Worth a read:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/City-Slinkers.html
Urban sprawl is increasing coyote habitat. The range of the coyote has greatly increased since European settlement of North America. There is now plentiful year round food in places where previously there was not.
Yeah, TD, stop encroaching on the coyotes. Move! 
Maybe some kind of trip wire or electronic detector that will set of all kinds of sounds and flashing lights or banging cans and pots or something?
Then of course your neighbors will be your predators.
No wild boar as well?
Here to help.
I GOT IT! TUBA!
This is only partially the case. I grew up in Vermont and never even heard of coyotes except in bad westerns. Now, they are present. Again, if you remove the top predator from the ecosystem, you change everything from the top down. Removing the wolf – because of its interference with our food products – is what has caused the coyote population to expand.
The Bureau of Land Management is, essentially, in the pocket of the beef industry and – unless they get their hands slapped – will do anything for that industry. Cattle and sheep are incredibly destructive to the range, they are not natural and never have been natural, to North America. Yet the wolf, horse and Bison which once – naturally – flourished here, are declared a danger to the ecosystem. I was brought up as a hunter, but I’m also a trained scientist, and the intellectual gymnastics the BLM goes through to justify their policies are truly disgraceful.
I’ve done this around my house and i think it helps. You don’t have to go out and pee, fearful of some snoopy neighbor catching you. :smack:
Stay in the privacy of your own house or garage… get a Bottle or jug or some sort of Seal-able container to urinate into, then ladle or pour it into a spray bottle. Take said spray bottle around the yard and spray to your hearts content! 
It won’t hurt to give predator urine a try, but don’t forget to take other steps as well like not leaving pet food outside, securing your trash and remaining vigilant.
Unfortunately, coyotes are everywhere. I used to live in a fairly populated city and would often see them around dusk. One night, I had several of them howling on my front lawn at around 2a. When I called animal control, they informed me that there wasn’t anything that could be done and that they get reports of them all the time and at all hours. The officer that I spoke with told me that she’s personally seen one at 3 in the afternoon walking down a fairly busy street. She was off duty and picking her daughter up from school, but said that the coyote could have cared less about the foot and car traffic all around.
When I looked into their habits further, I found out that they are literally everywhere in the U.S. even in busy places like Manhattan and Los Angeles. They usually sleep during the day and are often right beneath our noses in parks and fields, but go unnoticed as they curl up like a cat does and sleep in burrows or tunnels until the sun begins to set. They hunt at night, but if they don’t get enough to eat, they will continue hunting into the daytime hours until they are fed. Some hunt alone and some hunt in packs. They are also on the prowl more during the spring and early summer, which is when they usually have pups to feed.
Coyotes will also snatch an animal sitting right next to a human, so be aware of this even when you’re outside guarding your pets. There are a ton of YouTube videos showing their behavior, which is basically to shadow people or animals until they strike. A lone coyote will even attempt an attack on a large dog. They approach from behind and initially act as though they’re playing with the animal until they can get the right angle. This really worries me about animals that are left outside on a chain and can’t fully maneuver or run away.
The good thing is that animals, even cats, can fight a lone coyote off. Not only have I seen it on video, but I think one of my cats had a coyote encounter and survived. The bites on his hind area were consistent with coyote bites and the vet said that they definitely weren’t from another cat. He almost lost a tail in the fight and the surgery cost me a lot, but he survived. At that time, I didn’t know coyotes were in the area, but after I learned that they were a lot of my cat’s behavior was explained. He’s super-duper alert outside and will viciously attack any animal that steps foot in his territory (even large dogs). Before the incident, he just wanted to play when he encountered possums, squirrels, rats, dogs, etc., but since then he turns into a little monster when another animal is around.
He’s also no dummy and will run the moment he feels he can’t win. Before I knew about the coyotes, a couple of times I’d come home after dark and would find him stuck on the roof (he climbed up and couldn’t get down) or perched on top of a fence refusing to come down for hours and acting very guarded. Can’t prove it, but after discovering coyotes in the neighborhood, I attributed that behavior to avoiding encounters. My girl cat, on the other hand, is another story. I don’t know if she’s fearless or just oblivious to danger, but she’s so nonchalant about other humans and animals being nearby that I have to keep a very close watch on her. My boy, however, isn’t letting anyone or anything within a 10-foot radius of him without a fight.
