Protecting your pets from coyotes

February is mating season for Coyotes

Coyotes are a reality in our neighborhoods, and knowing a bit about their behavior will help dispel unnecessary fears.

The coyotes that have been living at the perimeter of your neighborhood, in the canyons, along the freeways & behind the strip mall, are more visible come February because it's mating season. Coyotes  will cover a lot of territory to find a mate. That territory may include your neighborhood.

As coyotes pair up, they require an increase in calories in order to find and fashion suitable dens. Newly pregnant females also require extra caloric input. Both males and females hunt, but the males take over most of the hunting when the female is busy with the pups.  It doesn't matter whether the calories come in the form of possum, rabbit, cat, small dog, or food left out for pets or wildlife.

The gestation period for coyotes is roughly 60 days. The female will give birth to four to nine pups in late April or May. As the pups are weaned, hunting is intensified for all the new mouths to feed. It will take five to six weeks for the pups to grow and develop enough to venture outside the den. Here they enter  the beginning of a lifetime of survival education.

Coyotes are quick learners.  These savvy animals have survived attempts to eradicate them  — hunting,  poisoning and trapping. They have proved an uncanny ability to adjust to changes in their habitat brought about by humans.  Coyotes have altered their lifestyles accordingly. They've shifted their needs from tree hollows to porch decks, and their meals include neighborhood pets.

Coyotes may hunt individually, so you may just see one, but they also form packs. Some coyotes live in packs that consist of five or six adults along with their pups. These packs may establish territories of up  to 10 square miles.

These wild canines bring out people's fears and imaginations.  An exceptionally large male coyote weighs, at most, 50 pounds. Average coyotes typically grow up to 30-34" in length, stand about 25" at the shoulder, and on average, weigh from 15-46#.  The die-hard coyotes are a critical strand in the food web, consuming untold numbers of rodents, rabbits and other natural prey each year.

To cats, small dogs, rabbits and rodents, they are dangerous, most definitely. To humans? When habituated to humans, coyotes are emboldened and may be aggressive. These habituated animals are dangerous, as wild animals are when in proximity to people and their habits.

It's up to us to prevent coyotes from becoming “nuisance animals".  Do not welcome them into your yard. This translates into keeping all possible food items inside and/or out of reach — pet food, leftovers on the grill — and your small dogs and cats.

If you have a small breed dog, you should take extra precaution when, where and how you let  him out. A fence, although not foolproof, as a coyote can easily climb/jump over a fence, is at least a deterrent.  Needless to say, cat's should live indoors.

These clever coyotes learn the daily schedules of people and their pets. If you let your dog out every evening at bedtime, chances are that a coyote is well aware of your routine and is waiting in the shadows for you to let your dog out.  So change up your schedule a bit, walk your dog on a leash close to you, and keep a close eye on her at all times.

While mating season is here you will likely have coyote siting or two.  With knowledge of coyote behavior and ecology, we can take prudent measures to keep our pets safe.