Coyote Country

We have received a couple of posts recently from Point Interface reminding locals that this is 'coyote country,' and that they need to keep their small pets inside at night.  Although I've lived around coyotes all my life, I've rarely seen one and don't know too much about them.  They did in one of our cats in Los Angeles, so I know they are thriving there; as a kid in southeastern Idaho, people talked about coyotes but I never actually saw one as far as I know: probably they stayed more in the foothills.

I read a little about coyotes last night (the net will make us all much better informed if we just use it).  I turns out that the term 'coyote country' and the term 'United States' are now pretty much one and the same.  They're everywhere.  Last year, they chased one down (with police cars and news helicopters) in NYC's Central Park.  They're one of the most adaptive species ever.  They and humans have a lot in common, in that respect, and should have more respect for one another.  Well, the coyotes probably do have considerable respect for humans, but it doesn't go so much the other way, I'd guess.

Like humans, they eat whatever is edible: grass, snails, small animals, meat and vegetable alike.  Unlike humans, they are almost invisible.  They see you, you don't see them.  They move around mostly in the dark, which helps.  And, since here in Point Roberts, the number of people roaming around in the dark is vanishingly small, it's no surprise that we don't see them more often. In the 16 years I've been here, I remember seeing a coyote only twice, both times in mid-afternoon, and both times a single animal.  More likely to hear them than see them.  They make burrows along steep cliffs but also in tall grasses.  Bound to find one of those pretty much anywhere.

What most surprised me was that the home territory of a single family group (1-4 full sized fellas) ranges from 2 square miles to 40 or so square miles.  Given that Point Roberts is only 5 square miles, we don't have a lot of room for too many home ranges.  I'd always assumed that there were a lot of coyote on the Point: dozens?  But even with only 2 square miles per coyote group, that suggests a number between 2 and 8.  We ought to be able to figure out how to live respectfully with that number of animals, surely.

The big advice is, as with bears, 'DON'T FEED THEM.'  Not unintentionally, not intentionally.  What we have going for us with coyotes is that they are afraid of us.  God knows why (other than the gun stuff).  I mean, if a coyote or two went for me, I doubt if it would be much of a contest.  But they don't attack us because they're afraid of us, and the better they get to know us, the less afraid they'll be.  (There's a lesson there, I think.)