Coyotes in Washington No, it's not a political joke. Coyotes have come to the suburbs of Washington, where apparently they are freaking people out. (In Washington, an inch of snow freaks people out.)

The coyotes eat primarily mice, rats, and young deer—something suburban dwellers ought to be pretty happy about. They have, apparently, attacked a few children, but in every instance it's been determined that human beings were feeding the coyotes, causing them to lose their natural fear of humans. In any event, dog bites vastly outnumber coyote bites. In many cases, coyotes are attracted to the suburbs by dumpsters overflowing with trash, which doesn't say much good about us humans.

The coyotes will, on occasion, eat lap-dogs and cats. Like a ban on car alarms, this could be considered a good thing. Regardless, it is an acceptable tradeoff for the wonder of having a wild animal in your midst. (No one ever said that we have a god-given right to let our lap-dog wander freely.)

The Washington Post reports that the thing to do if you see a coyote is to shout at it and wave your arms, which appears to do the trick—as with the vast majority of animals, they have far more to fear from us than we do from them.....

Meanwhile, I'm intrigued by this whole rat-eating thing. Perhaps we could introduce some coyotes into the New York subway system?

For no apparent reason, the government has been killing thousands of coyotes, on public and private lands, for decades. Because the federal government has nothing better to do....



Coyotes: Best admired from a distance.  ¶ 3:35 PM