Access Atlanta > The Newcomer > Archives > 2008 > July > 22 > Entry
Coyotes in the cul-de-sac.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A coworker here has been regaling me with tales of mangy, sinister-eyed dog-beasts that lurk in his neighborhood and prey on poor defenseless housecats while their owners brew the morning coffee.
Talk of the town, he swears. He even wrote the imaginary headline: “Coyotes in the cul-de-sac.”
I see a lot of strays roaming around, and given the number of bears and other wily creatures that’ve shown up in the area, I shouldn’t have raised my eyebrow so high.
Indeed, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources spokeswoman Melissa Cummings told me, there are coyotes in all 159 Georgia counties. It’s almost cliched, she says, but it stands true: “As we’ve expanded, we expand further into wildlife territory.”
So yes, newcomers, that may well be Canis latrans peering at you from your backyard. They’re particularly active in the spring and summer because it’s baby time, so they’re feeding for more than one.
The DNR got more than 2,000 complaints last year, and the number seems to rise every year.
“Coyotes are those animals that are very adaptable and can make due in whatever sitaution they’re put in,” Cummings says.
Sure enough, the AJC has written coyote-sighting stories pretty often. This guy was spotted in Buckhead in 2004:
So here are the coyote basics, for those who might’ve wondered which neighbor has the weird-looking dog. Also, here’s a DNR’s coyote fact sheet from the DNR.
Coyotes wouldn’t normally eat Fluffy or Fido. In the wild, they hunt alone, and they eat fruit and small animals. (They’re excellent rodent control.) When they’re living outside your subdivision, they’re happy to eat your garbage, your pet food and sometimes, your pet. Remember, though, that coyotes shouldn’t get all the blame. There are plenty of free-roaming dogs, owls and some domestic animals that will be happy to do the same.
They’re shy and not very big, just about 20-45 pounds as adults. They might get more brazen if they’re hungry and your yard appears to have some low-hanging fruit, literally or figuratively. They get a bad rep, maybe because of cartoons and that poor bird that’s forever and always in danger? Wile E. Coyote was unusually focused, though.
The DNR doesn’t have the manpower needed to trap and haul away coyotes. But it will provide you with a list of approved trappers in your area who will catch and remove the animal for a fee. To contact the DNR’s Wildlife Resources Division, call 770-918-6400.
Before trapping, consider other options. Removing one coyote will not necessarily remove the problem. There can be many more coyotes that will move into your area. Usually, trapped coyotes are euthanized.
Here are a few tips from the DNR to help you live around coyotes.
- Take pets indoors during primary hunting times, from dusk till dawn.
- If pets must remain outside, install fencing and flood lights to keep predators away.
- Small livestock and poultry should be kept enclosed or sheltered. Coyotes aren’t known for messing with large livestock, but free-roaming dogs are.
- Don’t feed coyotes! Ever!
- Keep grills, pet food and bird feeders off limits and cleaned up.
- Make trash cans inaccessible, with tight lids and indoor storage, if possible.
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By DaveD
July 22, 2008 2:34 PM | Link to this
You WILL never…NEVER get rid of coyotes…leave them alone! They always come back. They are the BEST at getting rid of unwanted rats and field mice (though they too have a right to live). Leave them alone…really… they don’t go after dogs and cats as prey. If your pet is attakced by a coyote…it’s your OWN fault for leavig it unattended…. Dogs and kitties are not the normal prey of coyotes. Little tiny mammals are. They do their job…that is walking miles and miles a day looking for rodents.
Better you should have a fence or just foreget about them…
as far as little “kiddies” go…
please post ONE REPORT of a CHILD BEING KILLED by a coyote….ever….
you’re worse off driving on 400 or 285 with your child…
leave them be…
they will NEVER cause you harm….
By Mark
July 22, 2008 2:41 PM | Link to this
I shot a coyote last weekend, and smoked it on my BGE. My guests praised my cooking without even knowing what they ate. YUM!!
