Coyotes?

Okay so There was a piece On the news a couple of days ago (If not a week) about this ONE coyote that's been roaming around the neighborhood and such, well, little do they know this coyote and MANY others have lived over near my house for years already because the middle school (Get to that in a minute) However the Animal control asked that if the coyote is seen to report the siting to the animal control office because there have been people saying they think it may be sick/rabid. So I came home the other day right after school pulled into my driveway and look to my left and see this coyote walking towards the middle school, just let me say the middle school gets out a half hour after me I get out at 1:45 and they get out at 2:15 by the time i get home its 2 from the parking lot traffic jam. well, Being so close to the time the students get out of school, I was worried and called animal control to inform them of its whereabouts. The secretary at the animal control office took my information (Name and phone number) asked me questions as to how long ago I had seen the animal and wellness of the animal. answered all her questions to the best of my ability. She told me I would hear back from them within a half hour. HEARD NOTHING. still haven't and they never showed up or did anything, now this coyote hasn't bothered me or anything like people say i leave it alone it leaves me alone. but being so close to dismissal time i had to call it in. But what I'm P'd off about is the fact that they make a huge deal out of it, ask for information, and when you call in they do what? NOTHING. unbelievable although it doesn't shock me. Although this animal does frequent a busy road near here, it would probably be in the coyotes best interest to be relocated. In my opinion.

Your thoughts?

If it is sick, it will probably be euthanized, as the only way they can test for rabies is to examine the brain post-mortem.

I am sure the office was dealing with many reports, hopefully the situation will be resolved. But I would tell anyone who lives near you with cats to keep them inside for now, and small dogs shouldn't be left outside unsupervised. A rabid animal will lose its natural shyness, and small animals are, well, prey.

Yes, that was stated in the piece on the news to keep cats indoors and small dogs supervised while outside.

Justin, that one has been around quite a bit recently. I've seen him at least once a day since Dec 27th. He doesn't look sick to me, just doing what coyotes do.

As I've always said, this is THEIR land, we are the intruders. They won't bother you, just ignore them and go about your business - do NOT feed them. You can wave your arms and shout to scare them off. As long as they remain afraid of humans, they are not an issue.

We have them all over our state (Rhode Island), in each and every community. They are urban scavengers. Quite normal, just like the squirrels and birds.

And yes, there has been quite a lot of coverage on the one(s) in our area recently. Poor thing was sitting sunning itself one afternoon (last Friday, when we hit 50 degrees!) just doing what they do, and someone called Animal Control. Idiot went chasing it all through back yards for ages before it escaped him. (We have 2 ACOs in our city and one is trigger happy, a real loose cannon, none of us likes him).

Yeah I remember the trigger happy one. Never really did care for him. I know they were here before us, but as i said, only called because of how close dismissal time was.

The sad part is, the coyotes are not a species that used to be here at all. We humans drove the grey wolves nearly to extinction, and out of the area entirely, so the coyotes have moved East to fill the predator gap that was created. It is sad in so many ways, but there's no way people would trade coyotes for wolves, even if it would help curb the deer overpopulation.

My guess is even if the coyote isn't sick it wouldn't be "relocated".

I'm sure it wouldn't hang around a middle school with a bunch of loud kids running around.

Sadly, my uncle has a business of "thinning" the coyote population out near where my parents live. Mainly because there are lots of livestock ranches out there and the coyotes kill the livestock. :( I don't like it.....but there's nothing I can do. I'm not too fond of that uncle anyway.

Do the coyotes even really kill the livestock? I didn't think they were big enough for that!

They do, Karen, we had them killing sheep in North Kingstown, RI last year.

Cindy, too right; since they are urban scavengers, where do you relocate them TO?! Some other city?

Okay, sheep I can see, I was thinking cattle ...

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Originally Posted by Karen

Okay, sheep I can see, I was thinking cattle ...

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Calves.

We have quite a few coydogs around the Champlain Islands.

Here is an explanation of coydog:

http://www.google.com/search?source=...4l0.6.4.1l11l0

We leave them be. They often get hit by trucks/cars when crossing highways. They also clean roadkill nicely, thus the truck/car problem. I see them all the time.

There are so many other animals for the coydogs to munch on, that I don't think we have much of a problem with cats and small dogs being their prey.

In communities where they coyotes are being pushed out, I suspect capturing the coyotes and moving them to another location might work. It is such a shame that we over-crowd so many areas and ruin countryside etc. Oh well. I have lived in cities, towns etc. and prefer to live in the country now.

I love it when it snows, as you can see many different foot prints in the snow..... always wondering what passed by....another kitty, skunk, fox, coydog, fisher cat, dog, cow, bunny, squirrel, deer, wild turkey, groundhog. Yes, it is still warm enough that all these animals hang around until the real chill sets it. I can tell by the foot prints around my compost bin (trying to get in) .... and of course I can see some of these when walking my dog in the woods and fields, especially at night.

Coyotes are everywhere. Even if you don't know it, if you live in the states and not Hawaii, you have coyotes. Honestly, if the animal was showing signs of rabies this many days ago and still isn't dead, it probably didn't have rabies. Not to say it couldn't contract the disease today and then have it, but they don't last too long after developing symptoms.

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Originally Posted by Karen

Do the coyotes even really kill the livestock? I didn't think they were big enough for that!

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In the spring Coyotes have young. The deer & cattle have their babies in the Spring. The coyotes do kill fawns to feed their own young & they also will nab a cows calf to feed their young. We have had it happen to us. The coyotes come when it is dark & the only warning for us is when the cows moo & it is a real eyrie sound that is the warning for us to jump into action. We sleep with our windows open & when the cows make a racket we let the dogs out. The dogs bark & we yell to drive the coyotes away. Once the calves & fawns are big enough to run the coyotes can't get at them so easily as to when they are down on the ground & just born.