood there was an outcry--SOMEONE needs to do something! Our cats are getting eaten! Uh, don't put the cat outside??? We'll occasionally see one. It basically looks like a scruffy shepherd mix, very lean. We do have patches of woods (5 acres next door, another 5 acres the next neighborhood over). I don't know if coyotes make a home any one place. It does seem we go through seasons where there are more "lost cat" signs.

Tech Tee · Jan 15, 2012

I was talking about the fence part.

Grizzly · Jan 15, 2012

I have seen this one or its mate before, perhaps twice before. A few weeks before Christmas I saw one walking up this side of the ravine at the same time I saw someone on the pathway in the ravine walking a dog in the same direction. I was getting dressed for a run, and thought that the worst would happen. It didn't, the dog was safe. On a run I've seen it or its mate running on the pathway as well.
 
Yes, I've heard them on occasion, and it is a very eery sound. I have also seen on two occasions coyotes make off with small dogs. The first was something that could have been prevented and I am mad to this day about it. I was running on the hill and my path was a very elongated "P". I saw the coyotes just past the first intersection as I continued up the long stroke of the P, and I saw two people walking a Pomeranian off leash at the top of the P. I stopped and warned them, they laughed and disregarded me. "Our dog will be safe". It is about .5 of a mile return on the back loop of the "P" and when I approached that intersection, sure enough there was a coyote making off with a dead Pomeranian and some very upset owners. Ijits.
 
I have been running on the hill and seen them try to lure a dog into a trap and I broke that one up, much to the anger of the ijit owner who thought I was abusing his dog. The dog was chasing a limping coyote unaware that there were two sneaking up behind him. When I pointed the coyotes out to the owner of the dog he went all white. They really do blend in well in the grass on the hill.
 
Finally a funny / sad one. I am running on the street in the early morning and see a hare being chased by a cat being chased by a coyote. Coyote was going to have breakfast one way or another.

Tech Tee · Jan 15, 2012

Incredible how smart they are. First story, oh well, you warned them. Sad, though. Second story, OK, they were idiots, but at least things worked out OK. 
Knowing that, I would somehow try to break up their den. Because, there are more to follow, ya know, mammals being mammals. 
Is there something your township can do?

Grizzly · Jan 15, 2012

The city could hunt them, but that produces mixed results. Coyotes are perfectly adapted to living in urban settings. Killing them will mean an increase in prey animals which will mean an increase in predators... 
 
What's unique about these is that they are off of the hill. The area in the picture is just outside my fence. Picture a triangle of land that stretches out from our house about 300 yards to a major road. One side of the triangle is a small gully that broadens out on the other side of the road to a full coulee or ravine in the hill. On the other side of that ravine is first the regional pathway that meanders up to the hill and then more grassland in a similar triangular piece of land. Picture a funnel with our house at the narrow point and you'll get much of the idea. 
 
Dog walkers up and down our grassy slope, up and down the pathway and up and down the other side of the green space. Much traffic. Odd that coyotes would frequent a crowded area.

Mrtambalynman · Jan 18, 2012

I saw 4 walking down my city street a few months ago as bold as you please. MrsT has been followed while running with the dog early in the morning by one too - she's become much fonder of her treadmill since then.

Grizzly · Jan 18, 2012

I've been followed when out running in the country (on a group camp) in the winter. Didn't know it until I doubled back and saw the tracks. Then I doubled back to see where they'd turned, and sure enough they were in the brush by the road watching me. I don't think they were hunting me, just being opportunists and seeing what I'd scare up. Then again, it WAS cold and maybe I'd keel over.

4boysmom · Jan 18, 2012

Kinda like buzzard circling?

Grizzly · Jan 18, 2012

Yeah... dead man running.
 
Actually predators love runners. The hawks circle above me in the spring waiting to see what I scare up under foot.

jcumming · Jan 18, 2012

Lots of coyotes in Toronto.
 
Warning sogns in the parks by my place in Mississauga about packs of them.
 
I have only once seen one just behind my back fence in the field though.

Mrtambalynman · Jan 18, 2012

A friend and I were finishing up a mountain bike ride at dusk one evening after work. As we slowly peddaled up the last hill we heard the first howl - somewhere behind and to the right. Then the next in front and to the left. Then the next in front to the right......I think I heard about 5 replies to the initial call. Quiet unsettling. 
 
This was in a park in the center of the city.

Wile E.

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