would a coyote actually attack a human ?
sorry if that sounds like a silly question but we don’t have coyotes out hereThis is awesome. Yay to Charlotte being back with nature. :o) Are you guys going to start hiking more frequently now that she’s better?
@ Emily- we have lots of coyotes out here and I’ve never heard of them attacking an adult. I suppose they might go after a really little kid but I see them when I’m out hiking fairly frequently and they don’t worry me at all. They WILL go after dogs though, so I always keep my guy on a leash with me if I expect to see coyotes.
So glad to hear Charlotte is feeling well enough to go for a hike again!
I wonder if it is the age? Our Charlotte is suddenly worried about lions and bears ... In the house. I tried telling her that bears hibernate in winter, so they’re asleep. That wasn’t as convincing as when I told her that Daddy would scare away any bears.
Emilie - Coyotes will not attack an adult unless they are desperate or sick. Most coyotes are around 25-35 pounds and hunt alone or with one partner, so they simply aren’t large enough to do so. A good chunk of their diet is also vegetation, which makes big game less worth the effort. Two coyotes together can take down the largest fiercest dog by running them down - they pickle him in the middle and run him back and forth until he’s too exhausted to go on. Then they rip into him. But most of the time, a coyote isn’t going to go after anything larger than a housecat, certainly not a person. They might go after a child, but it’s unlikely if there’s an adult nearby.
HOWEVER, coyotes who are hungry will make desperate choices. They band into larger packs - five, seven, nine, twelve coyotoes large - and they circle large prey and take them down. Every so often, you hear about a pack of coyotes taking down a black bear or a bighorn ram, but it’s pretty rare. A few years back, a pack of coyotes around here took down a horse and its rider. The rider got away, but the horse did not. It was a drought year, though, and the coyotes were competing with other predators. The mountain lions had moved out of the deeper ravines and into the lower creek areas. The bobcats had an over-abundance of kits. It was hibernation season for skunks, who otherwise are a large source of food for bobcats and coyotes both. And the coyotes had been over-hunted the year prior, so they had larger litters to feed (coyotes produce larger litters more frequently when their population drops, which is why it’s recommended that people not hunt them unless they are rabid or a threat to a person).
My personal opinion of coyotes is that there isn’t anything to worry about - at my size - but that they can pose a threat to a child Charlotte’s size and that if there are more than one of them they can pose a threat to us together. I think it’s just safer for me to ensure Charlotte does not approach them the way she would approach a dog.
that is sooooo scary!!!
I grew up seeing bears, deer, coyotes etc. in Upper MI where my parents still live….we used to play away the days in the woods and i was NEVER afraid. I sure would be now! My dad won’t even let me go jogging alone when I am there. probably because we used to have dogs that would always be with us and now they don’t have a dog to keep the big animals from eating us up ha ha!
she’s awesome, that charlotte girl, LOVE HER!
taraTara - The only ones I’m really afraid of are mountain lions. Large predatory cats scare the shit out of me. I think maybe I’d be a little freaked out by grizzlies if they lived around here but all we have are black bears (and only in the mountains at that) and you can scare those off by throwing rocks at them lol.
I tell Charlotte that there’s nothing to worry about. What’s the worst these animals can do? Kill us? Okay, we’re all going to die eventually anyway, right?
I’m not sure she gets that yet though lol.
A few hours after I read this post a friend of mine posted this to her Facebook page:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYwZJ-C6jS4&feature=share
It made me think of you & Charlotte & today’s post. It doesn’t have subtitles but you are familiar/conversational/fluent (??) with/in French (yes?) so you might be able to decipher more than I could. Either way, it’s pretty fascinating.

By Tabitha (From Single to Married) on January 23, 2012
What a smart little girl!
Although it’s making me rethink all of the National Geographic for Kids specials on animals that I watch with Henry. :)