Urban Coyotes

Jay Nistetter

Jay Nistetter

New member
Headline News Dramatization:
An overly bold coyote was seen several times near a grade school playground. It was concern enough that game officials were contacted in order to remove the problem coyote. Coyotes are routinely called using distress sounds by sportsmen but repeated attempts by game officials failed to elicit any response from any of the several coyotes frequently sighted in the general vicinity.

Let’s take it a step further:
Amber Alert Canceled.
Today the body of a small infant girl was found partially eaten by coyotes. The grizzly discovery was made by two early morning joggers. The identity of the child has been confirmed as being the subject of yesterday’s Amber Alert. Investigators have determined that at least one pair of coyotes dragged the child from her yard. Experts believe that a tragedy like this was inevitable because over time it has been demonstrated that coyotes have been losing their fear of humans.

Question:
Does the calling of urban coyotes acerbate a growing problem between human and coyote encounters much like the feeding of coyotes?
 
Dang Jay, this is getting deep! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
To answer your question, no. Coyotes respond because they have heard the dying/crying sounds before - after they have caught a rabbit, bird, or fawn. They don't come because they think a baby human will be there, they come because they think a easy meal will be there.

I say, turn a bunch of callers loose in those neighborhoods with paintball guns or air rifles & let them show coyotes that they will get burned if they come around people.


I have to ask, what made you come up with this post?
By the way, I hunt A LOT of semi-urban spots & I kill a lot of coyotes there, we don't have problems with coyotes attacking pets or humans.
 
I don't think there is a correlation between urban coyote attacks and calling urban coyotes.

If anything, the unsuccessful calling and/or calling and unsuccessful killing of urban coyotes with a rifle or shotgun educates and drives away the urban population. On the flip side, the successful calling and killing of urban coyotes in turn diminishes the urban population.

Jay, pictures yet?
 
Urban coyotes. Habituated, comes to mind.

A canine predator can size up an adversary or prey quickly. In a few seconds, IMO.
 
In my opinion,... no. Coyotes are coyotes. And they all trigger on that same basic sound - animal in distress. And a small child, separated and lost, who starts crying sounds eerily like what they are - a young animal in distress.

Calling that coyote repeatedly doesn't, IMO, condition him to be comfortable around humans. I've got several packs around here in Kansas that I call to repeatedly during the "off season" as a means of learning from them and, to be quite honest, the chance to screw with their minds. LOL What makes your urban coyote comfortable around humans is the fact that humans don't shoot at him while he's drinking from your swimming ponds and eating your pets and pet food.

Until these western cities decide that coyotes and cougars are consummate predators, accept that when they kill a human, they're simply doing what God put them on this earth to do, and that humans of any age group are just really slow and dimwitted prey to an efficient predator, these tragic events will continue to happen and the cities will be forced to finally deal with the issue. I find it implausible to suggest that the activities of one or a few recreational callers would have such an impact, anywhere.
 
I did just that last week....Buster was barking at daylight, & went out in my robe...
Coyotes were 20 yards past my Tahoe....No Gun! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

After I retrieved my .22 magnum & went back out, they were not to be seen. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I grabbed the FoxPro out of the Tahoe & set it on the bumper with jackrabbit distress playing softly...Sure enough 170 yards out I see one stick it's head out a greasebush.

Bang-Pop!

It was the female. No pups, or she was dry already, but in town it was a good deed.

I don't think these coyotes provide recreational calling for anyone being as they live along the fringes of towns.
On the other hand the cats & small dogs the town has provides much "recreational dining" for the coyotes.

I'm sure that the impact I have on them is minimal at best as well.

Barry
 
Quote:

Bang-Pop!

It was the female. No pups, or she was dry already, but in town it was a good deed.




In your town you can shoot a rifle 170 yards down the street and kill a coyote?
 
This topic certainly makes one wonder as just last week or so Fox News reported a story on troubles in and around the Seattle area. Are coyotes now losing fear of humans...sounds reasonable with the recent news covering the subject. Fact or are we just all of a sudden hearing of this due to populations moving out to their backyards. I would tend to think anything we do interacting with coyotes causes them to lose fear if we let them live. How mant times can you hand feed an alligator before he takes your hand off? Animals especially when provoked by food or the thought of food are easily trained and lose fear. This only intensifies when hunger hits and they will stetch it closer and closer until a negative experience is encountered. In my case about 60 grains worth!
 
I live right at the edge of town...There's nothing out that direction but mequites & greasebrush... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

That was why I used the .22 mag though, because it's so close to town.
I think the M-4 would have had some lights coming on... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Barry
 
Quote:


That was why I used the .22 mag though, because it's so close to town.




Ah I get it. Rimfire rifle allowed to shoot in your city limits. Man, I wish I lived in your state. Here in AZ, we're cited if we fire any firearm within the city limits. I follow the law.
 
I know one thing, the urban coyotes were easy to call and not nearly as wary as coyotes away from town. When I hunted contests my partner and I would often hit the field that was right across the road from our check out point. It was right on the edge of where you could legally shoot. In fact, it was the first open field next to town that was legal to shoot. Homes, businesses and roads were within sight, but we were legal. Of course we killed or at least tried to kill everything that showed up. I kind of felt bad because the coyotes seemed tame, /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif but I also knew they were eating peoples cats and dogs when not stealing their food. They didn't seem nearly as concerned with scent, movement or human noises as the more wild coyotes. I had maps of the areas we hunted and I marked the boundary lines between legal and illegal shooting areas. Coyotes on those edges seemed like an entirely different animal. From what I saw I would say that you might be making them into more of a danger, but they might already be a danger because of the available pets and pet food nearby. I have to admit that if I want to show a visitor a coyote, I'll go down the road and call one in. It is in town and I don't shoot them, but I don't do it very often either. When newbies ask where to hunt, I'll often suggest that they hunt as close to town as legal. That way they can probably get away with their newbie mistakes and still call and kill coyotes. Personally, I wouldn't make a habit out of calling animals that I don't/can't/won't shoot.
 
