Their crazy songs are one of my favorite things about living in a rural area. They sound like a roving dog rave! So much yipping and screaming, so much energy, it’s thrilling every time I hear them.
What crazy shit are they getting up to out there?!? Why do they sometimes sound like they’re just a roving party and other times like they’re the actual Wild Hunt?!
I know they want to eat my chickens, guineas, and probably also my cats, but they’re just having such a good time out there that I can’t be mad about it.
They run rampant where i live. I live in some scrub brush areas, and i can listen to them yip all night long most nights.
The place where i live has some really abrupt environment changes, really big, fancy house stuck amongst the scrub brish and sand dunes. I occasionally hear about some dumbass out late, walking their pet schnauzer when all of a sudden comes a coyote out of the shadows and snatches Fido, leash and all, from the pet owner. When i go camp out on the beach here, they will come within 25 foot of my campfire, and as soon as the fire dies down i can sense them sneaking around my tent, looking for dropped food. They never bother me, so i never bother them.
This is so wild to know!! I had heard about people’s pets occasionally being eaten by coyotes, and I had always just assumed they were snatched from an unattended back yard. The idea that they’re straight up stealing pets away from a physically close, present owner really rocks my perception of them! I thought they were a lot more shy. Holy shit!
My impression of them is that they are very shy, too. They’ll get close by me when I’m out camping but the second i move abruptly or make any sort of noise, they head for the hills. Ive never once felt threatened by one, or even a group of them. Theyre just sort of there on the periphery.
I have to think that when it does happen it’s because the animal is starving, desperate, or something like that to cause them to act out of their norms. I blame human encroachment, solely.
Occasional desperation instead of general boldness makes a lot more sense!
Whew, I can’t imagine what that would be like. I’ve never had a dog small enough that a coyote could just whisk it away, and the confusion and horror that would result from that kind of seemingly-random attack would be so hard to deal with!
I can totally understand why some people are super scared of them.
Once they get accustomed to being near people they become a problem.
A man nearby literally had to fight off a few coyotes inside his own yard. This is a suburb near a smallish city. A couple decades ago we didn’t even have them in the area. He managed to save his dog, but it was almost certainly traumatic for both.