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Still not scary to me, I still treat them with the same respect and distance I treat all wildlife with, The most dangerous animal I've ever had to deal with is still a half-grown deer fawn.
Me too but the most dangerous for me is the ATV drivers who don't seem to realize they don't own the forest.
Several years ago I was fishing around midnight along the Ohio River in western Kentucky. I was fishing by a dam on the river by the Illinois/Indiana border, to give you an idea where I was. All the time I was fishing I could hear coyotes barking and howling all up and down the river bank. Walking from the dam back to my car, a couple hundred yards or so, I had to walk through a lot of brush. I could hear the coyotes running around on both sides of me. I have never been so nervous walking in the dark in all my life! It was funny thinking about it on my way home, but the first thing I did when I got in the car was lock the doors. Like the coyotes were going to open one of the doors! lol
Right now, further west in the state, I live in a small town of 10,000, and we have plenty of possums and raccoons around the neighborhood. And an occasional skunk. Gave up on a garden a couple years ago because the coons and squirrels were eating my tomatoes before I could get to them.
We have a fox nearby who struts down the street on the sidewalk like he owns the place. He and I have had a few stare downs and he eventually runs off. He’s always hanging around the neighborhood.
I walked that college campus once I think since the encounter, but no coyote that time. I had my walking stick that I had bought. I've seen no other coyotes anywhere else either.
HOWEVER, I finally got a coyote sighting alert not too far from where I live.
It's now October 2020.
I know I haven't been able to walk there since COVID almost 7 mos ago, but I might have been there once, not sure, since April 2019 when I said here that I walked. Otherwise, it's been 1.5 years. We FINALLY walked there today & had my walking stick since I keep in in the car...no coyote this time!
We have bears, coywolves, coyotes, deer, bobcats, foxes, very, very rarely even a moose, and my daughter is sure she saw a mountain lion once (and two were found dead on highways 50 miles away around that time). We do NOT see outdoor housecats in my neighborhood! And we're in an inner ring suburb of Hartford, CT!
Doesn't bother us. We go out all the time to walk the dog, to run. The animals aren't interested in us. I kind of like it that we see them so much.
We have bears, coywolves, coyotes, deer, bobcats, foxes, very, very rarely even a moose, and my daughter is sure she saw a mountain lion once (and two were found dead on highways 50 miles away around that time). We do NOT see outdoor housecats in my neighborhood! And we're in an inner ring suburb of Hartford, CT!
Doesn't bother us. We go out all the time to walk the dog, to run. The animals aren't interested in us. I kind of like it that we see them so much.
I grew up in the remote AZ desert and have seen man coyotes. They are generally harmless. The "concern" would be with wild black bears. In general, they avoid humans and can run away when surprised. But there are occasional rogue bears that can (and have) attacked. Mountain lions are also abundant - they are rarely seen during the day but out at night. In general, the mountain lions avoid humans but have been known to attack on rare occasions. Families in the area have oral historical acounts of attacks from bears and mountain lions - some were recorded in books. Elders in the family spoke of grizzly attacks and wolf packs that had once roamed the area in large numbers. The jaguar had also been seen on occasion back then. The now extinct Arizona grizzly was likely the most dangerous on the food chain as an apex predator. There are stories of attacks in Eastern Arizona. By contrast, coyotes were relatively harmless.
I've also seen many rattle snakes, centipedes, scorpions, black widow spiders, tarantulas, and tarantula hawks. I used to jog a lot out in the desert foothills on a remote dirt road and remember seeing a gila monster lizard run by. It was surreal.
In general, coyotes are very shy and pretty much harmless. The exception would be for small children. They have been known to stalk toddlers. But coyote attacks are unheard of for the most part. You can see coyotes group together and howl in the outskirts of many Arizona cities like Phoenix or Tucson. I see those coyotes at night while jogging in Phoenix when people put out their trash for the dumpster truck the next day.
We've had wolves, black bears, coyotes, raccoons, deer and groundhogs in our yards (two different houses) at various times.
We leave them alone, and they leave us alone.
We live about two miles from our city dump, so we are bound to have bears at some point. Bears are only dangerous here if they feel threatened or you get between a mama with cubs. I always look around the yard before stepping off our steps when I take our dogs to do their business after dark.
bison
These are the ones that have caused me the greatest concern. In both Yellowstone and Theodore Roosevelt, when hiking we gave the bison a lot of room, sometimes leaving the trail so as to remain further away from them.
brown bears
My son and I were hiking in a somewhat remote trail in Yellowstone and happened upon two young brown bears. They weren't close - maybe 200 yards off across a clearing. At sight of us, they scooted up trees. Presumably mama was not far off but we never saw her.
black bears
I've only seen these in residential areas, never on a trail. In my experience, they've always been more alarmed by me than I was by them.
rattlesnakes
They politely let you know - that rattle is unmistakable! - when you're annoying them, which is nice. They're much more interesting than fearsome.
fawns
One of the most delightful encounters I've ever had was coming upon two fawns, each tucked up against a large tree, just off a trail in a state park in southern Minnesota. They were awake and alert but did not react to my presence. I suppose at their age their only defense was just to try and stay hidden. I didn't approach closer than ten feet (which was about how far they were off the trail) but it was a wonderous sight.
None of them would keep me from the outdoors. I know the statistics. If I'm going to run the far higher risk of driving to a trailhead, I'm certainly not going to let the far lesser risk of the fauna keep me off the trail.
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