I received an email from Monica, a CK resident who lives near Central Valley Road, who asked me if I’d heard anything about coyote sightings recently in her neighborhood. She lives on Watson Court and wrote me Sunday, Nov. 23 saying she hadn’t seen her cat since Friday night (Nov. 21).

I told her I’d post a blog entry, asking readers in the area to comment if they’d seen coyotes in the area where she lives, or if they know of coyotes in the general area. She also mentioned she’d seen a number of missing cat posters recently and heard rumors about coyotes lingering, but wasn’t sure if it was a serious threat where she lived.

I have heard of coyote reports near the Illahee area, even had some people send in photos of “Wiley” coyote a few months back. I don’t know specifically about the coyote population in CK, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there are coyotes there, especially with all the wooded areas for them to live.

Growing up (I lived on the other side of the water) my house was close to a ravine in Woodway. There was a large preserve, (which now is considerably smaller because of the addition of million dollar homes, but that’s another story) where coyotes and racoons lived. It was not uncommon to hear the coyotes howling at night, or even to see them walking down our street. Where I lived was residential, and not heavily forested like some areas of CK, but we were obviously in the roaming range of the coyotes. I never saw them, but my dad would see them walking down our street at night.

Because of this, there was an understanding that if your cat went missing for a few days, they likely were eaten by the coyotes. We thought we’d lost our black cat Pepper one time, because we didn’t see her for four days. But, like a typical cat, she’d hidden herself in some obscure place where we didn’t see her right away.

So, any coyote experts out there? Or any residents have their own tales of missing cats, or seeing coyotes walking down the street in Monica’s area? I am sure she’d like to know, as would the rest of her neighbors, if coyotes are something to be concerned about.

I do have one piece of advice, which I follow at our house, don’t let your cats, or other small pets, out at night. The best way to keep them safe (from cars, other predators or even evil people) is to keep them in at night when the aforementioned creatures come out to play.

Here’s some general coyote information from a web site by the Missouri Department of Conservation:

The coyote (Canis latrans) resembles a German Shepard dog but is lighter in color, has yellow slanting eyes, longer legs and a more prominent point to the nose and ears. Most coyotes are gray to blonde, but some show a rust or brown coloration and have a bushy tail that is tipped with black. Adult male coyotes weigh up to 35 pounds and stand 30-35 inches at the shoulder. The female is usually four-fifths as large. Vocalizations are very high-pitched wails, sharp howls and “screams”, which go up and down scale very rapidly. They have often been reported as “a sound like something being killed”. Coyotes can be seen traveling alone or in pairs. On occasion large groups are present, but there are no data as to whether or not they hunt in packs.

The site also says that coyotes’ diets consist of “mostly of small mammals such as rabbits, mice, carrion, fruits, plants and sometimes small pets, livestock or human refuse. Many urban areas, due to the abundance of green space, have high populations of the prey animals most preferred by coyotes (small rodents and rabbits) as well as places that offer escape cover and shelter for den sites. It is not uncommon to see urban coyotes active during daylight hours and in close proximity to humans. This is because urban coyotes are very accustomed to the presence and activities of people. In rural areas, coyotes are more active at night and tend to shy away from humans.”

Please feel free to post your coyote experiences here, especially if you know of them in the Watson Court area.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.