Got a call from the property manager at a farm where I previously targeted an elusive peacock breath Fisher. One of his employees got attacked by four coyotes while in a wooded area behind the farm. Lucky they were mostly scratches and not puncture wounds and the young man is ok. I since learned their was another attack near woodstock NY recently.

Always good to hear people didn't get eaten by coyote thats always a sad story .We got a massive wild dog thing going on seems I haven't been lucky enough to take part and have been clearly warned to be on gaurd all joking aside watch your kids I'm sure you do boys and girls

As the coyote population continues to grow, around here, I expect to hear more and more of these stories.

I've read accounts of pet's being attacked and eaten, cattle killed, horses attacked, poultry taken, goats disappearing and even human attacks.

But when you talk to our state guys, everything is hunkey dory! Many of them try to tell us how GOOD it is that we have coyotes in our woods now. They tell us how the deer herd is beniffiting and how these new predators are such a blessing to have in our environment.

BUT, at the same time, they have classified coyotes as an "invasive" species, opened up a year round hunting season on them and even allow them to be hunted at night! There is NO bag limits and there is talk of a year round trapping season on them as well. So, it seems that they DO, at least in private, recognize the potential for a problem. Makes you wonder what they AREN'T telling us.

What they DON'T tell you is how these creatures have little fear of man, tend to live near us, at times right under our noses and see us as a FOOD source.

I've not had any paying coyote calls yet simply because no one is yet willing to pay the price. But the day is coming!

So what's the rest of the story? Has the pack been hunted? Trapped? Poisoned?

Anyone know how they handle coyote attacks in Los Angeles? I know there's been many human-coyote problems there.

They did quite extensive removal, but they also realized they had a major feeder issue including the case where the kid was actually killed. Most
urban settings feeding is through the roof, I've had 4 that I know of in one little village here in my area. Folks who don't understand that feeding causes
them to habituate and come closer and expect food from all humans.

Likely not the case in this other story, but I've seen feeding occur at remote industrial facilities with folks having lunch and tossing sandwiches to the coyotes and then being bitten, etc...

Public education is seriously lacking on how/why these issues occur.

We all know any wild animal is capable of taking a bite out of a human, but the circumstances are often illuminating.

Muddawg, I know part of the issue with coyotes in NC is the red wolf and potential genetic dilution from coyote interbreeding. That has been a control issue and a topic of research for at least the last part of a decade if not longer. Beyond that it would be true for many eastern states to list
coyote as invasive or at least non native in terms where they evolved and lived in historical record. Gives more management flexibility to call something invasive in case you decide you really want to trim the population or increase take, or methods....

Watermann, how about some more details if you have them. Did this make the local newspaper? Reported to the DEC or anyone? Curious what
the circumstance was. Would imagine DEC would be wanting to test these coyotes for potential of rabies just due to scratches and exposure.

Enquiring minds want to know....

Justin: "We all know any wild animal is capable of taking a bite out of a human, but the circumstances are often illuminating."

We also all know that besides falling off of a ladder, my claim to fame is getting bitten by every species I possibly can.

I have made note of one thing: of the thousands upon thousands of animals I have dealt with, domestics are the only attackers.

P.S. I know that now that I have made that statement, I will probably die at the hands of a band of bloodthirsty chipmunks!

"Blood thirsty chipmonks" That's funny, right there!

I had a conversation with our city dog catcher once. Super nice guy. but he confessed to me that he wouldn't want my job. "Too dangerous." he said.

"What?" I looked at him funny and told him, "Your job is much more dangerous than mine."

"Why's that?" he wanted to know.

I told him, "Cause all the critters I go after are afraid on me!" I wasn't thinking about all the ladders and roof walking at the time.

Funny you should mention that.

It was back in the late 80's that they released 1000 breeding pairs of red wolves along our coast. Folks went nuts over it back then and complained that all sorts of horrible things were going to happen.

BUT... I don't know of one story that deals with a problem wolf here. Not one! Nothing factual has been reported to my knowledge. The wolves are doing a pretty good job of staying away from man and his livestock. In fact, the closest thing to a wolf problem we are having is that interbreeding thing you mentioned. It's the hybrids and the coyotes that all the problems are coming from.

I've been trying to figure out why. Why is it that wolves present no problems but yet coyotes do? The only thing I can come up with is that the coyote, being a bit smarter than the average wolf, knows he can come closer to man and still be safe. Does that sound resonable? Or do you have another theory?

If both species were wiped out in Wisconsin, nobody would lose any sleep. We never had wolves in my lifetime until recently and they haven't added a thing. ( Well, they killed a lot of hunting dogs and farmer's livestock )

In my area we never had coyotes for thirty years and they are completely worthless. We've had more deer/car problems than before and our feral cat situation is getting worse.

P.S. If you think I hate large canine predators, talk to an Alaskan guide sometime.

Wink, I think I can start posting your responses for you!

