Coyote!

[altivo]

On my way to work this afternoon, just at the Harvard city limit, a full grown coyote ran across the road about 50 feet in front of me. He or she was moving at full speed, and I was slowing for the traffic light around the curve, so no bother or upset, just interest. A flash and the critter was gone.

Yes, I'm sure it was not a dog. This is the first living one I've seen in the area, though for the 8 years I've been here I've been told that they are around. I have seen on two occasions dead ones beside the road, undoubtedly had their necks broken when struck by heavy vehicles.

There was no other traffic on that section of road at the time, so it appeared only to me. An omen? I dunno, I'll have to look it up and see if it should mean anything, but it was an interesting diversion.

Comments

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

I saw a coyote recently too - on Sunday, while hiking near the edge of my city's limits. It stood around for a while watching me while I took pictures. :-) That was only the second time I saw a coyote that near the city. I've also seen deer and a fox in that same general area.

Off track - or maybe not

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

Did you find out just what was eating your neighbour's chickens?

Re: Off track - or maybe not

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not yet. We know that another was taken the next day, though. We found the headless corpse lying in the dry streambed, about 30 feet downstream from the mysterious burrow. The next morning it was gone without a trace.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Deer are a common sight here, especially at dawn or dusk, year round. I've only seen fox twice in 8 years, and one of those sightings was so fast it was almost a guess.

Raccoon, possum and skunk are frequent sightings too. Coyotes more often we just hear in the night.

[hrrunka]

Are coyotes mainly nocturnal? I saw three foxes, I'd guess a vixen and two cubs, going up the road past my house at midnight last night. Foxes and squirrels are probably the most commonly seen non-domestic animals round these parts. I've also seen the occasional badger.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Coyotes are very adaptable, so they will do days or nights depending on what is to their advantage. The traditional description says they are nocturnal, and certainly that's when I've heard yips and barks that I believe are groups of coyotes. But as the UK has urban foxes now, the US is developing the urban coyote, and they do move around in daylight. The other living coyote I've seen outside of a zoo was also crossing a road in daylight, between Elgin and East Dundee, which is about 25 miles south of my home.

We have foxes (gray and red) and badgers but they are less frequently seen here than on your side of the pond I think. Seeing a fox is quite a treat for me. Of course, so was seeing the coyote. Deer are ho-hum common, but our deer aren't the same as yours.

[niko-winterset.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Yeah the US definitely has urban coyotes. When I was working at the Nashville airport we took a tour of the airfield and spotted a coyote running along the side of the runway.

The airport staff were in a bit of a no win situation. The coyotes kill the black birds that frequent the area so the airport staff was unsure if they should be worrying about killing coyotes or black birds as both would be detrimental to air traffic.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And there's proof of coyote adaptability. An airport is hardly a quiet zone. And blackbirds are certainly not typical coyote (or any canine for that matter) dinner material. How do they catch them?

[hrrunka]

Hmmm... More chance of the birds getting in the way of planes, I'd think.

The urban foxes here seem to take the niche racoons occupy in North America, though I'd guess they're not quite as good at it. I do have to go round my garden from time to time picking up the household rubbish the local foxes have scavanged and then abandoned.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hit post too soon. ;p

I'm reminded of the old WB cartoons of Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. One of their stock jokes was to introduce the characters at the beginning by showing subtitles with hokey species names, such as Hotrodicus supersonicus for the roadrunner and Eatibus anythingus for the coyote. I'm not surprised that a coyote would eat a blackbird given the opportunity, just somewhat surprised that a coyote could catch one. Cats are equipped for bird hunting (sharp hooklike claws, lightning reflexes, fast pounce) where canines really are not, unless it's something slow and stupid like a chicken that doesn't fly very well.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Foxes are about as smart as raccoons, but they lack some of the physical adaptations, like the prehensile front paws that can do clever things. I'm told that gray foxes here do in fact climb trees, though I doubt they are anywhere near as good at it as the Procyonidae are.

[niko-winterset.livejournal.com]

*noses* Don't tell me you have never seen a canine catch a bird? I had to deal with one that Nikolai caught the other day. I think it was a blackbird or grackle or something like that. It was big and black. :P

Honestly I have no idea how the coyotes were catching the blackbirds. The airport staff was giving us all of this info as we were riding around the airfield. Apparently at the very least the coyotes keep the blackbirds out of the area to some degree, perhaps by scaring them off with failed attempts to catch one.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Nope, I've never seen a canine catch a flying-perching type bird, though I've seen a lot of them try. Our golden retrievers always loved to make a rush at birds in the yard just to see them take flight, but never got near enough to actually catch one. I have seen dogs catch chickens or domesticated ducks, yes, and quite recently, as our elkhound-collie cross grabbed one of the neighbor's chickens just a few weeks ago. I was all for letting her kill it because it was not only way over on our land, but was actually inside the dog run. The mate was having none of it though and rescued the stupid bird. Probably it was one of the ones that got eaten recently by other predators anyway. If there's any animal I don't feel much compunction about eating, it's the chicken (or the domestic turkey) because I swear they are so stupid that they couldn't possibly have any self awareness. ;p (It's not their natural state, of course. It's the breeding and domestication that did it.)

[niko-winterset.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Well apparently I have a very clever or a very lucky Malamute since he somehow managed to nab a full grown bird. That is the second wild animal he has nabbed. The first was a possum. That was just...well...rather gross to find at the crack of dawn when I went out to feed him.

What I think would be comical is to see him bounding off after the guineas that one of our neighbors has. Yes, you heard me. Guineas. In a residential neighborhood. Go figure.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Possums are easy to catch. Even our big dufus of a golden could get them. They fall down and play dead, just like in Over the Hedge. Of course, Tee would then try to wake them up to play with him, nosing and licking (eeeww!)

Around here possums carry some yucky things, including rabies, so we try to keep the dogs away from them. And of course they are a vector for EPA too, so I get really upset when they get into the barn around the hay. Don't tell the conservation folks but we trapped, marked, and removed a couple dozen of them shortly after moving in here. Only one has shown up since then.

Finding a place to dump a live possum is not easy, let me tell you.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Where's your coyote friend to comment on this, the one with the avatar that always makes me....Awrrrooooooo!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think you've conflated two people. The avatar you mean belongs to chibiabos but he's a wolf. My coyote friend would be songcoyote and yes, I imagine both will have something to say about it.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, whoops. Chibiabos is the howlin wolf and Songcoyote is the singin 'yote

[deffox]

I've heard coyotes for years, but only once seen one when driving.

They are spreading quite fast and far. My landlady even mentioned seeing one around the apartment.

Coyotes are neat, except for the displacing foxes part.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't want to see our already scarce foxes put under more pressure. The gray fox probably uses sufficiently different habitat to be relatively secure from coyote competition, but the red is probably at risk.