From time to time, I’ve seen people refer to the idea that coyotes are a serious threat to dogs. It makes sense that cats, small dogs, and puppies would be in danger if coyotes were nearby, but I’ve heard people state that medium and large dogs are often killed as well. I have never heard of this happening nearby, despite living in an area with coyotes and unconfined dogs, and I have trouble visualizing how this might take place. How often does this sort of thing actually occur?
I suppose it would depend on where you live and what the local coyote population is like.
Anecdotally my GF’s aunt lives in Arizona and has had a significant number of pets-- dogs and cats --[presumably] killed by coyotes. The dogs weren’t all small, there were a few medium-sized animals that “vanished” into the desert.
Yep, anecdots do not equal data, but I can offer a few from The Other Shoe’s extended family, which lives out in a ranch in the Panhandle. Dogs of all sizes “vanish” out there, and don’t forget, coyotes can and will hunt in packs.
Look at it this way: if a pack of wolves can take down a full-grown moose or elk, a pack of coyotes can certainly take down something the size of a golden retriever.
All animals need practice hunting. They don’t just do it correctly at first. A mother animal will often bring home a wounded mouse or whatever and let the dog or cat practice killing it.
My cat would bring home live critters. I can’t recall she ever actually killed anything. My dog would dig up moles in the back yard and then put his paw on them holding them down. He didn’t seem to know what to do with them once he caught them
Domesticated dogs never get to practice killing skills. Puppies rough house and play but it prepares them how to fight and defend themselves.
I would say most dogs don’t get the practice defending themselves so it puts them at a severe disadvantage.
I recall when I was young I had a dog. That stupid dog got skunked not once, not twice but THREE times in one summer. I mean what is so hard about, “See a skunk, a black animal with a white stripe and LEAVE IT ALONE.” Well Mr Dog didn’t seem to learn that. Do you know dogs can spit? I can laugh about it now but it’s horrible to clean a skunked up dog.
If a wild coyote attacks a dog it has experience on it’s side. The coyote is also picking who, when and where to fight. This puts it at a great advantage.
Since I’m not sure the equivalent of a number can be provided, I’ll offer a shared anecdote as well. Here on this board there was a past thread posing a similar question. Someone posted that they’d seen their outdoor pet staring across a fenceline at a coyote, the two animals unmoving and held in rapt attention by each others presence. What the pet didn’t know though and what the owner suddenly realized to their horror was that the first coyote was merely a visual decoy and a second was working its way in from the side and behind in a coordinated ambush.
They catch a larger dog unaware and continue the attach outnumbering it and there’s a good chance that increasingly lethal snips and bites will eventually take it down.
This doesn’t answer the OP, for which I apologize, but this is the first thread in the months since this happened in which my little anecdote is remotely germane.
My home office overlooks my side yard. One morning as I was working I saw movement in the yard and looked up to see an adult coyote running through the yard. About 20 feet behind it in full pursuit was my 12-pound Jack Russell terrier. I’m not sure what would have happened if the coyote had turned around, but it didn’t, so I’m left with a very amusing memory.
It just seems unlikely for a single coyote to attack a large dog. Even if it wins, would the possibly life threatening injuries and energy expended be worth it? Weren’t many of the larger breed dogs specifically bred to protect herds from predators such as coyotes?
While packs would certainly be capable of killing dogs, I’m surprised that dogs would so often let themselves get into such a situation. Growing up, our dogs were unconfined and never had any trouble with coyotes. If they heard coyotes at night, they might let out a few bold barks, but they made a point of staying VERY close to the house when doing so, and would usually be back inside very quickly after showing how brave they were.
To the posters above who mentioned dogs disappearing, what kind of breeds are we talking about?
I grew up on a farm and I don’t believe we ever lost a dog to a coyote. The cats, on the other hand, were a different story. We didn’t even bother with naming most of them.
Speaking of skunks, we did have a cocker that tangled with a skunk once, but in his defense, the damned thing was in the garage eating his dog food. We had a Boxer that just refused to leave the porcupines alone, go hunting for them and return with a mouth-full of quills. After the third trip to the vet, we found him another home.
But coyotes? Never lost a dog to a coyote.
My experience as well; cats but no dogs.
Coyotes are, er, very wily. Or, Wil-E.
Out here, there have been quite a few instances of larger dogs being taken down by a pack of coyotes. A couple will face the dog, while the rest circle around to the back, and attack from there. If the dog wheels around, the ones in front attack, and eventually the poor dog succumbs.
Nobody with any sense here lets a dog run loose, as there are coyotes everywhere.
Small dogs can also be carried away by hawks or owls, and now and then are. Sadly, some people think if these little fellas are kept in an enclosed yard, they are safe, forgetting about the sky. Then, all they can do as a hawk carries one away is cry, “Goodbye, Fluffy.”
Oh, yeah, there are also mountain lions which can kill just about anything.
I wonder why this is different than the northeast, where the coyotes are larger from having interbred with wolves. I would have thought dogs would be more at risk from larger coyotes than those scrawny creatures out west.
The coyote that lives/lived in the nature park near my house has eaten two cats that I know of, but no dogs.
Regards,
Shodan
Because the scrawny creatures out west have less to prey on?
Why would they have less to prey on? I would think an ecosystem would support however many top predators it could sustain. That is, how could there get to be a situation where there are more predators than prey to sustain them?
Right, because the USA is just one big natural ecosystem. :rolleyes: No habitat decimation or imbalanced predator/prey ratios or human-made pressures AT ALL EVER.
Gonna need a cite that coyotes are so widely interbreeding with wolves that the population is measurably larger in size, too.
Googling produces lots of links referring to this. Here’s Wiki on the subject:
It’s not that the ecosystem there cannot support them, it’s that they are opportunistic predators; they’ll eat whatever is easiest to catch. Do you think it’s easier to chase down a rabbit or other small prey or surround and take down a domesticated animal that’s not going to venture far from its home?
Yet I’ve seen more than a few examples of cats, taken from their mothers as kittens and kept as sole pets, that had no trouble figuring out how to stalk and kill mice and birds. Much of this appears to be instinctual.
It is the norm where I’m from that when you tie up a dog outside you tie it up in a place where it can have a wall or a corner to back into if attacked. A few years back a friend’s pittbull was inadvertently tied up without any place it could defend itself. When they found the dog, its tail was degloved down to bone and its whole back was one solid wound. The dog ended up surviving but it lost the tail and its back was a patchwork of scar tissue. No proof it was coyotes, it could have been feral dogs, it was definitely a pack of animals from the tracks, and we did end up trapping and killing a bunch of coyotes in the area over the next few months.
Q: How often are dogs killed by coyotes?
A: Just once, tops.