This morning as I was walking with Nola I saw something I’d never seen before in our neighborhood: a coyote, trotting down the street in broad daylight, bold as you please. She had an odd, skipping sort of gait.
This morning as I was walking with Nola I saw something I’d never seen before in our neighborhood: a coyote, trotting down the street in broad daylight, bold as you please. She had an odd, skipping sort of gait.
That’s pretty neat; we’re starting to see increased sightings of cougars down here, but its somewhat a different story. The cougars are returning to previous habitat; the coyotes are expanding past their historical limitations (the Great American Desert) to establish a new, possibly better habitat in Midwestern cities.
Within the last twelve months beside the ordinary mice, rats, squirrels, and rabbits, I’ve seen raccoons, skunks, deer, foxes, and now a coyote within a block of my house.
Coyotes worry me. I’m not too concerned about Will or Nola but it means that I’ve got to be very careful about letting Smidge or Tally out into the backyard.
So your neighborhood has opened up an inviting buffet for coyotes. I hope they didn’t forget stray cats.
I think I would be a little worried about dogs; it seems like the social aspects could be unpredictable. As a parent, I don’t know that I’d be more worried about coyotes than stray dogs.
You should be. Dogs have been bred for thousands of generations to be friendly to people. When they aren’t it’s either an aberration or because they’ve been abused. Being wary of people is natural to coyotes. When they aren’t, it’s either because they’re sick or they aren’t afraid any more.
For all canids most relationships fall into one of three categories: predators, prey, or playmates. It’s better when coyotes think of us as predators. Then they’ll stay away.
Stray dogs are pretty aberrational in our neighborhood. In fact, the last time I can remember a dog galloping around the neighborhood without an owner in sight, it was a seeing eye dog, and a lot of neighbors were walking around try to find out who it belonged to. We were worried about the owner.
Let me put it this way, we taught our kids to never approach a dog without first asking permission from the owner; if there is no owner, do not approach.
We’ve had lots of black bear sightings in metro Orlando in recent years. And not just on the fringes, but in areas like College Park, which is in the middle of everything. My favorite story was the bear that started hanging out in the pool of one of the hotels at Universal Studios for a few mornings. Woohoo!
In our old house, in Hunter’s Creek on the south side of Orlando, we were adjacent to wetlands. We had lots of animals come through the backyard through the years. Easily the coolest thing was the bobcat we had in the backyard one afternoon. Very cool. (I’d feel differently now, having a daughter.) But like I said, we had a wetland for a backyard, and we were on the fringes of the city.I haven’t even seen a raccoon since moving back to Pine Hills, or even a possum, and we used to have lots of possum in this area. (It was less developed then, too.)
The worst thing at the old house happened after someone moved in next door – our last neighbor down there. He started feeding his cats and dogs on the back porch. It took about three days before the racoons started breaking into his back porch. Then, instead of feeding his animals inside, the doofus started putting out more food for the racoons. He thoughts were that he had to put out enough food so that enough would be left over for his animals. Dumbass.
I discovered this after discovering a whole bunch of racoons clustered around our back porch on night. Up until that point in time we let our cats go onto the screened patio on the back of the house via cat door. One night our two girls got all riled up. When I looked out I saw a pair of eyes looking back at me. I turned on a patio light and saw a raccoon. Then I saw another one behind it. And another beside that one. I got a flashlight and saw at least eight of the little beggars, and there were probably more than that in the ferns. I hustled my cats inside and from then on kept the cat door closed at nights. A couple days latter I discovered my neighbor was a total moron.
(I’d known we had raccoons, because they were always getting in the trash cans on trash nights.)
Funny you mention this, Dave. Coyotes have become more prevalent here. And……..just this AM we saw one trotting around on the golf course. I’m not sure I know why. But its a fact.
We now have two dogs, the Havapoo and a purebread Havanese. Coyote lunch. (And from time to time, we hear at 2-3 in the morning the cold blooded wailing of a pack with a “kill,” probably feasting on skunks or rabbits.) We have always been cognizant of the hawks in the area. One was purched in a back yard tree just a week ago. I don’t think he/she was just enjoying the view.
Drew, the wildlife knows Illinois is weak because of its lack of concealed carry laws. They are slowly gathering.
The oddest wildlife in my neighborhood are the vultures who apparently like an amateur radio tower on a house a couple blocks away. I usually don’t see them, but I’m kind of disturbed every-time I pass that way by the knowledge of them.
Here is a study of the coyotes of Cook County. Caution for small dogs. Warning that bad coyote behavior is associated with feeding coyotes.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b929/pdf/b929.pdf
A Havapoo? Is that the kind you put down a trash chute?
Steve