all the dogs in the neighborhood went crazy barking at a coyote running down the road but it's been gone for 20 minutes and they're stuck in a cycle of barking at one another now
— Michael (@_FleerUltra) March 27, 2023
Aw cute they’ve got discourse too
— Untracable Baklava (@Cpt_J_Yossarian) March 27, 2023
tfw when you hear another dog barking and arent sure whether you should bark back pic.twitter.com/ch8m0sKMN1
— Michael (@_FleerUltra) March 27, 2023
They’re posting!
— Taylor Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (@Jeffdanherrera) March 27, 2023
Discourse: pic.twitter.com/F0yyStIPy2
— Granarchist (@KtheDilettante) March 27, 2023
Reminiscing about the time they saw the coyote twenty minutes ago
— a real, authentic person 🌯 (@unclecaviar) March 27, 2023
"Another successful defence of the neighborhood, with minimal impact on the community." pic.twitter.com/kfvI9JoJ8S
— Ivan Maas (@IvvyNemo) March 27, 2023
— WEASELS🏴☠️FWA (@stupidweasels) March 27, 2023
Maxim
Good dogs.
piratedan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBXpbAwgrJA
one of my favorite bits….
sab
My dog does that. She just goes out into the backyard and barks for a while : “Hey! Anybody else out there?”
HumboldtBlue
That’s a helluva a plot line. Snowfall, season 3.
oatler
“Woof! I’m a dog!”
“I’m a dog here too!”
“Flash mob!”
opiejeanne
The barking when a coyote ran through our neighborhood was different from when it was just a loose dog running down the street, frantic, almost hysterical barking.
A coyote attacked a small child a couple of days ago. People here keep saying that the coyotes were here first but they weren’t. Coyotes had a much smaller range 100 years ago, even 40 years ago, but they’ve expanded it so much that they are everywhere now. We have a mountain lion family in the neighborhood right now so I haven’t seen coyotes much, haven’t heard them at night, yapping like crazed chihuahuas. They’re really smart; we watched one at UC Irvine, pacing at a corner, waiting for the light to change and then crossing the road.
AlaskaReader
…what Taylor Swift Boat Veterans for Truth said.
patrick II
@opiejeanne:
The smartest dogs I have seen or read about are the Moscow dogs who were smart enough to ride the subway. The would get on where they slept, ride to “work”, even changing trains on the way. The would get to “work” and scrounge for food. If it was a small pack they would send the cutest dog up front to beg for food for all of them.
I think that is over now because they go to famous and too many stories were done about them embarrassing the Russians who captured all of them. But it was pretty cool when they were doing it. Moscow subway dogs
VeniceRiley
Kilo has the tiniest highest pitch bark in the neighborhood, and ReggiePup already has the deepest. We call them the birb police.
NotMax
Seems like a fine time to make note of this again.
Who knew? Competing Victorian dog treats.
NotMax
Speaking of animals having a good time….
:)
Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride
@opiejeanne: In Sacramento I used to see them only out on the American River Parkway, far from the city. Now there are regular reports of coyote families in the heart of town. I wonder if people will ever make all their cats stay indoors.
columbusqueen
Mike & I have seen a couple of coyotes roaming our neighborhood the past year. We have a creek & woods around, but are right next to I-71. It’s rather amazing to us that they’re here.
Gvg
Twilight barking relay was in the original pre Disney 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith as a dog gossip chain sometimes emergency news. I think she wrote it sometime in the 1930’s.
prostratedragon
From December Chicago coyotes; New York City coyotes.
Jager
We used to live in a wonderful house, built in 1923 by a couple of LA artists. The previous owner built a coyote-proof fence, it worked until we had to take part of it down to rebuild our septic system. We were sound asleep at around 3 in the morning, and our German Shepherd went nuts, there was a coyote standing in the moonlight staring at us through the french doors of our bedroom. We thought we were done with plentiful neighborhood wildlife when we sold the old house up in the canyon. Not so, the first night we lived in our new neighborhood, I took Anze the dog for a walk. A couple of blocks from the house he kept looking behind us, sure as hell, we were being trailed by a coyote. Solo Coyotes stay away from bigger dogs, I’ve been told they will go after a big dog if they have enough Coyote power. On the road, up to our canyon house, a coyote would be trotting down the middle of the road, hear a car coming, get over to the side, and let the car pass.
raven
They are often in our backyard.
prostratedragon
Boyd Meets Girl (Rupert Boyd, guitar; Laura Metcalf, cello): “Pray You Catch Me,” Beyonce
Kevin
@sab: same here. My neighbor on back dog sits and usually has 3-6 dogs running around but when they go inside our dog goes back and tries to “call them” back out.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Reminds me of the Twilight Bark in 101 Dalmatians. I absolutely believed dogs gossiped that way when I was a kid.
