Wow. Predators are getting brave!

[Mairte]

I just returned from the family place today. Anyway, last night I was taking one of the dachshunds out for the last time and he was dawdling more than usual. I looked up and a coyote was right at the end of the drive! (Its NOT a long driveway.)
It didnt take much to realize he was thinking "Dachshund, it's what's for dinner"....
I scooped the little dog up and backed up to the porch door, went inside.
This morning there were coyote tracks all over.
I guess its been a hard winter for wildlife, my parents have deer coming up to the house and eating bird seed as well.
I was really surprised. I mean, you HEAR of people's pets getting taken by coyotes but we have NEVER had them get up close to the buildings.

[Merlin the Elder]

Believe it or not, in central Arkansas, North Little Rock specifically, there have been several instances of coyote snatchings, and we don't have the snow that causes food to be scarce.  I live in Maumelle (adjacent to Little Rock/North Little Rock) and deer in the yard is commonplace.  Vultures are quite abundant as well. I had one on my front porch one afternoon, surprising the hell out of me. Quite a bit larger than I thought, but when I looked out the blinds, I was only a foot or two away.

[Mairte]

A vulture? We have them around here but I have never seen one close up. And we have tons of bald eagles.
Honestly,there werent coyotes around the family place the entire time I was growing up. Then I came back from Atlanta,GA and there were plenty of them!
I cant remember where I saw it, but there was a death from a pack of coyotes, an adult human at that.
I have heard they are brave in packs but not so much alone. Still....this one didnt look scared!

[Lady Rosaline]

My neighbor had to shoot a coyote just yesterday. It was on her front porch eating her dog. ( sorry kinda gross, but true.) The local wildlife officer said it was a very old coyote and that a small dog was the only prey it most likely could catch. I live out in the country and know that they are out here, but it just not something you think could happen.

[Becky10]

I live in SoCal like twenty minutes from Disneyland and I was shocked when I saw two coyotes trotting down the street at like 3 in the morning. We live near one of those river drain cement creek things (major brain fart) that they apparently travel down so they avoid the suburbs. I have an outdoor cat who LOVES dogs and getting attacked by a coyote was the last thing I thought would happen but after that I've made sure he has plenty of places to hide and dont leave extra food out anymore.

[groomporter]

Don't know if it's true, but someone told us that coyotes in the midwest supposedly have been cross-breeding more often with feral domestic dogs making them less timid around humans and as a result they are supposedly developing more pack-style hunting behaviors rather than hunting in pairs as used to be more common.

[Anna Iram]

We don't have coyotes here in Forida (at least I don't *think* we do) but we do have gators and they pose the same threat to pets and sometimes children. Not only do they live in the ponds and lakes that pepper the state, but in mating season they like to go for long walks in their search. It's not unheard of to find a stray gator in your yard. My sister had a 10 foot gator stopped dead in it's tracks by the corner of her fence a few years back. Quite a show watching animal rescue come and wrestle him into a truck.  

It's possible that all the above is true and they are becoming more bold. Possible also that it's we who are infringing on *their* homes. So much so that they are a) becoming more brave because of proximity and b) their food sources are becoming more scarce.

[Merlin the Elder]

Groomporter, I believe that's the case. I had read that most are really just cydogs. Packs of dogs became a problem a few years back in Little Rock, and got into the zoo, and killed a number of animals. SInce then, there has been a concerted effort to stop the packs, by all means necessary.

Coyotes have been captured in New York City as recently as this year. The only state that coyotes do not live is Hawaii (maybe the gators eat most of them, Anna!).

[NoBill Lurker]

We don't have coyotes here in Forida (at least I don't *think* we do)

Anna, we do have them in Florida...they have problems with going after peoples pets in Pinellas County of all places...and have seen 2 or 3 dead ones by the road side in Oldsmar!

[Anna Iram]

Really? Hmm...seen all kinds of wildlife, never a coyote. Perhaps Merlin in right and they got et.

Want me to send you a box of baby alligators Mairte? 

[William_MacKean]

Animals go where the food is.  And there is a LOT more food in sub/urban areas than in the wild.  In MN, we have a lot of wildlife on the edge of the burbs with infractions to the big city along the river.

[Welsh Wench]

We don't have coyotes here in Forida (at least I don't *think* we do)

Anna, we do have them in Florida...they have problems with going after peoples pets in Pinellas County of all places...and have seen 2 or 3 dead ones by the road side in Oldsmar!

http://www.pinellascounty.org/animalservices/coyote-map.html

[Jade Sapphire Emerald]

Yeah, Coyotes are bad here in Pinelas. I won't take my kitten out for a walk anywhere but in the gated quad of the complex I live in. Why coyotes are here, I'll never quite understand.

The coyote/dog breeding sounds very plausable!

[Lady Christina de Pond]

i hate going outside afterdark with S80 i'm always got my eyes peeled if i hear russling in the leaves i start scooting her toward the house i think i'm gonna locate the golf club that was in the closet and start taking it out with me again.

[NoBill Lurker]

It was funny as I was leaving work tonight, I saw a Pinellas County Sheriffs car with his lights going along the side Race Track Road in Oldsmar. And what did I see but a 8-9 foot Gator taking a walk down the sidewalk, and thought to myself...Only in Florida!