So some of what I am reading is that calling urban coyotes has no effect on them. That shoots the “educated coyote” theory all to hell doesn’t it?

rprince, calling with reprisal has an affect if I am reading you correct. So would calling with no reprisal have any effect?
What made me come up with this post? I just read Judd Cooney’s article in this month’s (August) issue of PX.

Lance, I think you basically said in a round about way in your second paragraph that lack of reprisal (shoot) emboldens a coyote.
Quote:
I find it implausible to suggest that the activities of one or a few recreational callers would have such an impact, anywhere.

Great sentence. Would the same hold true for “one or a few” who feed coyotes as well? I’d like to use this sentence the next time summertime coyote hunting rears its ugly head.

Scott and Barry, Sounds like both of you are also saying that calling with reprisal has an affect. Terminal affect in Barry’s case.

Scott, There are one-mile blocks of State Trust Land intermingled throughout the Valley. Unless the laws have recently changed, 22’s and shotguns are legal. BUT… I haven’t checked the regulations in awhile.

So if everyone agrees that reprisal has an effect, then why would lack of reprisal not have any effect as well?
 
Quote:
Urban coyotes. Habituated, comes to mind.

A canine predator can size up an adversary or prey quickly. In a few seconds, IMO.



Kirby, didn't mean to leave you out. I agree with you but if there are no adverse consequences why would there be any need for a coyote to run away? Judd's article reveals that coyotes are becoming bolder every year.
 
Actually, yes.

How would you know where I live in relation to the city limits? I said I lived at the edge of town...

My 2 nieghbors, one a city police sgt. & one a border patrol supervisor told me to take them out. They have lost animals to coyotes.

I follow the law as well, plus I like to know facts before I insinuate someone is breaking it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

I guess experience comes with age...sometimes.

Barry


 
Quote:

Scott, There are one-mile blocks of State Trust Land intermingled throughout the Valley. Unless the laws have recently changed, 22’s and shotguns are legal. BUT… I haven’t checked the regulations in awhile.



Jay, I think it's just shotguns in those county islands.

rockinbbar: you make me chuckle.
 
Quote:
Judd's article reveals that coyotes are becoming bolder every year.



Possibly, but what is the bench mark? Coyote populations and ranges have increased, along with urban sprawl. If no predator calling was to take place within an annexed area of suburbia, than 'coyote attacks' would rapidly decline? Too many variables to make that corrilation.
Now, that said, I didnt read Judds article, but it seems to me he ran out of interesting topics based on what I have read here.
 
Quote:
Quote:
Judd's article reveals that coyotes are becoming bolder every year.



Possibly, but what is the bench mark? Coyote populations and ranges have increased, along with urban sprawl. If no predator calling was to take place within an annexed area of suburbia, than 'coyote attacks' would rapidly decline? Too many variables to make that corrilation.
Now, that said, I didnt read Judds article, but it seems to me he ran out of interesting topics based on what I have read here.



They are indeed becoming bolder...

They are adapting to the world. That's why the coyote has been so successful in survival on this planet.
They adapt easily to the environment they are placed in.

I strongly suspect they will not shrink away from these areas, but rather they will thrive in them.
The ADC people are already having unique problems to deal with as proof of this thriving. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I don't see starving coyotes listlessly wandering down the streets in search of someones' trash can....What I see are healthy coyotes that know how to push the limits of civilization to live off urban prey.

(You do the same for me Scott /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif)

Barry
 
Jay,

I base my [brief view] on people calling them onto their lap /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. As one point of view.

Won't ever happen where I hunt. In fact I still have an open invitation, for anyone who boasts otherwise. PM me if interested in showing me I'm wrong. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
--------------
We call it "size-up" in the Fire Service. Visualize/scan, make a decision. Happens quickly.

Bold coyotes, comes from learned experiences or lack there of[other factor's are involved no doubt]. Regardless, learned experience is one factor. Flipside, a mature coyote or a dumb inexperienced pup. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference in behavior. As either will act or do the same thing on occasion.

One guiding factor, is opportunity. ie; Coyote size's up possible prey, scans the area for danger. Makes a decision he/she can take that prey.

Coyotes in my hunt area, open rolling cropland. Won't be called onto your lap or even close /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. But come darkness, they will come into the farm yard & snatch up a cat. Or pile onto the farmer's dog. Especially, if the coyote are pr'd-up or grouped up in a pack.

Side note; We owned a male German Shepherd. When our Grandson was a toddler. This dog would "herd" him as he played in our large yard. Our dog, never did that to an adult. Of course a toddler is not very observant of his surroundings.

As when he ate a cookie or a sandwhich, our dog would look to see if we where watching. Then would quickly bite off a piece of cookie or sandwhich. As our Grandson was looking elsewhere.

Wife, asked me why our dog would do that. I told her, our dog has "sized" him up, & preyed on his weakness. Et the opportunity was present.
 
Last edited:
"Why would they run away"? Perhaps, that coyote was a nomad/tresspasser et pushed by hunger. Nomads seem to know they are not on their own territory. Et are skittish of reprisal.
 
Back
Top