By Bilbo
July 22, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this
Mark, thanks again for last weekend. The cookout was awesome.
Bilbo
By Steve
July 22, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this
LOS ANGELES — A nanny pulled a 2-year-old girl from the jaws of a coyote Friday after the animal attacked the toddler and tried to carry her away in its mouth, officials said.
Middletown, N.J. Child ‘bloody, crying’ after coyote attack
Woodstock, IL A coyote jumped over a silt fence and snapped at 8-year-old
Seattle, WA Two Young Boys Nipped By Coyote In Seattle Suburb
Don’t take the chance, shoot em.
By Left to Right
July 22, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this
Mark,
Can you provide some grilling tips for coyote? (i.e. How long and at what temp? Prefer rubs or marinades? Recommended wine pairings?) Thanks.
By SAR
July 22, 2008 3:20 PM | Link to this
I’ve seen quiet a few small coyotes in my neighborhood in the past fews years in the wee hours of the morning. They are always much more afraid of me than I am of them. I don’t have an issue with them. On the other hand I would love to rid my neighbor of fat men who mow their yards with their shirts off and a tuff of back hair growing like kudzo and the teenagers who are result of two drunk and smelly uneduacted inbreds refusing to use a condom. I will take the coyotes over this (sub)human mess anyday in my neighborhood. Mark, mow your back you cretin and stop having sex with relatives and perhaps you may find a job and someday can afford real food. Or, die of some strage wild animal born virus. Whichever comes first is fine by me.
By Chamblee Restaurant
July 22, 2008 3:23 PM | Link to this
You got coyote? You call us - we take coyote - good meat, little tough, good for stir-fry. If we get in time, Tuesday special: Braised coyote with Chinese vegetable.
By Cammi317
July 22, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this
I have been startled on more than one occassion lately by a deer struting up my drive way or from the woods in my backyard. I cannot even imagine walking out of the door and coming face to face with a coyote… You definitely would hear my daughter’s scream resounding throughout the southwestern USA.
By gttim
July 22, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this
You have as much luck of getting rid of coyotes as you do squirrels. My house sits on the border of one of the Chattahoochee parks. Coyotes all over the place. My dogs are not bothered- one big and one small. The 4 cats that run lose all day and night are able to evade them. People rarely see them because they do not like humans of any kind and run away from you, unless rabid or being fed by humans. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. Of course a bunch of guys feel the need to shot them so they can feel like men and not the losers they are, but they are not going away either.
By Cammi317
July 22, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this
Oops, I meant southeastern….LOL…we live in Georgia.
By Sarah
July 22, 2008 3:37 PM | Link to this
Men with tiny…tiny..itsy…bisty you know whats love coyote meat. Mark? Left? If you have girlfriends or wives or more like it…boyfriends, we know they’re not size queens !!!!!!!!!!!!
By shaggy
July 22, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this
Finally. Something to control the strays and teach irresponsible pet owners some manners.
Keep fluffy on a leash or closely supervised in YOUR yard, and keep tabby cat inside YOUR house.
I laugh every time I hear of some irresponsible jerk pet owner bawling about their pet, that they refuse to supervise, getting eaten by Wiley Coyote.
By Harry
July 22, 2008 3:57 PM | Link to this
Afraid of coyotes? Wanna never see them again in and around your property? Get an African Besenji hunting dog. I have 1 and it’s a great addition to the family. They love kids, are easy to train, they live a long time. Mine just turned 14 and is as strong as ever. They will drive coyotes off your property, I guarantee it. About 3 years ago, mine took on 2 coyotes at the same time at 1 AM in our front yard. Guess what? I saw too bloodied coyotes yelping and hollering as they high tailed it out of our yard. My dog was like a buzz saw on those two. Came through it with no bite marks that I could see. Since then, we have had none, ZERO, coyotes anywhere near our property.
By Typical DeKalb
July 22, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this
So we have coyotes in our neighborhood, right behind the elementary school. We call DeKalb Animal Control, and they tell us they won’t come out, that they only “do domestic pets”.