In some of the videos on YouTube, you can see people walking down the street without a clue that a coyote is closely shadowing their every move particularly when people are walking their pets. A few months ago, I read a story where a man was sitting on his front porch with his cat when a coyote came out of nowhere and snatched the cat. At around that same time, a couple was out walking their two dogs when a coyote came out of nowhere and snatched one of the dogs. And, of course, sadly, there are always reports of coyotes snatching children out of yards and from playgrounds even while caretakers are nearby. They usually survive as coyotes can be fought off by an adult, but a toddler was killed by one a couple of years ago when her mom went inside for a quick minute not realizing a coyote was lurking. Neighbors felt horrible as they’d seen the coyote in the neighborhood for days before, but didn’t work to alert everyone of their presence. Had the mom known, I’m sure she wouldn’t have taken her eyes off of her daughter for even a second.
I live in the desert now and while I haven’t seen one here yet, I know they’re here. My cats still go outside, but only in the daytime (I actually stopped letting them enjoy summer evenings after discovering coyotes were in my old neighborhood). I know the pain of trying to keep indoor/outdoor cats inside and I know it’s a risk allowing them outside, but it’s life. I just try to be as cautious as possible and pray a lot!
If you try predator urine and it works, please remember to let us know.
NOTE: zombie thread, **Tuba **asked the question three years ago. (On the dot … what’s up with that?)
RE: this article…coyotes have been spotted trying to swim across Long Island Sound?
:eek:
My malamute and two Australian Shepards were laying beside me as I worked in the garden and a coyote snatched a beagle pup from under my feet and ran at 9 in the morning. The urine of my big dogs did not dissuade the pack. The presence of me or my big dogs didn’t stop the pack. Coyotes are fast, they are clever, they are opportunistic and fill the apex predator role well.
Your pack will move on when it runs out of things to eat, and bear in mind that someone in your neighborhood may be feeding them. A poster here used to share video of feeding coyotes, foxes, coons and opossums. Best plan is to write letters to the editor or ask a local naturalist or reporter to do an educational piece on how to keep your pets safe, rabies, don’t feed the wildlife etc. Make sure that everyone knows to keep the pets and pet food indoors, trash locked up, and not to feed the coyotes.
Sorry about your dog, Troppus. That must’ve been very hard to deal with seeing as you were so near.
You are right that people feeding them is also a problem. More education is needed in order for people to realize the danger they’re attracting to a neighborhood by doing so.
I also wanted to add that they’ll eat most anything including fallen fruit from nearby trees and insects, so it’s important to keep gardens as clean as possible.
The pup was a stray which wandered in just a few days before and I hadn’t had much time to grow attached to her. I’m going to include a description for educational purposes but I’ll spoiler it. Do not read if you will be bothered by learning about the death of a pet. This is a gruesome story I’m only telling in order to discourage anyone from feeding or encouraging coyotes. They have a niche, but as opportunists of the highest order, they need no help from humans in order to thrive and breed.
My garden was fenced and the big dogs were sitting and laying within a few feet of me, pup underfoot. The coyote trotted through the open gate and while I was registering the fact that the scruffy German Shepard trotting right towards me was actually a coyote, she darted in and grabbed the 9 pound pup by the middle of her spine and ran while shaking it. I heard her neck or back snap and the pup died instantly. The coyote scooted under a fence via a scraped out hole I hadn’t even noticed and ran into the weeds. The big dogs gave chase but wasted valuable time trying to squeeze under the hole the coyote used to escape then had to give up and run out the open gate and never caught up to her. The pup never made a sound. If I hadn’t seen the attack happen I would have assumed she disappeared into thin air. I imagine the coyote had been watching us for quite awhile before my work brought me and the pup close enough to her escape route. I knew coyotes were living on my farm as they’d killed a couple fawns, but the sight of the coyote just casually trotting up to me while holding eye contact really threw me. It looked all the world like a friendly mutt coming up to introduce itself. I was young, quick, and strong but only had seconds to react before it was on the pup and running and my lunge for it was a lame and foolish attempt to intervene. I felt terrible years after it happened. Still do.
I’m surprised your big dogs didn’t react in a territorial manner to scare the coyote away.
The presence of the coyotes was such a constant that I suppose the smell wasn’t a new one. And the dogs stayed exhausted from running the coyotes all night. We see coyotes day and night around here, and most keep their distance from people and large dogs. I think my dogs were as smug as I was that no single coyote would dare approach us alone in the middle of the day.
Actually, reading the spoiler actually made me feel a wee bit better. Doesn’t sound like the pup suffered or even had time to register what was happening. I know that doesn’t make it any easier for you to have witnessed, but still.
Going to check on my cats now.
