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).