This report comes out of Florida, but we face the same issue:
Coyotes have learned to thrive in the same urban development that has caused other predator populations to decline. They can cross bridges, swim canals, and navigate sidewalks while hunting for food.
A coyote’s dream home, though, would be in a suburb like Bloomingdale, where densely packed developments are surrounded by farms and pastureland — a small taste of the open range prairies they used to roam.
In Plano, there’s an abundance of wild rabbits about the place, so where there’s food, there will be predators.
My apartment building lies less than a hundred yards from a heavily-wooded creek, and I must have seen coyotes crossing the road bridge about half a dozen times since I moved here.
This is somewhat problematic because I go for walks along a trail which follows said creek bed for over a mile. Needless to say, I never walk unarmed — I never leave home unarmed, period — and even though coyotes prefer to be out and about at night time or at least dusk / dawn (when I don’t walk), I like the feel of the S&W Airweight in my pocket anyway.
I have a .38 Special shot shell lined up for trigger-pull #1, and hollowpoints for the other four.
(The shot shell is in case I get close to a snake — we have rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and water moccasins in the creek area, and I hate the bloody things.)
Of course, it’s illegal to discharge a firearm in city limits, but I’d rather argue with a judge than be bitten by a rabid coyote or fucking snake. Don’t even mention the chances of encountering some choirboy who might imagine that this fat old man is a ripe target for a little involuntary financial redistribution.