Maybe you can do mine too in a lot of these cases.

Muddawg, the red wolf captive breeding program is probably the largest reason you don't see the same issues
you do where wolves were caught in Alaska and Canada and brought to places like the rocky mountain west and such.

Since the wolves in your state of NC were brought in from remnants in TX and LA and captive bred for reintroduction
you always run the risks of having problems. The NM program with our wolves suffers some of the same issues, though they
do in our state grab some livestock and cause some issues.

Size of them is said to run between the coyote and gray wolf which likely puts more direct competition between them and coyotes
including the interbreeding deal.

If you consider a gray wolf and its size is going to only see the coyote as competition or a meal, versus if your pack is closer to the size of a coyote pack enough so they can interbreed, lots of potential for overlap which may constrain them from becoming a bigger deal.

I've only driven through NC and had a govt. conference there once and though I know it to be a beautiful state, I don't know much about the leading forms of agriculture other than row crops. The more folks have tighter husbandry on cattle, sheep and other forms of traditional livestock that suffer to canids, the less the impacts that we see in the western U.S. where free range large pasture is the normal production method.

It is possible that the coyotes adaptability and cunning lead it to more conflicts with people, but that is probably open for lots of debate.

.02

Okay Justin, here's one you didn't see coming. On my tour of duty (1961) with the cub scouts or U.S. Army, ( They are one in the same ) I was stationed with a lot of Texans. We tried to out-lie each other as to our outdoor prowess and no one ( not even me ) can out B.S. a Texan. One of the guys in our platoon claimed he had a pet red wolf. Since I had no idea what a red wolf even was, he sent me a picture after we served our tour. I still have it and I'm still impressed that I learned something ( probably the only thing ) in the Army.

Good story Paul, I know some folks who retired from the old outfit and had all kinds of TX wolf stories that were true and accurate, crazy thing!

I do agree though on the shootin the bull!

That's my theory, exactly.

I know little about wolves and would guese them to be like most any other dog. In dogs, from breed to breed you range from very intelegent to just plain STUPID. Don't know where the wolf is on that scale but I do know that the coyote happens to be pretty high on that chart. After studying them and watching them on game cameras and first hand, I can see they have the capability of thought.

I know the experts say they don't do it, but we have seen them pack up and take down grown deer. Whether it's instint or just sheer cunning, we've watched them cordinate hunts and utilize their numbers.

Muddawg, you might be right. One of the reasons our coyotes are so worthless is because the state now drags the roadkills off of the highway, into the brush, so the coyotes won't be disturbed by headlights, I guess.

I believe I've mentioned this before but it occurs to me that giving people food stamps so that they don't have to work, is the same as giving coyotes roadkill so they don't have to work either. ( It's got so bad that the coyotes are following the drunks home from the taverns, anticipating a warm meal )

P.S. Good news for coyotes. It looks like our speed limit will be raised to 70. ( Which means we can go 80 ) This usually means that we can take down more than one deer at a time. ( And more business for those guys in auto body repair )

I think animals are smart enough to give you what you tolerated last time + another step or 2. The coyotes I have been around are in cattle country so when they see a pickup truck or a man on horse back they high tail it. On the coast where (in CA) they are protected they do not learn to fear humans. Back east, maybe its possible the woods are so thick they continue to get closer and closer until close contact is the norm. This thought in any predators brain is going to be a problem sooner or later.

What do you guys think?

Yep.

We have a coyote population that is about at carrying capacity yet very few folks ever see one. Most people around here could have coyotes withing 200' of the house and never know it.

Another coyote attack- http://www.timescall.com/longmont-local-...-officials-kill

EDIT: This link includes additional pictures- http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/colorado-man-fights-off-coyotes-survives-20595763

Yikes! Read the article, always wonder about all the factors from the animals behavior to the exact minutes these things happen.
Amazing his hands weren't worse than they were compared to the other parts in the pics...

CO has a good number of serious coyote conflicts and I'll be curious to see what comes of the investigation into what/why this happened to an adult man in this landscape.

Like Justin, I always have that feeling of doubt about an animal that I have had a reasonable amount of contact with, doing what these three coyotes did.

Then you need to factor into the equation that the John Denver state; "Yes I live in Colorado but I don't want anyone else to." is all but completely taken over by Californians or their attitude: "So the coyotes eat a couple kids; everybody can have kids but not everybody can have coyotes."

We are starting to see this attitude everywhere. This is one thing that the Wisconsin DNR and our company stand hand in hand on.

Well I have a bunch of traps out on the farm now. The state biologist and I spoke briefly yesterday about the young guy who was attacked . Their investigation consisted of a 2 minute interview with the victim. The breaks in his skin were only on the top layer because of his work clothes . He was lucky he had a rake when they attacked. So far the people I've told the story to looked at me in disbelief . I'm just glad to have traps there where the maneaters are.