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Coyote? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter delia todd
- Start date
Looks very much like one yes.
Thanks Andrew. Appreciated.
Hi Arthur. Thanks for that lad.... I doubt he walked all that way though LOL
Perhaps he got a lift!
Perhaps he got a lift!
Absolutely a coyote and there are incredible numbers of them roaming neighborhoods in California taking dogs and cats.
They don't have nearly the level of natural shyness that wolves and cougars have.
Thanks T
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I'm speculating a bit but with part of their lifestyle being robbery of larger predators they have to be wired to take more risks than those larger predators: I mean by approaching (warily) bears at kills and suchlike. As smaller animals requiring fewer resources they can afford a higher risk lifestyle as they can replenish their numbers more readily than the big boys.
Both the smaller and bolder feed into readily living close to humans.
John
Coyotes aren’t uncommon in Santa Cruz County. The arboretum also is enough away from the busyness of town that it’d not be unusual. I personally had not ever seen one (I lived in the county ‘86-‘96) but when my cat went missing, everyone just said, “oh, a coyote probably got it”. That was when I moved to a more rural location in Aptos (south end of the county) & didn’t know you had to keep cats indoors for like 10 days when you moved (reason? I grew up a dog person so I just didn’t know that about cats). My cat disappeared after going outside right after I’d relocated. Fortunately, sightings of her were eventually seen & she apparently went feral. One day when driving down the road, I saw her dart into a culvert & stopped to see if I could catch her. Even then she decided to stay wild & independent. She had a very good life in my home before that so she wasn’t escaping a bad situation. On the contrary! Funny thing was, she was such a fussy priss (i.e. refused to use a litter box if there was a single turd in it! Yes, she had me well-trained as her personal attendant!). Her choice to be feral was very unexpected & very curious! 🤔
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Montereyman
Well-known member
There is the myth that coyotes are out hunting cats and dogs. The coyotes are feeding on rodents. I suspect people let their cats out and when they do not return and are probably road kill the blame is place on coyotes. I have never seen a photograph of a coyote carrying off dog or a full size cat. If they were killing free roaming cats that would be a very good think for the birds, reptiles, and amphibians in an area.
Not a myth to the people of many southern California communities where it's a fairly common occurrence. The myth you're perpetrating here is that they only eat rodents.
PSA: coyotes are predators of opportunity and will eat whatever they can find, which makes them regular visitors to many desert communities. Short list of food items not covered under rodents would be rabbits, birds, cats, dogs and roadkill.
Sangahyando
Well-known member
There are surveillance videos around of coyotes attempting to prey on outdoor cats, sometimes successfully so IIRC. I don't know how often it happens, and it's probably hard to quantify, but it does happen sometimes.
I imagine when & if a coyote goes for dogs or cats, they are smaller breeds. And nowadays, Montereyman, I agree with you about free roaming cats. That wasn’t well known or mainstream info (& still isn’t with many) about how cats are one of the main reasons the number of our songbirds are declining. Had I been aware of it back then, I surely would’ve observed that restriction.
Btw, I saw recently online a way to let your cat be outside w/o harming other animals or gardens, etc. It was a soft cube a cat can be zipped up in. They can walk in it & the cube moves along. The cat is totally contained yet looks happy in the fresh environment! Brilliant, huh?!
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Yes, absolutely. They're definitely not so hungry as to go after ones that can kill them. They'd have to be starving to go after a German Shepherd, and even though enough of them could do it, there'd be far too much collateral damage, and with so many rabbits, squirrels, rodents of various sizes, cats, small dogs and bags of garbage, no need to take risks.
Montereyman
Well-known member
To survive animals need to go after prey that provides a high degree of success. Even with wolves it is rodent that are the main part of their diet. Rodents are more prolific than most people realize and cats are much less so unless there is a catch, newter, and release program that is active.
I have two barn owls now and they are each taking at two mice each night that they bring back to the nest box. They may be taking more and eating them on a limb but 4 mice a day is terrific.
I have two barn owls now and they are each taking at two mice each night that they bring back to the nest box. They may be taking more and eating them on a limb but 4 mice a day is terrific.
Pinewood
New York correspondent
Hello,
There is a pair of coyotes in New York's Central Park, for the first time in memory. Apparently, one ranged more than a km from Central Park to my housing estate, which consists of eight high rise blocks of flats, car parks and more than a hectare of garden. The residents have been cautioned but the space between the Park and our estate is densely populated.
I would not be surprised if the coyote found same rats.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur
There is a pair of coyotes in New York's Central Park, for the first time in memory. Apparently, one ranged more than a km from Central Park to my housing estate, which consists of eight high rise blocks of flats, car parks and more than a hectare of garden. The residents have been cautioned but the space between the Park and our estate is densely populated.
I would not be surprised if the coyote found same rats.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur
JTweedie
Well-known member
I watched a programme last night from the BBC called Cities: Nature's New Wild (originally broadcast in 2018). It's about how some animals have adapted to city living. It featured New York's coyotes, with a focus on Queens area where a guy does some research on them. It mentioned there were something like 20 or 30 (I forget the exact number) coyotes within New York City.
JTweedie
Well-known member
It's good to know they're found in other boroughs. I had been wondering where else in New York they had been found and whether their numbers were stable. But they sound like they're adaptable animals like red foxes and are able to exploit niches wherever they're found.
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