Interesting. I didn't know that the could interbreed. That's a little scary.

I live about 5 minutes drive from FR 2N76 (Angeles National Forest). My most recent sighting was Tuesday night. I've been hiking and backpacking for a long time but have not heard of or experienced any problems with agressive behavior let alone an actual attack.

Unlike wolves, coyotes are actually fairly small and typically scrawny. They really don't want to mess with a full sized adult. Pets, however, "go missing" all of the time and coyotes are the usual suspects. Probably not good to let small children wander around alone after dark, but most folks wouldn't do that anyway.

http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:aNa98mS16LsJ:www.sdcounty.ca.gov/awm/docs/coyoteattacks.pdf+coyote+attacks+california&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a
http://www.varmintal.com/attac.htm

Two links to coyote attacks.

89 in California alone.

They do attack adults.

The Humane Society of the United States is a lobby group with
goals similar to PETA. They do not operate even 1 animal shelter
though they take in millions. They are not the same as your local
animal shelter though would like you to think so.

PETA euthenizes (is that spelled right) nearly every animal they 'rescue'.

I lived in Seattle in 2000 and a buddy of mine lived in the Queen Anne neighborhood, which is just north of downtown. He liked to go out on his porch at dawn (or, "the light gray part of the day," as we called it) and drink his coffee. One morning he watched a coyote trot right up the center of Queen Anne Blvd. His neighbor's yappy dog came out to bark at it, and the coyote killed it and took it along without breaking stride.

They're everywhere.

One got stuck in a Subway sandwich place in downtown Chicago last summer. They took him out to the suburbs to dine on the small children there. :-)

They're all around. They do eat a lot of rodents ... and similar small dogs (JUST KIDDING!!!).

Good info, thanks. One should note that the study was for the period 1978 - 2003, approximately a quarter century. Of those 89 attacks, only 18 were on adults (I include a 17 y.o. girl as an adult in that count) which is less than one per year in a large and populous state. Attacks on adults are still quite rare, particularly in the wild. Of the 89 incidents, only two adults were in the wild (Reds Meadow near Mammoth) and were bitten in a single attack. One attack in the wild in a quarter century isn't much.

Children are clearly a different matter.

+ 1 on the P&T episode...it brings out some truths that are truly disturbing.

The people to head up PETA think owning pets = slavery and liken pet shelters to Nazi concentration camps...truly sick people.

Here we go again .
ALERT !!! The big bad coyote's are out there . It's time to freak out . Watch out they will eat your kids . Something must be done . Why isn't the government doing something to protect us .
Please , give me a break !

I'm not sure if it's still the case around here but you used to be able to shoot them without limit and turn in the pelts to the government for $5 each.

Handyman,

I was waiting for that, I'm surprised it took so long for someone to say it.

I saw the article and thought it was typical media alarmism/hype. The thing is that people who are not familiar with wild animals read these kinds of things and automatically assume the worst.

Not to say that coyotes are not dangerous in the wrong situation, say to pets and small children, and I did think such a large amount of sightings in a large city was peculiar.


Blitz