I just saw a message in our neighborhood watch BB about someone’s elderly beagle that was attacked by coyotes in their fenced back yard at 10pm. This has me a little freaked out, because while I expect them out in the country, our city hasn’t had a problem with them like some other places have had. Can someone reassure me that this is a fluke, and coyotes don’t generally jump into people’s fenced yards for fun, within sight of a 4lane highway and shopping center? This is the City, city, and while we have trees and some big yards and stuff, the house in question is still a good half mile, through a busy neighborhood, from anyplace a coyote might consider passing through. Now I’m thinking even more about putting a motion sensor light on our back porch. Would that discourage a coyote? And every time the dogs bark at night now, I’m going to be wondering if its traffic from the bar on the corner, or coyotes.
Coyotes, hawks, owls, bobcats, coons, those are all critters that will attack/kill/eat little snack-sized dogs.
Plus here we have rattlers to worry with.
We have a 6’ chain link fence on a concrete bottom, because of the feral hogs, but that never stopped a coyote or any other.
Also, rabbits and skunks can walk fine thru 2" chain link holes, any time they want to.
I go out with my 10 lb dog at dark, just in case.
I would say, coyotes will find a way into any yard they want to, you can’t be careful enough.
My Boston neighborhood had a coyote pack for the decade I lived there, tucked in between two highways and the ocean, plus Amtrak and the subway. I wouldn’t think of the attack as a fluke. They live in many urban areas, and acclimate to just about everything – lights, noise, proximity to humans. Where I live now, they have eaten every barn cat for miles around. They’re patient and smart, so take that into account if you’re trying to protect dogs in your yard – they’ll learn your patterns, and analyze your fence for weak spots. They dig and climb, and large dogs aren’t much safer from them than small dogs, unless we’re talking giant breeds. You may not be at the sort of density I live with, but, usually if you see one, a bunch more are around. Best advice I got about motion lights – it just lights up the prey and wrecks their night vision, while the coyotes stay in the dark nearby – so, it increases vulnerability for dogs and other fenced-in animals. Very solid fences and Great Pyrenees and some donkeys deter them, not much else.
Coyotes are very well adapted to living in different environments. I Live in an area with coyotes. I hear them at times. I’ve seen a few when driving at night, and once I saw two chasing a deer during the day.
In the same geographic area, there has been at least one publicized report of coyotes jumping a fence and attacking a dog.
There is no need to worry if you follow reasonable precautions, but one of those reasonable precautions is go outside with your dogs after dark, when coyotes are likely to be out and about. Motion sensor lights might help in addition to going outside with them, but there is really no substitute for going with them. I’d also suggest not leaving pet food outside and not leaving trash out at the curb overnight. The less you do to draw them in, the better.
I live in a major metropolitan area. It’s a city, but it also has neighborhoods with lots of trees, think bungalows. We definitely have coyotes here. I saw one trotting up the street a year or so back in the middle of the street lined with houses and sidewalks and lights. I passed the coyote while I was driving my car and he just sort of glanced over his shoulder at me, but did not get out of the road. We were going in the same direction. About a month ago, I’m almost positive I saw a coyote while walking my dog at night. It looked like a coyote and wasn’t on a leash and hung about in the dark when he saw me. I was a little afraid that my dog would try to get away from me and go after it. He was very curious. I have a friend who lives even closer into town and she and everyone else in her neighborhood heard a coyote killing something that sounded like a small dog late at night. She said it was horrific. Coyotes definitely live in the city!
yes, they are all around you. If you have good dog-proof fencing a coyote is very unlikely to get into your yard. Install some coyote rolls along the top of the fence just to be sure.
Yep, you’re probably at more risk than I am in the wilds of MT where I can let a guard dog run most nights. If coyotes have been in your neighborhood, you’ve been warned. Don’t leave anything little unattended.
I saw an amazing documentary about urban coyotes…on PBS I think. They used night cameras to follow coyotes around a suburban neighborhood. It was amazing how close they got to people and other dogs, without being seen. They are smart and adaptable.
That said, I doubt that your small dogs are really in serious danger, especially if you have a fence. I think the main source of food for these urban coyotes are garbage, rats and rabbits. I’m sure they might take out the occasional kitten or small dog if things just happened, but I’m not sure packs of coyotes are roaming and seeking out dogs. (In fact, I’m pretty sure the documentary followed solitary animals more than packs).
However, sure, it’s good to be cautious if you have a small dog. Fences, motion lights, and not leaving them outside all night are all good ideas. It might be the time of year also - coyotes are packing up at my house and screaming all night long. We rarely hear it except for the fall…maybe mating season?
I send the big LGD out with the little ones if I don’t go out myself. We have a chain link fence which I understand isn’t much of a deterrent. The neighbors also have a LGD so I think we’re not an easy pick for coyotes.
We are in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. Every fall, we have large packs of coyotes. The one that I saw in my backyard last year was the size of a German Shepherd. This year, I have only seen small ones. Last year, they killed several of our well loved neighborhood foxes. These are the foxes that live around the neighborhood barns and keep the rodent and house sparrow population under control. I haven’t seen a barn cat around here for years. My retrievers run to me when they see the coyotes.
Grew up in suburban LA, lived in suburban Texas, Mass and now Ohio and always had at least a few of them, even in my townhouse in a planned community.
