Several years ago, my son bought me a copy of Dan Flores’ Coyote America. Good book that tells all about them, their history, the Indian legends, and their relationship with modern folks. He gets a bit soft on them, has “forgiven” them for quite a while I suppose, but a major point he makes is that you can’t wipe them out because their natural response to pressure is to have more pups. I think the best we can do is to keep them “honest” by not allowing them to become complacent in our presence, in other words take a poke at them at every opportunity, so they always fear us.
The only ones I’ve seen in this area myself were while driving, either at night when I was still working, or on my way home. They’re all over suburban Northern Virginia. I’ve seen them in the town of Herndon, and once saw a really big one walking down the sidewalk in Ashburn like he owned the place, hunting housecats I suppose. My few attempts to call them in have so far failed, yielding only red foxes, which I find to be pretty stupid critters, pitiful really. I’ve “forgiven” the foxes because they’re no challenge at all, and stink to boot. When I run a camera in the yard, mostly what I catch are foxes, possums, and coons. No coyotes yet, but a few years ago my neighbor saw one three mornings in a row, trotting up the side of my yard. It’s not uncommon to hear them if I’m outside at night. There are a lot of people who walk along the river on the local WMA, often with small tasty dogs, and I’ve never heard of any attacks or even sightings, so the ones that live there must be pretty “honest”. Gonna get out soon and try to help them stay that way. Right now the snow is glazed over so badly just standing up is a challenge.
