Coyote Encounter Tonight

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raginduck

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I see coyotes all the time when walking my dog through the local ravine. I have a female amstaff... smaller, but she's got enough game that she's more of a threat to them than they are to her...
I've always thought these particular ones were pretty good to live with.. We see them often enough that I can tell them apart, have names for them, and know their routine... I haven't heard of them bothering anyone and they always give a wide go-around when we come across them... until tonight..
We were walking along a path in an area that we rarely see others go through... especially at night.. and noticed a guy with a young puppy walking about 50-60 ft behind us... he was avoiding getting too close to us... we slow, he slows.. we stop, he stops.. etc... As we moved along the path, my dog cued that the coyote(s) were near... and then I saw one of the them cross the path some distance infront of us.. east to west. I only saw the one cross.. knew the second had to be around... My dog didn't see it, she was focused to the east... moments later I saw what she saw.. the other walking past us, on the ridge above, on the east side. Usually they stay together on the west side of the ravine as they travel through it at this time.. them splitting up was a little odd. As soon as it passed us a little ways, it started coming down from the ridge, towards the path... It got low to the ground and started creeping as it got closer to the path.. Now I'm thinking they're going test the guy w/pup.. so started hustling back towards the guy who was now out of sight, around a bend in the path.. Got to about 30ft from it, somewhat between it and the guy w/pup.. it stopped and turned it's attention towards us. We kept walk towards it.. dog in game mode.. it crept back from us some ways as we got closer and then ran wide around us, across the path into the bush on the west side. The guy w/pup had actually started moving away from us as we came towards them.. until my wife told him what was going on.. and then he started coming up closer behind me.. Just as I turned to him and told him not to let his dog get too close to mine.. My dog turned and lunged past him and his dog... towards the other coyote that was coming at us from the west side... Me and my dog ran at it.. it did a little syke move and ran off into the bush on the east side of us.. walked down the edge of the bush towards us and laid down in the tall grass and stared us down... mine charged at it.. and it ran off.

I'm not sure how it would have played out if we weren't around.. but I'm thinking that pup is probably lucky that we were there.
The guy was pretty clueless.. said he would have just ran away if we didn't come..
 
I have a ravine with a pack of about 6-8 across the street from me. They steer clear of my dog when she's down there.
 
We have a few smaller packs in our nieghbourhood, mostly leave people and larger dogs alone. There has been a couple small dogs attacked and killed in backyards. A mature coyote can clear a 6ft fence easily . The coyotes have become a bit more agressive in the last couple yrs. and have no problem being very close to people.
Dont overestimate your dogs ability to defend it self, coyotes often hunt in packs and are hardwired to kill and eat stuff. They will take smaller prey first because they are smart enough to know if they get a serious injury in a scrap , they die.
Carry a walking stick (club) , bear spray if you have some , stay out of the brush at sunset and early am , and the flexi leash ( extendable leash ) for puppies is not teaching your dog anything , its putting your puppy 12ft away from you where WilyEcoyote gets takeaway dinner.
 
We have a pair on my neighborhood, they've stared me down a few times. As long as they keep their distance I won't be tempted to use my baseball bat.
 
We have a few hanging around and can hear them throughout the night. I live about 500m from Erindale Park and there's lots in there.

Have seen a few large ones cruising the street, and one followed me during my evening walk...but never gotten close enough to worry me. But we have heard a few bloody screams from what I can imagine is either a pet owner screaming for their pets, or from some animal that got caught.
 
I see them from time to time, never an issue. If I am not mistaken southern Ontario has one of (if not the) largest population of coyotes and coyote+wolf hybrids in the world.
 
crankcall said:
We have a few smaller packs in our nieghbourhood, mostly leave people and larger dogs alone. There has been a couple small dogs attacked and killed in backyards. A mature coyote can clear a 6ft fence easily . The coyotes have become a bit more agressive in the last couple yrs. and have no problem being very close to people.
Dont overestimate your dogs ability to defend it self, coyotes often hunt in packs and are hardwired to kill and eat stuff. They will take smaller prey first because they are smart enough to know if they get a serious injury in a scrap , they die.
Carry a walking stick (club) , bear spray if you have some , stay out of the brush at sunset and early am , and the flexi leash ( extendable leash ) for puppies is not teaching your dog anything , its putting your puppy 12ft away from you where WilyEcoyote gets takeaway dinner.
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Can't we round up some PETA members and send them out as bait or decoys.

