indyfabz

Great post. I have heard the Vixen's Scream and can see how a "city slicker" would think a woman was being attacked.

tcs

I see them on a semi-regular basis on mornings down in riparian areas. Still it was a bit of a surprise when I went out the door one morning here in suburban Parts Unknown and locked eyes with a coyote in the neighbor's landscaping across the street. Cool, but not as cool as the bobcat mother and her two kittens in an identical situation some months later. Shrug - we have an abundant supply of cottontail rabbits, so a few predators (including red tailed hawks and the occasional peregrine falcon) are to be expected.

CrankyFranky

+1!

SteelyMan

• Timothy Treadwell

alanf

Wild animals are less afraid of women than men.

A Female friend from South Africa was talking about her experience back home when she and some friends rented a cabin in a park. When they went to check into the cabin there was some variety (I forget which) of apelike animals who had broken into the cabin. When she went near, the animals came out screeching and baring their teeth at her, getting ready to attack and having absolutely no fear. However when the guy went to the cabin the animals all high tailed it out of there in a heartbeat.

Obviously they had not heard of the "International Day of Women".

VegasTriker

It would be a rare night camping in Death Valley in the Spring when you don't hear coyotes at night. They do come close to the tent camping areas but there isn't even a warning at the park about them. We even have them in Las Vegas and they are often sighted by people who live at the western edge of the valley where the homes are being built in their habitat. It's not a wise idea to tie your dog up in the backyard in some of these areas as they make a nice snack for the coyotes. Even that doesn't happen very often.


As to the bears. Putting food in your tent or car is downright stupid unless you want to have a bear visit you. I've been in several parks in the west (Yosemite) where they have steel boxes for you to store your food. If you leave it out on the table while you are not in the campsite the rangers will fine you if they see the food. There is a nice display at the Yosemite visitors center showing how easy it is for a bear to open the door on your locked car to get to food or other things that smell (toiletries, toothpaste). The bear doesn't bother using the handle, it just peels back the top of the door. You can buy or rent food storage cylinders for back country camping. It's a tube with two ends that twist off. Even then you are instructed to leave the cylinder on the ground outside of the tent. The bears haven't figured out how to twist off the ends. It doesn't take much to get the interest of a bear. A Scoutmaster I know left an apple in a coffee cup under his bed. The young bear came by while he was out with the kids and ate the apple. I saw it happen. Unfortunately for the SM, the bear decided to come back at night and see if any more food appeared. The guy woke up with the bear inside the tent. He said the bear had the worst breath he ever encountered. For some reason the camp did not decide to call in the CA wildlife guys to relocate the bear even though it had raided several sites the week I was there.

Cycle Tourist

They are always after food. If you can't hang it high outside or lock it up then take it inside the tent but don't leave anything outside if the value your panniers. Racoons, skunks, coyotes, wolves and bears will tear your stuff to pieces to get at even the smallest scrap of food. I wouldn't hesitate to be proactive and scare them off when and if possible.

alanf

Some friends have a camp that a bear broke into when they weren't around. In its frenzy it swung at an aluminum frying pan and its claw poked a hole in the aluminum.

bobwysiwyg

Keep food "inside" your tent?

CharlesLuck

Just this afternoon, I watched an episode of "I was Prey" where this dude detailed the vicious attack he withstood from three coyotes. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that one coyote won't bother you, but as a pack, they don't pass up a meal easily.

Lovegasoline

Don't worry about getting attacked by coyotes.

I've spent months camping remotely in the desert (and the mountains but their presence is greater in the desert) around coyotes.
Yes their howling can sound freaky but I absolutely love it! It can sometimes sound like a bunch of little girls screaming.

IMO the only thing to be worried about is them making a mess in your camp, stealing things, or crapping on stuff. I've seen them take a climbing shoe before, presumably because of the salt sweated into them. They can be super stealth and creep around without alerting you of their presence ... but if seen they will keep out of your way or run away.

Humans are not on their menu (unless they have rabies or something).

2manybikes

In a nearby wooded park surrounded by suburbs, coyotes took down a deer. They did not finish eating it the first day. They came back and dragged it deeper into the woods and then finished it. One took a small dog from a guy walking three dogs in the same area. I see lone coyotes, but once
from the car saw two and one bigger one, like a coy wolf. Trotting through the front yards of houses along the road. Like they were happy and not afraid of anything.