Cameron
So, as happens every time I log off my Hotmail account, MSN pops up. And the following was a headline. Who is this smirking asshole and what the hell kind of question is that?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jesse-watters-asks-sarah-huckabee-sanders-are-you-a-little-ashamed-that-the-first-female-vice-president-is-kamala-harris/ar-AA19c4Wu
Barbara
@Jager: I’ve been told that they will not go after anything large enough to injure them except in packs. Threatening them with a sturdy cane or walking stick can be enough to put them off, even in packs. They are apparently fearful of injury. We were advised to take these kinds of measures while hiking in Nova Scotia, where a pack had killed a solo hiker.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Gvg: Posted #20 before I read yours. Yep, first thing that came to mind.
barbequebob
@opiejeanne: Not sure where you are, but coyotes have expanded their range dramatically since the arrival of Europeans. Part of it has to do with the wolf populations being decimated/extirpated, allowing the coyote to move into their space, plus at least here in the Northeast where I am, the cutting down of forests. Can’t say with 100% certainty, but most of the places you find coyotes today, were inhabited by wolves before the Europeans arrived.
Geminid
@barbequebob: Coyotes are all over Central Virginia, but I’ve yet to see or even hear any where I live. That could be because I’m surrounded by avid hunters. If someone did a population survey, Greene County would probably rank near the top of Virginia in hunters per square mile.
Denali5
My dog always barks back.
Matt McIrvin
Coyotes are definitely in my neighborhood in Massachusetts–I saw one in my front yard a while ago.
Paul in KY
@opiejeanne: I think they are talking about 100s of years ago. Before the white man was here in N. America.
Paul in KY
@barbequebob: That is a good point. Wolf decimation has certainly helped coyotes expand their range.
kalakal
Some Collies really enjoying themselves
Fun, fun, fun
Geminid
@Paul in KY: In his Memoirs, Ulysses Grant wrote of a nightime excursion with another officer while his unit was stationed in Louisiana. They were looking for a howling “pack” of wolves they heard.
Grant grew up in 1820s Ohio, where there were no wolves. The other officer was from Indiana and was familiar with them. He asked Grant, “So, how many do you do you think we’re listening to?”
Wanting to appear knowledgeable, Grant said, “Oh, maybe 5 or 6.” When they got to a clearing they found one wolf, howling away.
Bill Arnold
@barbequebob:
There were wolf bounties, yeah. Good money.
The Eastern Coyotes are somewhat larger and have significant wolf DNA. (30% ?)
They are the alpha/largest predator in my area (mid Hudson Valley), except for humans. I scare them off occasionally (just voice/etc, no weapons), and tell them to shut up.
Another Scott
Around here in NoVA it was kinda rare to see foxes 20 years ago. We’ve always had lots of grey squirrels. Then the chipmunk population took off and we started seeing the occasional fox and coyote.
These days, I don’t see the explosion of chipmunks any more, there are still lots of grey squirrels (and the occasional black squirrel pair (apparently from DC from those that were imported from Canada)), but it’s probably been 5+ years since I’ve seen a coyote. Still lots of foxes (we see them every evening on our walk).
Ellie hates, hates, hates foxes. Dunno what she would do if she saw a coyote!
I saw a beaver in a neighbor’s yard (near the creek) a few years ago too. Big thing – much bigger than I thought they got – must have been 50-70 pounds.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Footnote.
Belyaev and the fox dogs.
rdldot
I read a fascinating book about coyotes in case anyone is interested. Talks about the history, legends, myths and how they survived and grew in North America
COYOTE AMERICA
by Dan Flores
Worth reading. I borrowed from the local library.
patrick II
I have seen coyotes a few times. But just once I saw a coywolf — half coyote and half wolf and as smart as both of them. I am a night person, and I used to live on Virginia beach and sit on one of the benches and read books on my kindle — which is great for reading with little light. The beach, ocean, stars, and small twinkling lights from the fishing boats lay in front of me. it was very quiet and great for a long read,.
So, I was sitting there on this bench and this large dog came purposefully loping down the beach. I watch him and decided he was clearly a wild animal — but what kind? Too heavy for a coyote, a little smaller than a wolf, I decided it had to be a coywolf,. I had seen a special on Netflix and new they existed, so I was sure I was looking at one. It was high tide so the water and the coywolf were not too far from me. The animal stopped, lifted his nose and sniffed the air, and then turned and started towards me. He stopped about twetnty feet in front of me and froze. He looked right at me. I sat as still as possible. He finally figured out I was a human (and not prey I think), turned and ran off. It was an interesting minute I saw.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: Cool story. Thank you for sharing it.
Another Scott
@NotMax: +1
I remember seeing the Nova show “Dogs Decoded” which talked about it (it doesn’t seem to be available free online).
Fascinating stuff.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: Grant told a lot of cool stories in his Memoirs. The Civil War narrative is good, but I found the story of his early life especially interesting. I also liked his dry sense of humor, and the way he’d poke fun at his younger self.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@barbequebob: When they reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone, almost all other animal populations benefitted from the extra protein injected into the system, since wolf packs can make kills all year round. Their leftovers benefitted small animals and all kinds of birds. Even egg hatches improved since birds were getting more protein. The riparian and creek areas improved and were able to sprout seedlings not seen in decades since hoofed mammals wouldn’t disturb the delicate creekside areas munching all day since they were easily trapped there by wolves. Aal in all, returning the wolves was great. Except for coyotes. There were several researcher reports of wolves deliberately killing coyotes. So, fewer wolves, more coyotes, especially in urban areas. And since they don’t live in packs, they are harder to remove/kill, if desired. Keep your cats in at night!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Bill Arnold: I have read about the wolf/coyote hybrids now successfully expanding in the NE. Nature will usually find a way.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@rdldot: My favorite bit of coyote lore is that the Navaho called them “God’s dogs”.