How about free coyote or raccoon with every PETA membership?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, the coyotes and raccoons were here first.
 
What are the legal ramifications of carrying a slingshot? Pellet pistols and guns look to much like the real stuff and would cause a panic. I carry a walking stick.
 
nobbie48 said:
What are the legal ramifications of carrying a slingshot? Pellet pistols and guns look to much like the real stuff and would cause a panic. I carry a walking stick.
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I don't trust myself to hit a moving target with a slingshot. If you did manage to hit it, if there was a witness they'd probably hit you with an animal cruelty charge. It's hard to argue that you were in fear of injury if you shot it at a distance while it was barely moving. You're far better off fogging it with bear spray when it gets close. That should give you enough checks in your favor to avoid the charge. Spray range is also limited. You'd be really up the creek if you missed the coyote with the ball-bearing and tagged a person in the distance.
 
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nobbie48 said:
What are the legal ramifications of carrying a slingshot? Pellet pistols and guns look to much like the real stuff and would cause a panic. I carry a walking stick.
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I have a set of hiking poles that when you take the rubber tips off leave a very sharp point. If confronted I wouldn't hesitate to use them.

 
crankcall said:
We have a few smaller packs in our nieghbourhood, mostly leave people and larger dogs alone. There has been a couple small dogs attacked and killed in backyards. A mature coyote can clear a 6ft fence easily . The coyotes have become a bit more agressive in the last couple yrs. and have no problem being very close to people.
Dont overestimate your dogs ability to defend it self, coyotes often hunt in packs and are hardwired to kill and eat stuff. They will take smaller prey first because they are smart enough to know if they get a serious injury in a scrap , they die.
Carry a walking stick (club) , bear spray if you have some , stay out of the brush at sunset and early am , and the flexi leash ( extendable leash ) for puppies is not teaching your dog anything , its putting your puppy 12ft away from you where WilyEcoyote gets takeaway dinner.
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We have two sets of them in the ravine.. The two that we encountered last night and a separate group that live further south from where we were. The south group will chase and beat on the 'north' set when they come across them.
The two from last night.. I call 'skinny' and 'Biggs' only recently started running together... We know 'skinny' quite well.. We often see it during the day.. and used to see it almost every night, same place, same time.. and it would often follow us up a section of the path, at a distance, from the south to the north side.. and then run off into the bushes... It's been my thought that it was using us as cover to travel through the south group's area.
'Biggs' has always stuck to the north end of the ravine. Now, it appears 'skinny' lives with 'Biggs' on the north end.
'Biggs' is pretty shy... 'skinny' is more visible.. and gets closer to people than Biggs... is much more curious and some times it will sit out during the day and watch society. When we come across them.. Biggs will be the first to veer off.. skinny will stand and watch us a little until we get closer and then it runs off...
The south group is much more reclusive.. We rarely see them and when we do.. it's from a distance.
We are about to head down to the ravine for our noon walk.. we will go to where we know Biggs and skinny live.. If they're home, will chase them out of their spot.. pester them a little.. just to try and keep them inline a bit.
 
I think anywhere in the GTA around ravines or wooded areas will have coyotes. We had two hanging out together in The Kingsway last winter (saw them many times while out walking). They did stalk after a couple of people walking toy size dogs... There are also lots of posters along the Humber for missing cats and dogs, ain't nobody going to find them alive.... We keep the cats inside, always have.

We had a pretty large dead raccoon in the back yard last winter. Under the trampoline, damn thing pretty much filled the entire wheelbarrow. Get them to the curb and city come gets them. I did not see any physical signs that another animal caused it. Lucky for us it was frozen, otherwise I could not dealt with the smell (was there for a bit).

There is a rafter of wild turkeys down in the Humber. At the very beginning of the "lockdown" they were roaming the residential streets like they owned the place.
 
backmarkerducati said:
There is a rafter of wild turkeys down in the Humber. At the very beginning of the "lockdown" they were roaming the residential streets like they owned the place.
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A barrie neighbourhood had a "pet" wild turkey. It was always hanging around and would jump between backyards. Some ass-hat intentionally ran it down with their car for fun and then took off. Everyone figured it went into the woods to die but someone found it more than a week later alive but hurting. Animal rescue picked it up, multiple vets operated on it for hours and it died on the table. Some people are aholes.
 
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