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Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

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Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#51

Post by JshWright »

dfsegoat wrote: post #46
dghughes wrote: post #34

In my island province here in Canada the biggest animal was the red fox (vulpes vulpes) until about ten years ago. Then suddenly coyotes appeared seemingly overnight. It drove foxes into the towns and cities or killed them off in rural areas. It's amazing to witness such a sudden change although I've read they arrived in 1983. It's very densely populated here but also rural it's many small towns spread out plus two b…

I think your zoology is a bit off and the type of coyotes you refer to, and the behaviors you describe are pretty much standard issue for any coyote pack. C. latrans is the species of coyote - there are subspecies beyond this, but the Coywolf is not one of them. Coywolf simply refers to the phenotype observed when coyotes and wolves interbreed - this can happen anywhere between all of the wolve and coyote subspecies.…

> Many wolves also have coyote DNA.

Indeed... in some cases enough that it complicates conservation efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA-QINoEEwQ

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#52

Post by thaumasiotes »

catalogia wrote: post #30
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #7

Other than eating the occasional housecat (which is bad) Coyotes, in general, seem like good partners for our current urban/suburban life. They make hidden dens in our parks, like to eat rats and other small rodents and are scared of dogs and households. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2010/12/08/131876027/6...

> Other than eating the occasional housecat (which is bad) If you want your cat to participate in nature, to have the opportunity to kill wild animals, you have to accept the possibility that other wild animals might try to eat your cat. Wanting the former but not the latter, wanting to have your cake and eating it too, is unreasonable.

Suppose I'd like my son to be able to go out hunting, but I want to make sure the animals out there do not eat him.

Why is that different?

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#53

Post by js2 »

mabbo wrote: post #41
dghughes wrote: post #34

In my island province here in Canada the biggest animal was the red fox (vulpes vulpes) until about ten years ago. Then suddenly coyotes appeared seemingly overnight. It drove foxes into the towns and cities or killed them off in rural areas. It's amazing to witness such a sudden change although I've read they arrived in 1983. It's very densely populated here but also rural it's many small towns spread out plus two b…

> One woman in Cape Breton was killed by Coywolves when she was out for a walk in a wooded area Yes, this did occur and it was a tragedy. But worth keeping things in perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_attack Three fatal attacks recorded in the last 100 years. And so few non-fatal attacks that the wikipedia page can list nearly all of them. Even the attack you mention, Taylor Mitchell, it sounds as thou…

> they'd still be a orders of magnitude less dangerous than sharks, bees, and lightning.

And well, dogs:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_t...

BTW, since we just adopted a very sweet chocolate lab mix who according to wisdom panel has 25% American Staffordshire Terrier in him, I'll also share this article pointing out that breed is a poor predictor of bite risk:

https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/literature-reviews/dog-...

Gratuitous pic of our new family member:

https://ibb.co/thq4sRG

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#54

Post by HarryHirsch »

mabbo wrote: post #41
dghughes wrote: post #34

In my island province here in Canada the biggest animal was the red fox (vulpes vulpes) until about ten years ago. Then suddenly coyotes appeared seemingly overnight. It drove foxes into the towns and cities or killed them off in rural areas. It's amazing to witness such a sudden change although I've read they arrived in 1983. It's very densely populated here but also rural it's many small towns spread out plus two b…

> One woman in Cape Breton was killed by Coywolves when she was out for a walk in a wooded area Yes, this did occur and it was a tragedy. But worth keeping things in perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_attack Three fatal attacks recorded in the last 100 years. And so few non-fatal attacks that the wikipedia page can list nearly all of them. Even the attack you mention, Taylor Mitchell, it sounds as thou…

The deer is a remarkably deadly animal. More people lose their lives in deer-involved car crashes than through dog attacks. Coyotes are the only thing that kill deer in the semi-urban Eastern US.

