Wild predators and small children can be real parental nightmare fuel, and the two came together in a recent viral video of a child and a coyote in Portland, Oregon. Home surveillance footage captured a wild moment (pun intended) of a little girl running into her backyard declaring “Dad? There’s a coyote.” Just as her (reasonably) incredulous father says “Nooo,” one comes into the camera’s view. “Yeah,” the child replies, jumping calmly but quickly onto a play table.
OK, we admit it: that headline feels a little impossible, but bear with us because, really, it’s OK.
It’s unclear if the animal was heading that way anyway, got scared of the girl on the table or her dad heading towards it, or simply lost interest, but it veered out of the yard as the video continued. The shocked dad picks up his daughter and follows after the coyote. Fortunately, the family invested in cameras across the property, so we were able to follow the coyotes dash away along with two other children with two very different reactions. (One immediately runs in the house, the other lingers before heading inside to grab what appears to be a Nerf gun to “protect” his dad. Honestly, both admirable.)
This is about the time you might be thinking “I don’t remember this many when I was a kid… did I?” You’re not imagining it. According to scientists, coyote populations were relatively steady for about 10,000 years. They had a pretty broad range. But around 1900, this extraordinary animal’s population began to rise and their range began to expand. Coyotes now live in every state except Hawaii and have been seen as far south as Panama.
This population and range explosion can be credited, National Geographic says, to several factors: decreased hunting of coyotes; an absence of competition predators like wolves (which now only exist in relatively few pockets in the US); and their ability to adapt their diet to their environment. As such, coyotes are now found in rural, suburban, and urban places throughout North America.
But here’s why there’s no need to panic…
Do coyotes attack humans?
Yes… with a big ol’ asterisk that is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The truth is that between 1977 and 2015, researchers in the United States and Canada combined have tracked 367 coyote attacks, two of which proved fatal. This averages to fewer than 10 attacks per year. However, there has been a marked increase in more recent decades, with a noticeable uptick starting in the mid-’90s. Still, according to research from the University of California, Davis found that the most prolific year for coyote attacks (2010) numbered around 25. Considering there are somewhere between about 3 and 5 million coyotes in the United States, that number is remarkably low… especially since humans kill about half a million coyotes annually.
So: technically yes, but not in any way you have to worry about in your day to day life. And no, your children aren’t particularly at risk in that coyotes don’t target children. In fact, most people attacked by coyotes (60%) have been adults, per UC Davis. Though obviously, children, being smaller, are more at risk for serious injury from a coyote.
Will a coyote eat a cat? (Or other pets?)
Again: yes with a large asterisk. If your cat or small dog is out and about, they might become the prey of a hungry coyote. That said, coyotes aren’t going to lure your dog to their pack (they’re clever but they’re not velociraptor clever), and they’re probably not too interested in your cat, either. Most of a coyote’s diet consists of rabbits and rodents, wild fruits, carrion, and bugs. And considering these fellas tend to hunt alone (maybe in pairs) and they only weigh about 30 to 35 pounds on average, they’re highly unlikely to go for a prey animal larger than itself, much less a fellow predator, like a dog.
Is a coyote out during the day rabid?
Let’s put it this way: you’re probably diurnal (active during the day), but have you ever woken up for a midnight snack? That coyote out during the day is probably in a similar situation.
Coyotes are crepuscular: their preferred time to be out and about and hunting is from dusk to dawn. But if they think they can get a good meal at 10 in the morning or 4 in the afternoon they’ll go for it.
Of course, like all mammals, coyotes can contract rabies, but unless the animal looks confused, uncoordinated, or abnormally aggressive it’s probably just hungry. Being up during the day in and of itself is not cause to believe a coyote (or, really, any animal) is rabid. This is particularly true in the spring and summer, when they need to do extra hunting for themselves and their babies.
You’re more likely to see coyotes during mating season, between January and March, but around October to January, juveniles will start to venture out on their own a little bit… and because they haven’t necessarily learned how to avoid humans, you might catch a glimpse of them around now.
What do you do if you see a coyote?
When it comes to coyotes, the best offense is a good defense. According to the Urban Coyote Project, you want to start by making your yard or property unappealing to coyotes. Fencing can help, but also don’t feed the coyotes, either intentionally or by leaving out your pet food (and pets), garbage, compost, or other food sources.
If you do see a coyote, don’t run. If the coyote sees you, make yourself look big, and make noise — yelling and stomping is good. They’ll probably turn tail at that. If you are approached by a coyote, keep making noise and throw rocks at it. However, the Urban Coyote Project urges folks not to create conflict where none exists: if a coyote is avoiding people and just minding its own coyote business, simply admire these creatures from a distance.
