BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Animal Life Coyote sighting

Oh my gosh! They come up to the house!!?

I just moved to Seattle - west Seattle, specifically, so I doubt they'll come up to the house! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

But, like I said, I do like hiking/camping, and I'm a little nervous! I think it's mainly because when I lived in California I had several encounters with black bears. I was never injured - <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> - but I just kept having encounters when I camped, and I started to get a little neurotic about it!

One time, I was sitting near the edge of a little cliff that had a steep trail on it going down to a river. I was reading, and everything was quiet. Suddenly, this huge (but not a grizzly!) bear appeared 3 feet from me at the head of the little trail. We were both frightened out of our minds. We ran opposite directions, as you can imagine. Anyway, that was my closest one. It was actually cool because I got to see him very close-up. But then I started hearing about the folks in Canada who were hunted and eaten by the bear - and then that bear researcher who finally got eaten by them. (Remember that? They got it on audio - gross!) I guess the bears finally got sick of him!

Anyway - thanks so much for posting, Rose! I'd love to hear about your bear encounter prevention techniques in a separate post. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Lois Ann, sorry for changing the subject here!

Hey you guys, check this out:

[imageBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Very interesting, Chris, and not what I would have expected. Was there additional information to describe the human encounters they're referring to? My experience with coyotes is extremely limited. In fact my only definite sighting of one (actually two of them) was in the wooded backyard of a house I stayed in on Cape Cod (MA)last fall. I know that the owners of the house are cautious to keep their cat indoors while they're in residence, but I have never heard of threats to man.

In the area in which I live I have spotted young animals while out hiking in a woodsy area which I identified as being either foxes or coyotes. I know that coyotes are not unheard of in my area of Pennsylvania, but a naturalist I spoke to recently said my sighting was more likely to have been foxes.

I did come across a Washington Post article which discusses the ability of East coast coyotes to adapt to city living, and it refers to only one situation in which man was threated by a coyote.

I was very surprised, too. I haven't had time yet to read the whole article - but I'll post again once I check it out.

I don't fear coyotes at all for myself, only for my cats. I mean, they're kinda wimpy! Especially compared to bears and mountain lions!

Fearing dangerous animal encounters is smart, however one shouldn't think of ALL coyotes, bears, or mountain lions as a threat to humans.

Bear encounters that go wrong are almost always the human's fault. I will post a "prevention" list later. The few bear encounters that the human was "just in the wrong place at the wrong time" is usually because the bear is injured or hungry and think of the human as a meal. These situations are RARE!!!

Living with many bears all around us, we are thrilled when we get to see one. If the proper precautions are taken, you very seldom ever see the bear that maybe less than 30 yards from you. I have a lot of stories I could tell.

As for coyotes, my personal experience with them when I lived in Arizona is that they were not dangerous to humans. I would love to read more on that article posted by Chris.

I have very little experience with mountain lions, and would need a good course in prevention of encounters with them before strapping on my backpack in their world.

Rose

I've had a few black bear and grizzly bear encounters, non of which I'd care to relive, but all of which I'm glad I experienced.

This is my first coyote encounter. I'm curious to see how my duck population holds up this winter once the pond is frozen and their safe haven is gone. I also have seen several foxes around here.

There are a few rumored mountain lions in WV, but sightings and encounters are very rare. I'm not sure when the last sighting was, but mostly their presence is reported due to their kills. I guess experts can tell different predators by the carcasses they leave behind. There are also occasional bobcat sightings, and unfortunately my supposedly intelligent brother-in-law from Columbus, OH, killed one last year for trophy. @$$hole! (sorry)

Here is the long awaited article text to go with the side bar I posted above - it sounds like their definition of "dangerous" includes danger to small animals, like we already discussed about coyotes:

(If you can't read these well, here's a link to a larger scan: [url=BellaOnline ALERT: For anti-spam reasons, we restrict the number of URLs allowed in a given post. You have exceeded our maximum number of URLs.