You’ve gained a very different view of coyotes than I have. Around here, they are quite a few notches down from the apex predator role (following wolves, grizzlies, mountain lions, black bears, possibly wolverines, and obviously humans). They are most definitely fast, clever, and opportunistic, but they can’t afford to get cocky, as some of the critters on the rungs above them kill them just for entertainment. The coyotes around here don’t show themselves much. Even predators that arguable share the same spot in the ecosystem (bobcats, red foxes, lynxes…) will kill a coyote if they can.
Okay, I know it’s not really for entertainment. The big guys just don’t want to share their territory with competing predators.
I’m in the Appalachians, where the mountain lions are mere legend, grizzlies don’t exist, and humans swing between hunter and hippies with little moderate common sense. It’s darn hard to kill something which looks like a skinny, hungry dog, because we all love dogs, don’t we? And though the black bears are enjoying a boom year, but they don’t bother with the coyotes because black bears are trash can masters while coyotes forage under bird feeders like sorry, furry chickens. They’ll eat anything, especially cats. We’re about to have a turf war with the mangy opportunistic predators. They are coming into their glory days.
No, seriously, 200+ years of farmers with shotguns and a Biblical predjudice against predatory animals have left a huge hole for coyotes to fill. They aren’t even scrawny anymore. They are bold, they are plump, they bear shiny coats, strong teeth and a wiley sense of traffic. The feral cat population is padding their numbers. This animal loving vegetarian and wildlife advocate is preparing to shoot to kill, not to protect my outdoor pets (I know better) and not because I think that shooting the coyotes I see will have any real impact on the population (I know that killing the hunting Alphas will trigger the entire pack to ovulate and breed) but because I intend to cull those coyotes which have learned how to make a living off human ignorance and arrogance. We’re not always in charge here.
reported
Anyone know anything about Fishers? I found this blog and really hope someone can give me some information.
I live in upstate NY - WAYY out in the country. One neighbor who is rarely home, completely covered by woods except about a 2 acre span of my land that I try to keep mowed. We have a second lot that leads to a corn field. When I first moved here we had beautiful deer, a few possum, lots of coyotes calls at night, but never was I really worried. I figured I’d always ‘see’ or ‘hear’ any danger and although I was cautious, have never had any problem. Had a cat who used to refuse to come in at night, out all day hunting, would come in about 2-3 am. No problem. I was worried but hearing him holler all night was worse.
Since all this - coyote calls have stopped - used to hear about 30 in the next lot. They were so loud I could hear them over my TV. I only see a few deer now and then eating off my crabapple tree. No rabbits anymore - no possum - my newest cat, the other died a natural death - is very naive, loves to hunt, brought here after my mother passed on, is a small town cat used to visit all the neighbors around town, but now, we have a whole new scene. He’s been out and about for almost a year. Unbelievably so he’s made it home every day, and I try to get him in by 7-8 at night. He loves to go out in the early morning to do his hunting and I have let him go. However, the other morning, he was out, I had gone back to bed with my window opened and heard… little growling, snarling, little bit, but it woke me up… a little more and I got up out of bed.Looked out my window and against a flower box near my house is my cat with a fisher in front of him! I was TERRIFIED! Only through research did I know what this was… I had heard they were around, but stupid me, never though one would get this close to my house… (cabin). Screaming, hollering, my cat just stood there without a clue what this thing was, and only with this Fisher making advances did my cat start to raise his back. My screaming wasn’t working. NO reaction from the fisher at all. But I started pounding on the wood, raising holy *** and he backed off. I ran from my window to the front door ONLY to find out, my cat followed the Fisher! Terrified I kept calling the cat. I was pacing back and forth not knowing what to do and kept going back to the front door to call him, when he came around the corner. (My cat)… but still wouldn’t come in. Looking around and around, he didn’t have a clue the danger, but the fisher had left or was lurking someplace out of sight. I grabbed the cat and threw him inside.
I did more research the rest of the morning, call my local Environmental Forestry ranger all without any answers. Came to the only conclusion that besides keeping my now very upset cat inside, he’s not hollered one time to go back out… I think he finally ‘gets it’… he’s very quiet now and is definitely on guard. It has completely changed his personality. One encounter did this and he wasn’t even struck by this animal. But one question I Have is I bought Wolf Urine, But will Wolf Urine ATTRACT other’s wolves looking for a mate? We have very very few wolves here, none that I have even seen, but I know others have, however will it keep fishers away?
WHO has information about these fishers? Especially so close to my house? He was right outside my window.
OMG. HELP!
Man, I knew Carrie faked her death!
Of course!
It’s green and glows in the dark!