# Predators in the suburbs



## Warrigal (Sep 22, 2013)

Cougars, coyotes and bear seem to be extending their ranges and some are venturing into suburbs.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6152/1332.full

Does anyone on the forum have any experience of these animals popping up in unusual places?


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## rkunsaw (Sep 22, 2013)

We were getting too many here in the rural areas so we started sending them to town, I hope the city folks enjoy them.:cocksure:


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## JustBonee (Sep 22, 2013)

Have occasional coyote wandering through my neighborhood, usually in packs.  It's almost not a strange sight anymore .. They are looking for _anything _to eat.. since they are looking rather starved.

No black bears - YET ... Hear tales of them in the Piney Woods of SE Texas.


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## SifuPhil (Sep 22, 2013)

Awww ... I got all excited thinking this was a self-defense thread against muggers and such. 

I'm in a dense urban environment right now so the worst we have are bugs and rats and feral dogs and cats. In some other places I've lived - not quite as rural as many of you, but still within spitting distance of a few trees - I've had coyotes (yes, coyotes in PA!) come sniffing around, and once a bear, but that's been it.


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## Happyflowerlady (Sep 22, 2013)

I have lived where predators were common , but not where they were coming right into town much. In north Idaho, we had coyotes, wolves, bear, and cougar that would come up close to the house, and I had a cougar kill my little Shorkie right in the back yard early one morning when I let the dogs out for their morning ramble. 

We had moose, which are not a predator per se, but can be very dangerous , and those would often come wandering through the streets of town, and the city police had to try and herd them on back out of town.
As people take over more of the land for housing developments, the animals have to go somewhere, so I guess that coming closer to living along side of communities, and even in cities, has become inevitable.

I am pretty sure that we were discussing on here that there are as many urban raccoons as in the woods now, too.


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## Sid (Sep 22, 2013)

Warrigal said:


> Cougars, coyotes and bear seem to be extending their ranges and some are venturing into suburbs.
> 
> http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6152/1332.full
> 
> Does anyone on the forum have any experience of these animals popping up in unusual places?



  Posumms aren't predators but mail man found one in my grandparents mailbox one time. that rascal climbed up in there and shut the door on himself.


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## SeaBreeze (Sep 22, 2013)

There are coyotes, foxes, raccoons, etc. in the suburb where I live.  Some coyotes come right behind my fence, luckily they never have the nerve to jump over and attack my pets but everyone is inside at night regardless.  One day I looked out my kitchen window, and a coyote was having a stare-down through my fence with my cat...I ran out clapping my hands and sending him on his way.

 I hear packs at night howling to each other, and I see some on my walks behind my house.  I saw several closing in on a small herd of deer, and thought I was going to witness an attack on one of my walks...but one deer charged toward them, and they scattered and watched from a distance.

I was walking my dog back there once, and came around a bend and startled a coyote with her pup, it was in springtime.  Well, she barked and followed us quite a way, until she was confident we weren't going to harm her little one.

Here's a picture I took of a coyote watching me on one of my walks behind my house.  I just started doing walks back there again, as I mentioned in the Seniors Getting Fit group, he's just under the tree, on the right...coyotes here are pretty healthy and well-fed, I saw one carrying a fat little prairie dog he just killed, and they hunt the bushes for rabbits also.  They remind me of skinny Husky dogs.  There have been a few attacks over the years on pets and small children, so everyone needs to be aware of their presence.  We had a black bear incident once, but that was when we were camping in Canada years ago.


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## SeaBreeze (Sep 22, 2013)

TWHRider said:


> We also have those gorgeous Red Tail Hawks, who are equally as big of predators when it comes to tiny dogs and cats.  My barn cats are around five years old and have a wide mousing parameter away from the barn.  They have managed to avoid the Hawks and coyotes.  Probably because they hunt for sport and not because they are hungry.  I feed them well, partly because that's who I am and partly because I don't want them so hungry, they feel like they have to compete against a Hawk or Owl for a big fat field mouse.



My cat's a little 10 pounder, lover not a fighter, biggest prey to date was a large miller moth, lol.  I do have to watch the red tailed hawks also, they are beautiful, here's one in my yard...


