My (harmless) coyote story.
While hunting in the Whetstone mountains, I and some of my burly, manly friends were getting ready to bed down beside the fire. I walked just outside the firelight (to pee) and saw a sight right out of a Disney cartoon. Dozens of yellow eyes, ringed around the firelight watching us. A powerful flashlight revealed they were coyotes, apparently drawn by our cooking.
The burly, manly menfolk slept in the trucks that night. 
Several years ago I ordered a sleeping bag rated for extreme cold. I figured it would be an interesting test of the new bag to lay a tarp down on the snow (winter in upstate NY) in a nearby patch of woods and just sleep on top of it. I looked forward to hearing some noises from coyotes, which I knew to be harmless.
I stayed plenty warm, but at some point in the night I was awakened by the noises that I had anticipated hearing: coyote yips and howls from nearby. They were quite close by and the only other sound was a soft snow falling, so I could hear them with great clarity. What a great experience, I thought to myself as I listened to their voices moving closer. And closer. And closer. Now, very close by in the darkness, I could hear branches breaking and their footsteps in the snow. Suddenly, I wasn’t sure just how great an experience this might work out to be. Sure, they were harmless to humans, but would they be confused by what I was, just some thing stretched out in the snow with no arms or legs?
I remember taking out my knife and lying awake for hours, listening intently with my heart pounding every time a branch cracked or a tree creaked.
Nothing further happened, so they must have just wandered off in another direction. Maybe they smelled me and figured they would avoid me. In any case, not the best night of sleep that I’ve had, but the bag turned out to be quite warm. : )
and damp.
They reintroduced coyotes here in Northern IL to ostensibly cull the deer population. They aren’t killing and eating deer – they are taking family pets instead.
I live in a “garden” apt and I face a very serene cornfield and line of trees. It’s very nice. Until it gets dark. When the weather is nice, I like to have my slider open to enjoy the weather. This past summer, I was immensely creeped out by the howling of a pack of coyotes that was uncomfortably close to the building. They must have found a kill or something because the noise they made was blood curdling.
The ones around here are the size of a large dog and don’t seem terribly skittish.
I came home from a wedding two weeks ago at around 10pm and just as I stepped out of my car, I could hear those unearthly howls and yips that seemed way too close. I booked it into the building!!
Richard Heene in 1976?
I thought wolves were part of the coyote’s natural population control. Is this like when bobcats see a house cat and have to decide: eat it? or shag it?