Ever Encounter a Coyote or Other Wild Animal? WWYD About Future Walking? (rabbit, snakes)
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But I'm talking about when you're in the city, amongst civilization/residential homes, etc. My SO & I live in the city & go walking pretty regularly. One of the places we go to is the college grounds of one of my alma maters. It's a tad going up towards the mtns. There's still homes above/around, but I'm sure there's the rare times when certain wildlife can wander down. For ex, during the summertime, they'll post signs that say watch out for snakes.
Yesterday, my SO and I were there. Off in the distance, for the 1st time there, I spot a coyote walking around & I've walked there about 10-15 Sun mornings before. It was pretty far away & walked behind a building out of sight, but I still walked at a good pace back to the car & my SO, of course, went along w/ me. He says they're only maybe aggressive & actually try to bite if they're hungry and/or in a pack.
It was a funny feeling being out in the open & vulnerable with a wild animal in my vicinity. That's never happened to me before...only when I'm at the zoo in which they're in cages!
I'm a little wary of walking on that campus now. But I like walking there & I'm quite shocked no one else walks there on Sundays because it's nice landscaping w/ inclines & it feels like you're kind of out in nature (even though there are bldgs all around), but my SO & I are the only ones really.
That's the first time we've seen a coyote there, so I guess from now on, we'll have a stick &/or mace.
Coyotes will usually leave humans alone. They're ambush predators and don't normally attack prey larger than themselves unless it's otherwise impaired (a deer stuck in a snow drift for example).
Carry a walking stick.
If you're out in the woods then it's a bit different where you are, what with (four legged) cougars.
My house is in a pretty civilized area though in a country neighborhood, does that count? If so, I saw a black bear in my backyard recently, and I've seen bobcats from the kitchen window, and I hear coyotes howling at night in the yard.
Because of the bear in the yard, I carry an air horn and pepper spray with me when I'm out walking.
We have a place out in the country. One time, I was just sitting in a chair outside, and I could see something coming up the hill, so I got out of my chair to get a closer view. It was a bobcat. When it saw me, it just turned around and went back down the hill. LOL
Another time, I was picking up sticks to make a fire for the fire pit. A fox came out of the woods to my left. It stopped and looked at me, and looked at my dog, who was to my right. The dog and the fox just looked at each other for a minute or so...no tension...just observation. And then the fox turned around and left. My dog didn't try to chase it...which is out of character for her. It was kind of weird.
I was driving in my neighborhood a year or so ago, and saw a coyote just walking down the street in broad daylight, modern suburbia. We had had some recent floods, and I assume the rising water had displaced it.
When I lived in Glendale, my dogs and I saw coyotes a few times during our early morning walks. My German Shepherd who behaved like a bully with my border collie, pretended like she didn't even see it and was straining against her leash to bolt away from me. My little border collie started snarling which drew the coyote's attention. I had to clamp my hand around his muzzle, walk backwards and carry him across the street. When we were safely across the street, all three of us broke into a run all the way back to my house - the shepherd was leading the pack without a backwards glance!
I'm actually more fearful around raccoons than coyotes. One evening when I was returning on foot from the post office, I saw a few people crossing the street in the middle of the block. A couple of people froze and backtracked the way they had come. I lived just around the corner and had no intention of going out of my way by crossing the street.
I looked to see what everyone was avoiding and it looked like a hideous child who appeared to be having a tantrum and throwing a garbage can lid into the alley. When I got closer, it turned out be a large raccoon who was going through the garbage. When I got closer, he stood up on his hind legs and stared at me like he was going to say something. He hissed at me and I wasted no time in darting out into the street (traffic be damned), walked all the way to the corner and then came back to my house. I was so spooked that it took awhile for me to walk past that alleyway long after the raccoon had gone.
Closest I came was once in Colorado. I had worked a late shift so it was about 1230 AM. I was walking to my truck in the parking lot when I heard something growl. Over to my right hidden under the car I was walking past was a coyote chowing down on a rabbit. He wasn't happy with me being that close, must have caught him unaware, so I kept walking with one eye on my back trail until I got to my truck. He never moved just watched me and went back to eating.
Another time in Colorado, in Mueller State Park, we had a whole heard of Bighorns just wander around us on the trail. It was the strangest thing. Must have been 30 or 40 of them and they just walked by us like we weren't even there. It was the one trip I'd forgotten my camera too.
The one animal that did make me nervous was the cougar. On a different hike in Mueller, we were in a valley and I saw some cubs playing up on a rock face. Talking about your hair standing up on end. You know mother was somewhere around. We hiked back up out of there as quick as we could while watching all around us.
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