Los coyotes

Often on a run I'll come across a coyote. They are always aware of me but have little interest. On several occasions I have seen them among cows with calves and the mama cows have never seemed concerned. Prairie dogs who don't heed the warnings of their neighbors are asking to be dinner.

I've seen several news accounts where people and their pets have had run-ins with coyotes. My guess is that most of the people made the coyote feel threatened. Whenever I approach an area where there may be coyotes, or cows in a field for that matter, I scan the area first and if I see animals that might feel threatened by my presence I don't move toward it and I allow it to have space to go off in a different direction. Then I proceed.

Wild animals will almost always know you are approaching before you see them. In the animal world if you move toward an animal,you presumable have an interest in eating it. Animals are generally averse to being eaten so they are inclined to take defensive action. If you are close, they may decide that a good defense is a good offense.

I have heard that coyotes in the northeast part of the US are more aggressive and tend to hunt more in packs where as the ones here in the west are inclined to conserve energy; to them, hunting is laying amid a prairie dog colony waiting until the little burrowers forget the coyote is out there.