-When an artist dies the world mourns.

I also wanted to add a little to what ctinn said about people seeing canines as our “buddies.” This is a very true statement. People are inclined to try to approach them or feed them, thinking “hey their dogs,” without realizing the danger they are in. There is a lack of understanding that feral dogs can be every bit as dangerous as a wild animal. In fact, they are perhaps even more dangerous simply because they are numbed to any innate fear of us, which can make them very bold and likely to exhibit unprovoked aggressive behavior. It has been shown that the degree of domestication in an animal does little to stop its potential for reverting to a feral state, and in the case of dogs that prior domestication merely negates their shyness towards us. Furthermore, they know that humans mean food. No, I don’t mean humans as food , but there is an association. Feral dogs are a big danger in many areas due to this sympathetic attitude towards them coupled with their lack of fear and potential aggressiveness. It’s a bad combination.

The feeling of these feral dogs as our buddies also can cause a pain when trying to manage their populations. It’s difficult to gain public support for a program that may entail eradicating these animals because people are still seeing them as pets and “buddies.” So whereas it might be Ok in many people’s minds to get rid of some wild animal pests, there is a soft spot towards dogs, and it can cause people to get upset when the dogs are destroyed. People don’t want to see dogs treated badly or killed, so there can be quite a bit of public resistance against any such management approach. What they don’t realize is that these feral dogs are a very real threat, to both humans and wildlife. The same sentiment can be seen towards efforts to eradicate feral house cats in some areas.

Anyway, yes, the lack of respect towards and knowledge of the natural world people can exhibit is unfortunate. This and the skewed image and misconceptions people have towards familiar animals, such as dogs, is not only misguided but dangerous as well.

I agree. It seems that the vast majority of people have allowed most of what they “know” about animals to come from Walt Disney (or cutesy Animal Planet shows). They show an appalling lack of knowledge of the natural world, and a lack of respect for wildlife that can be dangerous.

There’s no indication that this unfortunate young woman did so though. Her death will (or at least it should) make people think twice about going running alone in a place where large predators are apt to exist. I mean, “two coyotes” does not sound like a danger and my first thought was “two coyotes?!” “Two coyotes?!!” But you know, as experienced as I am with animals, would I be able to fend off two coyotes if they maybe knocked me down, unawares, from behind? I think I would, but I don’t ever want to find out. I don’t go walking or running alone anymore. I either go with another person or a German shepherd dog.

When I lived in Arizona I saw people stop their cars to try to get coyotes to come let them pet them. I don’t know if they were just ignorant and thought they were dogs, or thought they were friendly because they were so healthy, but I do know if it had been a mountian lion they wouldn’t have been trying to make “friends”.

People need to realize that all animals from ants to birds and even rabbits have the ability to cause injury to them, and to treat all animals, ESPECIALLY wild ones, as something to be wary of.

Great point.

Indeed, Coelacanth1938. Indeed.

Thanks for the info.

To be honest, what you are saying it is Scarier than Heck. But informative anyway.

“Maybe they are figuring out that children are our fawns.”

(Shudder.)

Coyotes probably would have found their way eastward eventually in any case. The deer & turkey populations in the eastern USA have skyrocketed over the past three or four decades, along with rabbits, raccoons, possums, wild geese, and other prey animals. Not to mention all the feral animals such as dogs, cats, ducks and goats. When I was a child, deer and turkeys were very rare here. Now there are thousands, and they are active even during the day. Some predator was bound to move in on that smorgasbord, sooner or later. Several incidents occurred which hastened coyotes’ expansion.

Some people in the southeastern states began importing coyotes from western states to stock “coursing pens”, which are large fenced areas where coyotes are “coursed” (chased) by packs of hounds. Coyotes are larger and have more stamina and speed than foxes, and are not likely to form packs for protection like wolves do, and were considered ideal for this “sport”. Never mind that some of them also were affected with canine rabies, or that they potentially could be harboring a deadly type of tapeworm. Not to mention the fact that importing them across state lines was and is illegal. They were “good sport for the dogs” and disposable, and there were plenty more where those came from.

When federal and state wildlife officials began crackdowns to stop this practice, as part of a massive rabies-prevention campaign, they confiscated any coyotes they found, but sometimes the perpetrators had been forewarned, and they simply released all their coyotes so that they would not be caught redhanded. Hundreds of coyotes were released in this manner (along with – you guessed it – a strain of canine rabies from Mexico and a tapeworm that is usually fatal to humans if they contract it). After many years of hard work, the canine strain of rabies has “officially” been eradicated from the USA. The coyotes, however, are proving more tenacious. Most of the coyotes across the South are very similar in size, color, and habits to western coyotes, and, being both intelligent and adaptable, and not having to contend with wolves, the coyote population in the southeast is growing rapidly.

During about the middle of the 20th century, wild canids began turning up in New Hampshire, and later in other parts of New England, that were not quite like any known canids. They resembled coyotes but were larger, darker colored, and had broader muzzles. One researcher had some captive coyotes that escaped and apparently interbred with the very rare wolves in the area, and that can explain some of the New Hampshire canids (now generally referred to as Eastern Coyotes). But it doesn’t explain them all. Even coyotes are not thatprolific. What, then?

In my opinion the answer is that a few wolves interbred with coyotes, not only the few that have escaped or been released, but also those coyotes that are naturally dispersing eastward, across the northern plains. I also think that there have been more than a few feral dogs in that mix. The result is a canid that is larger and stronger (and often darker colored) than what we think of as a coyote, intelligent, aggressive and not as inhibited towards people as western coyotes are. They don’t tend to packs like wolves do; they are much more likely to hunt in pairs, although they sometimes hunt in larger groups. They are opportunistic but, at least in my area, they are more predator than scavenger.

I have been informally documenting coyotes in my area for nearly twenty years. Mainly from roadkills, anecdotal accounts from neighbors and clients, and news items, but personal experience as well: coyotes came to view my isolated home as a ready food source. I lost about two dozen cats and rabbits to coyote predation before I adopted a foxhound-mix and a German shepherd dog. Coyotes don’t like to be noticed and they can’t afford to waste time outwitting two big dogs, so they stay away now. All of the coyotes I have seen in this region are bigger than western coyotes. I have seen some as tall as a German shepherd, but they are always much more lightly built. Oddly, several coyotes I have seen here, including one roadkilled female that I photographed, have been very dark colored. “Sabled”, we German shepherd people would say. Like a normal-colored coyote rolled in soot. So I think that probably the coyotes here in the south-central Appalachians have dispersed southward from the Adirondacks, which are after all, a northern part of the Appalachian range.

When my brothers and I roamed these old hills forty years ago, feral dogs were common, but coyotes were absent. You still had to be cautious, because feral dogs can kill you (although they usually run away, they can be very dangerous). If there is more than one, and they get you off your feet, they can pull you to pieces.

In the years since then, coyotes have become very numerous. I used to tally maybe one every two years, roadkilled within a few miles of home. Now I see at least a half-dozen a year roadkilled, and about the same alive. I don’t see why coyotes would be any different than feral dogs, once they get the notion to attack. We already know they are dangerous to children. They’re smart. Maybe they are figuring out that children are our fawns.