As residential development sprawls into the suburbs, complaints of contact with coyotes increases. Chattanooga, Tenn. resident Jerry Peyton has been noticing a trend for a year now and wrote in an e-mail, \u201cActually we have a family of coyotes that live in the neighborhood. It\u2019s not that we are anti coyote, but the frisky little devils scare the folks and their kids.\u201d Mr. Peyton pointed out that coyotes are becoming a \u201cserious national problem!\u201d<\/p>\n
He seems to be correct in his analysis. Jacksonville, Florida (home of The Animal Channel), has had its share of coyote sightings at the beaches and in at least one Southside neighborhood. This past Fall, resident Raquel Rodriguez questioned if a loose dog was perhaps a coyote. While the animal in question was a wayward pet with a collar, her query underscores the confusion when domestic and wild life come into ever-closer contact. It was in late October when the Deerwood Country Club notified residents via e-mail about coyotes in the vicinity Mrs. Rodriguez said. She remembered reading that while one coyote could be a threat to cats and small dogs, the danger for humans grows when coyotes travel in packs. Shortly before receiving the e-mail, Mrs. Rodriguez said she saw a coyote traversing her backyard one evening. \u201cIt was a camel-colored animal waling a little fast,\u201d she said. \u201cThe face was a little more pointed than a dog with a long tail held higher.\u201d Mrs. Rodriguez said she has been living in Deerwood since the 1970s and never saw a coyote before.<\/p>\n
Also in October, Jacksonville DJ Robbie Rose told News4Jax that a coyote killed his cat. \u201cRose said unfortunately, coyote sightings and attacks on animals are becoming more of an issue in his neighborhood. He originally thought there was only one coyote involved,\u201d wrote reporter Brittany Muller on the station\u2019s website, \u201c\u2019Because that\u2019s what I saw,\u2019\u201d Rose said. \u201c\u2019But these were working in a team. The cat didn\u2019t have a chance.\u2019”<\/p>\n
Emmy Tracy Carpenter of Ringgold, Ga. issued a warning for her neighbors on social media site Nextdoor. She wrote is a post that two to three coyotes killed a shrieking animal. \u201cNo dogs are missing, but have not heard any reports of any cats… It was frightening! Scared our dog and us, we were all inside and safe…\u201d<\/p>\n
Singer LeAnn Rimes was not as lucky. On Feb. 9th several news outlets reported Ms. Rimes\u2019 witnessed her dog mauled to death by a coyote on Feb. 7th. Ironically, on Feb. 8th, The Florida Times-Union ran an article by Colleen Michelle Jones explaining that encounters with coyotes are relatively common. They have in fact been documented throughout the past decade. For example in a November 2011 article in the Resident Community News<\/em>, Susan P. Barton explained that \u201cOfficials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are not surprised by reports of coyotes in a city setting. Spokesman Karen Parker said the commission has gotten reports of coyotes from all 67 counties in the state.\u201d Those statistics are still true today, but St. Johns County Sheriff\u2019s Office Spokesman Chuck Milligan maintains there is should be little to fear in coyotes. \u201c\u2019They are usually very shy and elusive and aren\u2019t interested in humans \u2026If you just kind of stand still, they\u2019ll go away. They don\u2019t look at you as prey and they don\u2019t want to attack.\u2019\u201d In January, National Geographic reported on a new phenomenon\u2014more blue-eyed coyotes, which is a rarity in the species. In natural selection, genetic mutations such as a change in eye color indicate adaptation to the surroundings, which for many wild animals are shrinking.<\/p>\n What has changed since Mrs. Rodriguez\u2019s memories of the 1970s is of course the loss of land and habitat. For example, land behind the Rodriguez\u2019s was once a field and forest. Now a dozen houses sit on the site. Ms. Jones\u2019 research confirms the changes for both the human and coyote populations in an interview with Mark Middlebrook, executive director of the Timucuan Parks Foundation. \u201c\u2019Because we\u2019re seeing more coyotes moving into urban areas, it\u2019s wise to be aware of them and know how to deal with them,\u2019\u201d he said. Meanwhile in Chattanooga, residents are gathering photos and posting on such platforms as Facebook and Nextdoor.<\/p>\n Mr. Peyton sees three options, kill them, live with them, or move them.<\/p>\n The middle option would be most agreeable and pleasant to many people, so how does one learn to live with coyotes?<\/p>\n For more information, the following links can be helpful resources:<\/p>\n Living with Coyotes<\/a><\/u> Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency<\/a><\/u> \u00a0and try also National Geographic<\/a><\/u> . And now a bobcat has been seen in a Northeast Florida suburb\u2026<\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As residential development sprawls into the suburbs, complaints of contact with coyotes increases. Chattanooga, Tenn. resident Jerry Peyton has been noticing a trend for a … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theanimalchannel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}