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## That Guy (Sep 22, 2013)

Been living in coyote and mountain lion country for years.  I know there are bears in the hills, too . . .    They worry me more than anything.


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## JustBonee (Sep 22, 2013)

That Guy said:


> Been living in coyote and mountain lion country for years. I know there are bears in the hills, too . . .    They worry me more than anything.


Black bears have moved into east Texas  from Louisiana and Arkansas and are establishing populations... 
Also getting a few brown bears moving up from Mexico into far west Texas.

Signs posted because it will be hunting season soon:


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## nan (Sep 22, 2013)

About the only predators we have around here are foxes and they seem to be fairly shy  as far as humans go,and I suppose the poor creatures have to get food where ever they can.


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## Warrigal (Sep 22, 2013)

Fascinating and more than a little bit scary.
Thanks for all the responses.


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## Diwundrin (Sep 22, 2013)

And Americans think OZ is full of scary critters??  :lofl:   I'll settle for the snakes thanks.


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## basefare (Sep 22, 2013)

When I lived in West Texas I often saw coyotes and foxes and an occasional bobcat. We were frequent visitors to New Mexico where my cousin and her husband had a bunch of cabins they rented out over the weekends to flat-landers like myself. One evening she was cooking dinner and her husband was in their den watching television when a black bear came to their kitchen window and started banging on it. My cousin yelled for her husband to go outside and scare the bear off. He basically said, no way, Hosea. The bear broke down the kitchen outside door, ripped the screen door off and came in the kitchen. My cousin hollered for her husband to come. He saw the bear and ran out the back door. She turned off the fire, grabbed her broom and banged the bear over the head and face, all the time yelling at it until it slowly backed out the door and ambled off to someone's trash barrel  and eventually left the site. We saw bears every time were were over there. 

There are bears here in Oklahoma but I've never seen one. The only predators here about are the raccoons who raid all the fish ponds and hawks, who occasionally pounce on a dove when they are hungry.


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## SifuPhil (Sep 22, 2013)

Sometimes you don't even need a broom ...


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## Diwundrin (Sep 22, 2013)

It must only work on bears.  My cousin's wife went out with one to chase a big roo off the verandah and it took the broom off her and stood up on it's tail to 'unzip' her.  She was back inside and yelling loudly before it got the chance to do that.  
My 6'2" cousin went out the back way and picked up a crowbar from the shed on the way around to the front verandah and found himself eyeball to eyeball with it. He eventually knocked it flat but it put up a fight. 
He went in for the rifle to finish it off but it came round and was off over the fence so he let it go.  It never came back. 



 That's not normal 'roo reaction though, it must have been full of testosterone, or a psycho roo. The broom is usually enough.


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## Michael. (Sep 23, 2013)

I guess there is some advantage to living in the UK.

No major wild animals roaming the countryside.

Foxes however are a nuisance and they are now foraging in populated areas.


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## TICA (Sep 23, 2013)

We have them all here and I'm living in a subdivision.  Had some bear poop in the yard last year, although I never actually saw the critter.  We have fox that will come into people's yards and take off with their small dogs or cats - getting to be a real problem.  I always bring the cats in after dark, not taking any chances.   There has also been a strange thing where coyotes are breeding with wolves.  Saw a documentary on that a few weeks back and they are being called coywolves.  A woman was attacked on a hike in Cape Breton a few summers ago.  The word is that if you are going walking on the trails, carry a big stick.

In that same documentary, they had been tracking coyotes in Ontario and showed where they are in Toronto.  It was really strange and scary all at the same time.


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## Diwundrin (Sep 23, 2013)

Sure it was a bear Tica? I thought they only pooped in the woods?


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## TICA (Sep 23, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> Sure it was a bear Tica? I thought they only pooped in the woods?



I wasn't sure but my neighbor has had many close encounters with bear at his camp so if he says it was bear dodo, I believe him.  Someone must have reported seeing a bear because the provincial wild life service left a flyer on everyone's door knob to "BEWARE".    I did lock my doors for a few days that time.   :danger:


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## That Guy (Sep 23, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> Sure it was a bear Tica? I thought they only pooped in the woods?



That would be the Pope... if the bears are Catholic.


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