Coyote Attacks
Facts about Coyote Attacks
As humans have developed more and more of the land that was once rural, coyotes have found themselves often living nearer people than they ever have before, and coyote attacks are appearing more often in the news than they did fifty years ago. The coyote has adapted to survival in a world where what was once a pasture is now a parking lot. Coyotes have learned to live in close proximity to humans but humans have not always developed the skills to live in close proximity to coyotes.
The facts are that coyote attacks on livestock are rare and attacks on humans are even rarer. In fact, though coyotes now live in every state in the union, in most states a human has never been killed by a coyote. Coyotes, given the choice, would prefer to stay away from people altogether. One of the suburban areas where there have been attacks is in Los Angeles County in California, in the San Fernando Valley.
One of the reasons for the rise of coyote attacks there is that the population has dramatically taken over what were once open areas and the coyotes have nowhere to go. There are approximately 7,500 coyotes in Los Angeles County and the population has remained relatively unchanged for many years. The human population, however, has grown.
Given the opportunity, hungry coyotes will attack a dog or cat who happens to venture into their territory. That means that pet owners need to start being more responsible about letting their pets freely roam. Cats that are kept inside and dogs walked on leashes are not in a position to be attacked by a pack of coyotes. Letting dogs and cats run loose and roam freely in rural or even suburban areas is putting them at risk of being attacked by anything from a coyote or fox to another dog.
Dogs that run loose in rural areas sometimes form packs of their own and run down deer and other wild animals. In most states, it is the law that domestic pets in pursuit of wildlife can be shot on the spot. In urban or suburban areas, coyotes who cannot find food might frequent an area they know to have garbage cans. One solution to coyotes entering a backyard to catch the mice or eat the garbage is to keep all garbage cans inside or locked up.
Coyotes generally get a bad rap when it comes to being blamed for killing livestock. This is extremely rare. In fact, statistics prove that worldwide only three percent of livestock die from coyote populations. Many farmers are, in fact, happy to have coyotes around because they keep rodent populations at a manageable level. Woodchuck numbers fall dramatically when coyotes are around. Coyotes help keep other animal populations at manageable levels.
Many of the coyote attacks on people in recent years have been because people feed coyotes in their backyards. This is not a good practice, and it’s usually against the law to feed any wild animal, whether it be a coyote, deer, bear or raccoon. Hopefully as more people are educated about wildlife and their behavior, there will be fewer occurrences of run-ins between coyotes and humans.