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Dangers from Coyotes?

Old 02-27-19, 09:51 AM
  #26  
indyfabz
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Originally Posted by fishboat
Sleeping with your food in bear country continues to be the practice of folks seeking a Darwin Award.
+1. And leaving food in your tent when you are not there can give you a good excuse to buy a new tent thanks to rodents. While riding home after my cross country tour I was camping outside of Hyde Park, NY in September. The place was rife with squirrels and chipmunks fattening up for the coming winter. Took a day off to tour the Vanderbilt mansion. Left a loaf a bread in the tent. I returned to find that something had torn through the tent mesh and gorged on my bread. The tent was nearly brand new. The zipper of my original tent crapped out in Maine. Fortunately, my route took me through Freeport and I had been able to pick up a new one at L.L. Bean.

Even the smell of food can cause problems. A few years ago a raccoon tried to make off with one my panniers. The bag had held my cooking gear and very aromatic everything bagel. It was empty since I was in New Jersey bear county and had put all my food and cooking gear in the bathroom for safety. Still, the varmint tried to drag the thing away. I was in my tent about to turn in when it happened. Heard him and chased him away.
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Old 02-27-19, 09:54 AM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by tcs
Oooooh, love to hear the song dogs at night! Along with the Milky Way hanging in an inky black sky, it's part of the spiritual recharge I get when camping.
+1. But my favorites are owls. I like to follow their movements by listening to their calls as they move from tree to tree.
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Old 02-27-19, 10:03 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
And the bears are black bears.
So? Glad there wasn't any food in my tent as there was a pile of scat about 50' away. Seems he passed by my site on his way to the dumpster. This is about where I was standing when he walked out from between the two dumpsters. Notice the mural on one of them. Really gets my goat when owners of campgrounds in known bear country (In this case, Allegheny Nat'l Forest) don't spring for bear-resistant dumpsters.



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Old 02-27-19, 10:14 AM
  #29  
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I had a backcountry encounter with a lone coyote years ago. I was eating lunch and he came by to inspect. After each of us making eye contact from a non-threatening distance he moved on about his business. They aren't big, tangling with an adult human wouldn't make any sense.

While bike touring critters are never a concern for me. I've never heard, firsthand, of any touring cyclist being harmed by a wild animal.

The real danger for bicycle-tourists are cars, trucks, and RV's. I do know firsthand of cyclists' deaths & injuries by those wheeled-monsters.

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Old 02-27-19, 10:44 AM
  #30  
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precautions?

A Hotel room will be safer. & Quiet with door closed



What are recommended countermeasures and safety precautions?

Maybe like Bears ... Never Eat In Your Tent.. keep you food in a Bear Box







​​​​​​​....

Last edited by fietsbob; 02-27-19 at 10:49 AM.
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Old 02-27-19, 01:31 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
I'm camping on a tour right now. It's 8:01 PM, and there are coyotes howling and yelping. They don't sound too far away. They must know I'm here. I'm wondering how often they can be a problem. I'm in the Sonoran desert. There doesn't seem to be a very good supply of food for them. What, if anything, are they known to do that is potentially concerning? What are recommended countermeasures and safety precautions? There seem to be at least four voices.
You're camping in the Sonoran desert. 8pm in apparently Mountain Time Zone since the bf.net time stamp (Eastern Time Zone) indicates 10pm. AZ? You made 17 posts yesterday, and 8 so far today - 25 posts to 8 different threads spread throughout a 25 hour period, while in the desert, camping, on a bicycle tour. That is impressive.

Anyway, coyotes are generally harmless. I hope they don't crowd your "campsite". There are none here at Camp IV on the South Col route, but it is a bit windy, and Bob just ate the last of the beef stroganoff, luckily there is a new Starbucks here, so I'm heading over to enjoy a bacon, cheese and egg sandwich in the shadow of Lhotse. Where did I put my goggles? Enjoy your tour.
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Old 02-27-19, 01:35 PM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by seeker333
You're camping in the Sonoran desert. 8pm in apparently Mountain Time Zone since the bf.net time stamp (Eastern Time Zone) indicates 10pm. AZ? You made 17 posts yesterday, and 8 so far today - 25 posts to 8 different threads spread throughout a 25 hour period, while in the desert, camping, on a bicycle tour. That is impressive.
I'll send you a PM.
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Old 02-27-19, 01:48 PM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by seeker333
You're camping in the Sonoran desert. 8pm in apparently Mountain Time Zone since the bf.net time stamp (Eastern Time Zone) indicates 10pm. AZ? You made 17 posts yesterday, and 8 so far today - 25 posts to 8 different threads spread throughout a 25 hour period, while in the desert, camping, on a bicycle tour. That is impressive.