They even suggested, no lie, that we can hunt the coyotes ourselves, but with a bow and arrow, not a rifle. You couldn’t make that up if you tried.
DeKalb County at its best.
By beer_stein
July 22, 2008 5:11 PM | Link to this
We’ve got them in East Cobb, my wife has seen them roaming through our yard on occassion. They just seem to pass through. There’s no question though that their appearance coincided with a significant uptick in missing cat posters. Oh well, that’s life, I suppose.
By spaceygirl
July 22, 2008 5:50 PM | Link to this
Typical Dekalb, I doubt you could find a county anywhere that would come out for a coyote. Coyotes live everywhere. Read the article, not even the DNR will come out and trap a wild animal. You have to hire a trapper.
Now as to the bow and arrow comment, I guess they cannot suggest you use a rifle because of the liability of your firing it outside in a populated neighborhood.
By lawyerdaggett
July 22, 2008 8:18 PM | Link to this
Shoot em. Shoot em ALL. Smelliest, nastiest animals God ever created.
By mom3boys
July 22, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this
At least we live in GA where we can shoot them (or use a bow and arrow, so they can be re-sold to Chamblee Restaurant). My brother lived in LA, had a 5 foot fence and the beast got in his yard…and ate a 6-week old puppy…this puppy was going to be sold for $2000 (it was supposed to be show quality)…that was one expensive snack for the coyote.
By Atlanta Get a Life
July 22, 2008 10:45 PM | Link to this
People get a life.
You don’t want to live in the City around people so you move to the country/suburbs.
Now you complain about wild animals.
Colonize Mars already, please.
By Elwyn
July 23, 2008 7:33 AM | Link to this
Wile E. Coyote was unusually focused, though.
Bravo! Great article, nice balance of intro, photo, and fact. I have never minded the fat lawn mowing men, I don’t see them. I do see the coyotes. I hear them more, actually. Singing groups. Midnight medleys in the pine acres all around us brave 8 first families in the subdivision in the middle of nowhere…
The song thing adds flavor to the cookout without cooking the singer. Its just before the guests are leaving and you’ve been on the back porch at least an hour past desert and coffee.
The first weird vowel climbs into the dark and sounds like 5 or more out of tune like lewd whales on the boardwalk.
“what was that?” you stare into the metal pit fire thing and are thankful that both your dogs are asleep and did not hear any of this.
By lewis
July 23, 2008 7:37 AM | Link to this
Dear Jamie, it must be terribly frustrating to attempt a discussion on a topic useful to readers and then have it taken over by so many fools who have nothing better to do than insult one another or voice nasty remarks about groups of people they are prejudiced against. Anyway, the coyotes around my neighborhood have been pretty bold about going after pets in their owners’ yards, inside fences, and even once when on a leash with the owner. They do not seem very afraid of people and have done these things in daylight hours. As they get used to people and nothing happens to them from approaching people they are losing their normal fear of humans, which is not good. Keeping the small pets in at night certainly is a good idea but does not solve the entire problem for pet owners. That a small child could be threatened does not seem too unlikely at some point given how brash some coyotes have gotten.
By ламинат
August 13, 2008 8:53 AM | Link to this
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By John
January 9, 2009 11:25 PM | Link to this
i kill coyotes on site, if i see them they are already dead. coyotes only came over the mississippi in the last 75-100 years so they are not native to this area, so all you animal lovers can stop standing up for them.
By Sarah
January 27, 2009 8:58 AM | Link to this
If the coyote article bugs you then move on to another article. This is important to some of us. We live in the country so that we may have outdoor animals. The coyote situation is becoming out of hand. Coyotes have NO natural enemies except humans. They do not have picky eating habits and they will run in vicious packs. When the “sing” it is during a KILL. WE have got to find a way to perserve popluations of other animals and live in a peaceful way. How can we get rid of the coyotes (NOT native to our region!!) or atleast find a way to control their population? Come on people, we have to put our heads together… this is becoming very serious