MoBugs

I live in a very rural farming community and I have a very large forest area that has a pack of coyotes. I have camped out in a tent or in a hammock and have seen my resident pack. I have never been approached or they have never come close to my camp site. I have seen them within the tree line and moving around in close proximity to my camp site. I also "never ever" leave any food for them while camping. I have livestock, they are always within electric fences, they are put away at night and I have two arces fenced off setting up boundries. I'm more concern about mountain lions and sow bears with cubs when I go for a bikepacking trip.

mtn_cyclist

Coyotes are no threat.

Dave P

Coyotes are denning now, so they can be aggressive. Be careful out there.

JoeyBike

Coyote howling is one of the reasons I camp out. This and owl hoots, the occasional panther roar, chirping insects, and whippoorwills.

Bears freak me out, and they tread more silently than a chipmunk.

If you have survived the drunk, texting motorists during your ride, then the most dangerous part of your day is over. Except for the danged bears. Did you HEAR that??? Then is wasn't a bear.

Doug64

We were having breakfast when this guy walked trough our camp site on his way down to the river.


The green "bear box" can be seen in the background. He did not look at us or the food box; he was on a mission.
BC, Canada

rumrunn6

BigAura

How come nobody's mentioned deer as a killer animal. People have been killed by rutting male deer.

Seriously the dangers posed by any animal while touring is minuscule. As I and others continually point out, motorized machines are the truly insidious danger.

bobwysiwyg

https://www.nycgovparks.org/programs...gement/coyotes

NYPD Ruins Coyote?s Battery Park City Jog

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-urban-coyote-diet-20180323-story.html
​​​​​https://annarborobserver.com/articles/coyotes_among_us.html#.XH5iK1tOm9c

They are pretty much everywhere.

J.Higgins 

Reading through this thread, I've wanted to give out a lot of +1's to a lot of you guys. So many good advisement's. I live out in the woods here in NH. You can usually hear the trees growing (j/k). I never go out into my property without a sidearm. Color me paranoid? Possibly, but I do not wish to become a victim, and the prepper in me takes over and says to be safer than sorry-er. Thank God I've never had to use it.

We see a lot of deer, moose (which is probably the most-dangerous of all), coyote, foxes - both red and grey, black bear, bald eagles, and turkeys. Once in a while I see a mountain lion, and we've wondered if anyone's pets have been lost to them. I've never read any substantiated claims to such.

Mischief and happenstance can occur anytime, anywhere with anyone. Why did I mention turkeys? Well, they can cause bodily harm if they want to, and for an unarmed, unsuspecting person, they could get hurt. My daughter's property is smack-dab between a 600 acre wildlife sanctuary, and a state water reservoir that cannot be accessed by the public. It probably goes without saying that they have a lot of wildlife out there. So with all this prelude, here's the story:

Daughter buys a shiny new Lincoln and drives it home. Hubby was working on the tractor is her garage spot, so she leaves the car outside and they go in for an afternoon nap. They woke up in the middle of their nap, hearing some banging sounds. They got dressed and walked around, trying to figure out what the noise was, and they went out into the driveway, and there was a flock of turkeys pecking at their reflections in the side of her car! She had like 35 miles on the car and it had to go back in the shop for bodywork. True story. My son-in-law, a former marine, went ballistic for a few weeks and snipered every turkey that wandered into range. He's got the training a Ruger RPR 6.5 Creedmoor. 'Nuff said. I wouldn't have gone on a rampage like that myself, but each to his own, and they paid a lot of cash for that car.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

bobwysiwyg

Deer-vehicle collisions kill a couple of hundred humans each year.

Steve B.

Coyotes in the Northeast part of the US have this as DNA " western coyote (62%), western wolf (14%), eastern wolf (13%), and domestic dog (11%) in their nuclear genome"

They tend to be larger, with western version in the 18-30 lbs range with some larger, while NE coyotes are in the 30-40 lbs range (for adult males).

When I lived in Santa Fe, NM we were at the head of an arroyo that was the local Interstate for coyotes and there were pretty much daily sightings. I've seen a few in upstate NY and they look more wolf like, less scrawny.

That said I've no fear of them and regularly am in wooded area's alone.

Bikesplendor

Which animals kill the most humans? National Geographic has listed the top five. Can you guess what the animals are, and the number of deaths per year? Interesting to give it a shot. Some surprises there.

indyfabz

They have been living in Chicago for a long time. Some of them have been tagged with radio collars to track their movements.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...-urban-nation/

Believed to be 4,000 in Cook County, which includes Chicago:

https://news.wttw.com/2017/12/27/why...g-chicago-area