If there is one weakness, they are not known to hunt in organized packs like wolves even if you do see a small group. And they are opportunists, going for the easiest targets. Usually not going to spend time trying to figure out an intricate attack plan when there’s a open trash can and bowl of dog food out in the next yard.
Dont give them a reason to waste time getting into your yard and they will keep looking for easier pickings. Secure trash cans, no food bowls, no unsupervised small pets.
Odd thing, somebody mentioned rabbits? Have had a terrible time with Eastern Cottontails eating my annuals, even in pots on the porch, the last 3 years. Not the least bit shy sitting in a bed or pot of of Impatients looking cute, stripping all the flowers and, being rabbits, rapidly increasing in numbers. Know we have a few foxes and more then a few coyotes coming up from nearby protected wetlands. Apparently neither of those care for fat, slow bunnies…too much work maybe with all the easier pickings?
Could also be feral dogs. Know of several places where groups of feral dogs have attacked pet dogs in their yards.
[QUOTE=MsM;7824980]
Could also be feral dogs. Know of several places where groups of feral dogs have attacked pet dogs in their yards.[/QUOTE]
Thats a good point. And feral dogs DO form organized groups/packs which can be more effective then the basically solitary coyote.
Don’t expect a fence to protect your dogs from coyotes, and don’t let the cats run outdoors unless you want to lose them.
Lone coyote?
I never saw a solo coyote in southern CA. If I looked around long enough, I would always spot others in deeper brush observing the first.
Hearing coyotes hunt alone is news to me.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/meet-the-coywolf/meet-the-coywolf/8605/
Many of these animals are living successfully in cities. Whether the Eastern Coyote is really a hybrid of Western Coyote/Eastern Wolf is controversial, but, whatever they are, they are definitely living in cities.
We are in the suburbs, but on a several acre parcel with strips of conservation land around it. We have a pack of coyotes that I hear howling every night and, each night, just before dawn, they make their way down our driveway, pooping all over it ;). New poop every day and I have pictures of a number of different animals from the trail cam I put out. I rarely see them in broad daylight, but have occasionally. These are big, healthy, coyotes. Probably 60lbs plus with luxurious coats. Beautiful animals, actually, but I’m not messing with them.
One of my dogs is bigger than the coyotes and the other is about their size, but very elderly. It seems the dogs and coyotes are jockeying for territory as my dogs like to pee and poop where the coyotes did, then the coyotes return the favor, and there is sometimes lots of barking through the windows at night while the coyotes go down the coyote highway…whoops, our driveway ;).
My solution is to never have the dogs out unaccompanied by humans, fence or not. My understanding is that coyotes might see a very small dog as prey, but a bigger dog as competition, in either case, I don’t want dogs and coyotes to interact. Our coyotes are afraid of people, which is good! I keep it that way by never leaving any food or garbage outside and by scaring them (yelling, waving arms, looking aggressive, my tiny elderly mother has a very loud air horn for scaring them off) when I do encounter them.
[QUOTE=Bicoastal;7826135]
I never saw a solo coyote in southern CA. If I looked around long enough, I would always spot others in deeper brush observing the first.
Hearing coyotes hunt alone is news to me.[/QUOTE]
Wolves (and probably feral dogs) work together to bring down much larger prey, coyotes have not been observed to do so. Don’t need to preferring smaller, easier game or sickly, disabled or newborn targets that can’t flee. Or stupid small pets that don’t know to flee.
That does not mean coyotes are solitary, just that they don’t get in a group and figure out how to run something like an elk into the ground or stalk it over some time until it lets its guard down and work cooperatively to bring it down. No idea if the coyotes even have the elaborate pack scheme with its hierarchy, kind of doubt it given their prey preferences. Wolves need the pack to hunt and survive, coyotes have proven much more adaptable to whatever conditions they find themselves in, simply switching from whatever they could catch to trash cans.
Kind of interesting the coyote is known in the tradition of many Native American groups as a con man and clever trickster, not to be trusted while the wolf is a respected and feared warrior. You would not want coyote as part of your name.
Ahh, but coyotes are Tricksters.
Coyote is out in the field, playing about, flipping an apple or something and having a gay old time. The barn cat or the Jack Russell or whatever goes out to see what that’s about. They’re smart enough to not charge the coyote but instead creep closer to watch.
They’re not as smart as Coyote, because while Mr. JRT or barn cat is absorbed in watching Coyote1 , Coyotes2 and 3 rush out from the tall grass and coyote dinner is served.
coyotes can jump a seven foot fence. They will bait a dog to play with them, lead them back to a pack, and blamo good by doggie. I lived in Phoenix, central Phoenix, right in the middle of a large condo complex. I would walk my then puppy in the morning. I would find the remains of cats all the time, heads, tails, big piles of fur…it was aweful. One morning went out to find a gutted orange cat about 3 feet from my door, coyote must have been startled by something and left it. Later that day someone posted a sign for missing orange kitty. Called them to give them the unfortunate news. It was heartbreaking. So I made signs and put them at all of the mailbox stations letting people know to keep their cats inside.
One morning I was playing ball with my dog - she went around the corner and began barking…I ran over to her, there was a coyote 10 feet away, just staring at us. I picked her up and brought her in the house. Went back out coyote was still there. So I yelled and waved my arms, and finally coyote sauntered off into the mountains. Often at night I would hear the kill- such a horrible sound.
Your dog is absoultely not safe, please watch him at night. One thing that will scare a coyote is loud noise. Get one of those air horns from a sports store and keep it on hand.