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#55

Post by dylan604 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #49
mabbo wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One woman in Cape Breton was killed by Coywolves when she was out for a walk in a wooded area Yes, this did occur and it was a tragedy. But worth keeping things in perspective: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_attack Three fatal attacks recorded in the last 100 years. And so few non-fatal attacks that the wikipedia page can list nearly all of them. Even the attack you mention, Taylor Mitchell, it sounds as thou…

> we should keep things in perspective about how dangerous we're talking about. If they were ten times more deadly than coyotes, they'd still be a orders of magnitude less dangerous than sharks, bees, and lightning. Sharks are an illustrative example. They're pretty dangerous if you encounter them. But doing that is fully optional; no one's ever run into a shark by accident. If you live near wolves, you can run into…

> no one's ever run into a shark by accident.

What do you mean by that? I'm pretty sure that the swimmers/surfers that have been bitten by a shark were not actually looking for a shark. Swimming at the surface of the water unaware of exactly what's lurking in the water below them is the same thing to me as a hiker walking through the woods suddenly coming upon any wild animal.

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#57

Post by prawn »

dylan604 wrote: post #55
thaumasiotes wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should keep things in perspective about how dangerous we're talking about. If they were ten times more deadly than coyotes, they'd still be a orders of magnitude less dangerous than sharks, bees, and lightning. Sharks are an illustrative example. They're pretty dangerous if you encounter them. But doing that is fully optional; no one's ever run into a shark by accident. If you live near wolves, you can run into…

> no one's ever run into a shark by accident. What do you mean by that? I'm pretty sure that the swimmers/surfers that have been bitten by a shark were not actually looking for a shark. Swimming at the surface of the water unaware of exactly what's lurking in the water below them is the same thing to me as a hiker walking through the woods suddenly coming upon any wild animal.

Not sure it's a point worth making personally, but I suspect they mean that you encounter bees by leaving the house, something almost everybody does daily. Deer if you drive outside a city. But you will only encounter a shark if you specifically enter the ocean and almost only if you go deeper than a foot or so of water.

I live in Australia where almost everyone lives near the coast, and we regularly swim at beaches where sharks are sighted. Shark-spotting planes, helicopters and drones are a daily thing through summer.

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#58

Post by WalterBright »

Coyotes are on my lawn regularly. Once there was a litter of seven, that dwindled to 5 by the fall. They liked to play in the yard.

I never bothered them, they didn't bother me, though they'd watch me carefully.

There's an eagle nest nearby, and the eagles are often circling above.

Amazingly, I live in the middle of the city.

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#59

Post by listerOfSmeg »

ranDOMscripts wrote: post #38
smt88 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they can't eat a cat if the cat is kept indoors, which it should be to protect wild animals that it might kill for fun (e.g. birds). Considering Australia is culling feral cats as a conservation effort, the coyotes might be doing our ecosystem a favor in that regard as well.

There shouldn't be any _outdoor cats_, full stop. I don't think people realize the extent of the bird/squirrel/lizard/frog carnage inflicted by the fluffy apex predator they occasionally get to pet. While I've seen many a cat catch & eat small creatures, I once had a neighbor's cat use my bird feeder as the lure for an all-you-can-eat bird buffet.

Yes they eat/kill lots of wildlife but so did the Bobcat, Lynx Ocelot and Foxes that we drove out of much of their North American habitat.

Re: Coyotes Poised to Infiltrate South America

#60

Post by albedoa »

WalterBright wrote: post #58

Coyotes are on my lawn regularly. Once there was a litter of seven, that dwindled to 5 by the fall. They liked to play in the yard. I never bothered them, they didn't bother me, though they'd watch me carefully. There's an eagle nest nearby, and the eagles are often circling above. Amazingly, I live in the middle of the city.

> Amazingly, I live in the middle of the city.

I live within a Boston postal code, and we have at least one coyote in our neighborhood. That was a surprise even coming from nearby Arlington where coyotes are not uncommon. Nobody expected we'd have one chillin among the concrete.

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