Anyway, coyotes are generally harmless. I hope they don't crowd your "campsite". There are none here at Camp IV on the South Col route, but it is a bit windy, and Bob just ate the last of the beef stroganoff, luckily there is a new Starbucks here, so I'm heading over to enjoy a bacon, cheese and egg sandwich in the shadow of Lhotse. Where did I put my goggles? Enjoy your tour.
Haha, Mr. Snarky. I'm in a hammock enjoying the rest under the palo verdes. Is that okay? I certainly hope so.
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Old 02-27-19, 02:01 PM
  #34  
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Coyotes. Need to hit Cabela before you go biking. Pickup one of those coyote calls, 22 shells, and small 22 rifle. Or camping small zapper electric fence. Charged by solar (at camping stores). They work good. Bait the fence and coyote will lick the fence ,and wham he gets little jolt energy pumped into him. Then they are gone for good. Works for bears also. Coyotes are harmless, however they search for rabbits, birds, and domestic animals is ongoing. Feel sorry for people whom lose there cat or dog near coyotes. They don’t have a chance. Good luck.
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Old 02-27-19, 02:35 PM
  #35  
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Fatalities seem to be very rare, attacks and injuries not as rare.
​​​​​​


Not sure attacks would end as well if other people were not around. Injuries would probably be worse.
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Old 02-27-19, 03:47 PM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
Fatalities seem to be very rare, attacks and injuries not as rare.
​​​​
I mean that's true of most things. Around 700 cyclists die in the US each year on the road, most in car collisions. Far far more are non-fatally injured. A certain number of people slip and fall and die in the shower every year. Far more slip and fall and don't die. But I'd bet all of those numbers are higher than the number of people attacked by coyotes.

Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
Not sure attacks would end as well if other people were not around. Injuries would probably be worse.
There are certainly rare cases where coyotes have outright attacked people and not backed off. Those are still rare, and they seem to happen more often where there are likely to be more people around, because the coyotes have become acclimated to people and don't see them as much of a threat, but even then fatalities are practically zero. Compared to coyotes, dogs are way, way more lethal. I mean coyotes don't even make this list: https://www.quora.com/How-many-peopl...likely-animals
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Old 02-27-19, 04:05 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
Grizzlies are one animal I single out (in North America at least) as deserving an extra level (or several extra levels) of respect. Perhaps it has something to do with hearing the tape of the guy (I don't remember his name at the moment, maybe somebody has it) who was eaten alive. That part of it is not easily forgotten.
Was it Timothy Treadwell? That name is floating up out of memory. And I think the film about the incident was directed by Werner Herzog. I usually like his work but I skipped that one for some reason ...

Last edited by rseeker; 02-27-19 at 04:13 PM.
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Old 02-27-19, 04:29 PM
  #38  
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Originally Posted by rseeker
Was it Timothy Treadwell? That name is floating up out of memory. And I think the film about the incident was directed by Werner Herzog. I usually like his work but I skipped that one for some reason ...
Yes, that's it.

The most memorable line from the film, for me, is in this clip,


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Old 02-27-19, 05:15 PM
  #39  
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Some people have a morbid curiosity about the final recording of him and the girl. It's not worth putting into your brain. You can't unlisten to it. Maybe reconsider. If I could do it over, I would just skip it. Not good. Don't know what else I can say on that. It's like the people who ignored warnings not to look after 9-11 and regretted it afterwards.
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Old 02-27-19, 05:55 PM
  #40  
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Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
Perhaps it has something to do with hearing the tape of the guy (I don't remember his name at the moment, maybe somebody has it) who was eaten alive. That part of it is not easily forgotten.
no one heard the tape, if you really saw the film you should know that. Herzog supposedly listened to it with headphones on in the film, but we the audience did not hear it.

and yes, the bear guy was a kook, poor guy, and especially his poor girlfriend who bought into going with him, and died also.
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Old 02-27-19, 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Bikesplendor
Some people have a morbid curiosity about the final recording of him and the girl. It's not worth putting into your brain. You can't unlisten to it. Maybe reconsider. If I could do it over, I would just skip it. Not good. Don't know what else I can say on that. It's like the people who ignored warnings not to look after 9-11 and regretted it afterwards.
again, you are making things up here for the sake of drama.
You must not really have seen this film.
I have, and the audio in question is never heard.
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Old 02-27-19, 06:17 PM
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Originally Posted by djb
again, you are making things up here for the sake of drama.
You must not really have seen this film.
I have, and the audio in question is never heard.
You're uttering one false statement after another. I never said it was in the film, I'm not making it up at all, and there is zero drama except what you're creating with your multiple false statements. And I've seen the film more than once.
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Old 02-27-19, 07:45 PM
  #43  
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To me the most remarkable thing about Grizzly Man is his girlfriend actually went after that bear with a frying pan during the attack. Because of a plane ticket dispute Treadwell goes back out into the heavily traversed "grizzly maze" late in the season after the salmon run when only the most desperately hungry bears were still there. He got that poor woman killed.

