Coyotes on the loose: What to know during pup-rearing season

So that stray dog that you saw in the city, it may not be stray at all. Wildlife experts say more coyotes are out and about. That's because it's pup rearing season and they're searching for food. Joining us now is Chris Anker, biologist with Forest Preserves of Cook County. Thank you so much for coming on the show this morning. Good morning. Okay, let's start with this, because I've seen coyotes in my neighborhood. I know you have too. What would you say is the first thing to do if you spot a coyote to make sure that you keep yourself safe? Well, the first thing I would say is just enjoy it, unless there's a really bad situation going on. It's just part of our environment now. I would enjoy the situation for what it is, and as with all wildlife, as long as it's not injured or cornered or sick, in our area, it doesn't represent a hazard. I get concerned, Chris, that coyotes might have rabies. Is that something they often carry? Is that a concern? I have never encountered that in Illinois. If you look at the records, it's been over, gosh, close to a century since a coyote came up with rabies. So if you're coming in contact with rabies in the Chicagoland area, it would be from a bat. I want you to talk about, Chris, a lot of people are starting to see them. For example, we're talking about in the city, the suburbs, and different parts of our viewing area. Why are we seeing more of them in city settings maybe than we have previously? I know in COVID, there was this picture that blew up all over because there was one right smack dab in the middle of State Street, but nobody was out. But now we're starting to see them more and more. Is there a reason why? I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I think more people are becoming aware of what they actually are. It's very common for folks when they see a coyote trotting down the street or trotting down the sidewalk to initially assume that it's a dog, that it's someone's German shepherd that has gotten loose, or it's an animal that's living on its own. I think as more people have become aware of what is going on through newscasts like this and other educational opportunities, I think more people are becoming aware of the fact that there are coyotes amongst us. I see on our coyote safety graphic here, we have don't let pets roam free. And that may not just be off-leash. That could be you've got a fenced-in backyard, maybe you live in the suburbs, and you have a small dog that often goes out there and plays around. Is that a target for a coyote? Potentially, but I would hope you would know if you had a coyote family living in your area. They tend to be obvious when there's other canines in the area. So they view another canine generally as an interloper. They view them as a threat to their pups, and they want to defend them. A lot of us find out that there's coyote roaming in our neighborhood. Maybe we haven't seen them for ourselves, but a lot of times it's on the ring camera, right? People in the neighborhood are alerting others next door, things like that. I wanna ask you because I know in our neighborhood, there was someone that was reporting that there was a coyote wolf. And I'm like, are you sure about that? How often do we see those right here in our state? I'm sorry, a coyote wolf? Yes, they were saying that it was a coyote mixed with the wolf. Is that even possible in our communities? It is possible for a coyote to mate with a wolf, but there are no wolves for the coyotes to mate with. So you're not seeing coy wolves, that hybrid. That only occurs in areas where coyotes are extending up into wolf territory and there's a lack of coyote partners, coyote mates. So that's not something that we've ever seen in the Chicagoland area. And just to be clear, you call it a coy wolf, not a coyote wolf, correct? I think both are acceptable, but yes. Okay, good to know. So you can go on and school that person. Yeah, let them know you're wrong. That does not happen. We had follows children, when to be concerned, it follows a child. Is that something that happens very often? It occasionally happens. And at that point, I would start to get concerned. So if you're having coyotes actually shadow kids to the bus stop or something like that, I would report that to the police or to animal control for them to intercede. Generally, all you have to do is if a coyote is getting close enough to pepper spray it, I would recommend that you pepper spray it and you'll never see that coyote again. It doesn't hurt the animal, but it reinforces the fact that coyotes need to interact with coyotes and humans need to interact with humans. Talk about mating season. And are we in mating season? And do we see that coyotes, their behavior changes during mating season? Just prior to mating season, which peaks in our area, February the 14th, ironically, they tend to become very obvious. So what they're doing is they're setting up their territories, their family territories, and they're patrolling them. So they're trying to keep out other coyotes. They're trying to keep out other dogs in many cases because they view them as threats to their family group. So they become much more obvious. And we tend to see the pups appearing late April, early May-ish into later parts of May. At this point, the pups are weaned, but they're incredibly hungry. So we get another flurry of activity during the daylight hours because the coyotes are doing everything they can to feed those hungry pups that are just coming on board. You mentioned that if you do have an issue, like if you find one following a child or something like that regularly that you might want to contact animal control. What is the procedure for that? And I ask because we had this fox with mange that was lingering outside of our house for weeks. It was terrifying. And it was like something out of a horror movie. And so we called animal care and control or the Cook County Animal Care and Control. They came out and basically they couldn't find the thing. And so they're like, sorry, it's out of our hands. I mean, are we setting a trap here to wrangle these? What are we doing when we call? So when you call, originally we're talking about a potential human, negative human animal encounter. So that would be something that you would want to direct to animal control or to the police if it's a immediate concern. If an animal is sick, then that's a separate issue. So in your case, you were talking about mange. Most animals survive mange. Unless they come down with mange late winter, they can die of exposure. But most animals contract mange. They lose some or all of their hair, but then the hair grows back when the parasite that causes mange is killed off by the body's immune system. What a great breakfast conversation, Chris. We can keep on going. Thank you so much for your time. And thanks for all the good advice. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day. You too. Yeah. If the coyotes don't bother you, don't bother them. That was my takeaway.