Speaking of which, the prospect of touring the remote West without SOME form of weapon at hand does make me uneasy. Humans have routinely gone armed in the woods since the beginning of time, seems unnatural to go without.

'Course at that point one has to balance probabilities with legal and moral liabilities. Anyhoo, bear spray is a given for me.
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Old 02-27-19, 08:02 PM
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Ditto. I feel pretty good about the bear spray. UDAP was my choice, and I'm happy with it.

Treadwell: I put some of the blame on the people who interfered with his flight and plans. It wouldn't have gone the way it did without them. But he also bears some of the responsibility. Even she has some, though to my mind less. She could have opted out, and she was there by choice. And she was an adult. Even so, she was also in some ways a victim. She did, however, freely choose to be with Treadwell. Even though he made some horrible calls, and was negligent about his own safety and hers.

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Old 02-27-19, 08:03 PM
  #45  
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over and out folks
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Old 02-28-19, 01:05 PM
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Coyotes live in family units, not packs. What you're hearing is a family of parents with siblings born last spring. Sometimes a daughter will stay with the parents several years and help raise the new pups. Coyotes howl to designate their territories, and when one family does it neighbouring families do it too. Coyotes don't hunt large animals as wolves do. They have plenty of mice, ground squirrels, rabbits, snakes, grasshoppers and the like. They also eat a lot of road kill. The main reason why they kill pet dogs who are hiking the trails is because they're defending their territory. They kill foxes and cats for the same reason, and after killing them they shake them in their jaws vigorously swinging them back and forth until the carcass tears in half. Then they have a howl fest as they bounce with their front legs on the carcass. People who find these carcasses torn in half start wild rumors about extraterrestrials killing cats (Linda Mouton Howe) or imagine some twisted person is doing it.

A few years ago a young women was killed by coyotes at a city park. I imagine she was curled up on the ground as they attacked her and that was her fatal mistake. Maybe she was sick from drinking alcohol. You should stand up and defend yourself because these are typically 30 or 40 pound dogs, fairly small and easily intimidated.

Long time hiker, pet owner, wild dog lover, coyote observer.

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Old 02-28-19, 01:26 PM
  #47  
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Originally Posted by tcs
Oooooh, love to hear the song dogs at night! Along with the Milky Way hanging in an inky black sky, it's part of the spiritual recharge I get when camping.
I hear critters at night, lying in my bed in sub-rural New Jersey. More often, my dogs hear something and freak out, barking like crazy until I let them out.

When I hear something, it's usually something interesting, a barred owl or other large bird, or sometimes foxes or coyotes. The foxes make a really distinctive sound, confirmed by occasional fox sightings in the area. The coyotes make an even more distinctive sound, which, when I hear it, I will usually hear it several nights in a row; and then I don't hear it again for a while. I haven't heard the coyotes in months.

So the funny thing is: when I hear foxes or coyotes, the dogs just sleep through it (or pretend to). Not interested in going out when there's coyotes howling.

Roadkill deer are common, and they are usually stripped to the skeleton within a couple days; so I know there's hungry critters around cleaning up, probably coyotes. But I've never seen a coyote.
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Old 02-28-19, 01:41 PM
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Originally Posted by rhm
The foxes make a really distinctive sound, confirmed by occasional fox sightings in the area.
What county are you in? When I visited the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ (Warren County), the employee showing us the foxes (the place has wolves, bobcats and foxes) told us that 911 calls reporting women screaming increased as city folk moved into the relative country. Turned out what they were hearing were foxes screaming. Some of them can sound down right scary.
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Old 02-28-19, 02:07 PM
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Originally Posted by indyfabz
What county are you in? When I visited the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ (Warren County), the employee showing us the foxes (the place has wolves, bobcats and foxes) told us that 911 calls reporting women screaming increased as city folk moved into the relative country. Turned out what they were hearing were foxes screaming. Some of them can sound down right scary.
I'm in Mercer County, halfway between Princeton and Trenton.

The foxes I hear make an unearthly din, a voice reminiscent of both cats and dogs, but with a coyote-like attitude (cacophony).

On a four day brevet last spring, near the end of the third day (so, about 2 AM, after we'd been riding since 6 AM) we passed a field in which some animal was screaming, presumably having been caught by a bigger animal. From where I was, on my bike and riding by at 12 mph, it was a really creepy sound. Had I been camping in a tent, it would have been a scary sound. Had I been home in bed, it would have been interesting at best.
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Old 02-28-19, 03:35 PM
  #50  
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In late winter, early spring, you start hearing wild dogs doing mating calls


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