Ever had a coyote bark at you in camp (for over a minute)?

[Monte Masterson]

I’ve camped out in coyote country hundreds of nights so I’m used to their howling and yiping right after nightfall, but I’ve never had one approach my camp after dark and bark at me (about 90 seconds). Last week I was stealth camping at a park in Southern Indiana. I was just laying under a tarp when I heard what at first sounded like a small dog begin to bark. No other people were around so I knew I was the object of the canine’s attention. I’d guess it was probably 25 yards away. I thought oh hell because the number one thing that will expose your presence and give you away is a dog. Anyway, the first 10 seconds sounded like a dog’s bark but then it went into that high pitched shrill of a coyote for the next 80 seconds or so. Then I thought to myself: why you bold little SOB, if I could see you I’d throw something at you. He/she was alerting the pack to my being there (I suppose).

When I lived in Scottsdale coyotes were fearless and would grab your little Jack Russel Terrier right in your backyard in broad daylight. They used the network of drainages ditches as superhighways. Yet as soon as you got out of city limits and into open desert they’d run from you because they’re hunted pretty heavily.

Anybody else ever had a coyote bark at them when they’re bedded down for camp.

I’ve met a few Arizona natives who like to tell backpackers scary stories about aggressive coyotes, bear and mountain lion. They get their kicks, kind of like ghost stories or tales about Bigfoot, the boogie man, etc. Yet I’ve always been amazed at how many non-backpackers really do believe coyotes will potentially attack humans.

[AK Granola]

Coyotes do sometimes attack humans. Plenty of evidence for that. But not common. I have been followed by one in Arizona but only for a short distance. Wildlife attacks are one of those be aware things, but don’t be paranoid. What finally deterred the coyote from barking at you? They’re all over my neighborhood, but I rarely even see them. We hear them frequently.

[Jerry Adams]

I’ve camped before and coyotes were yowling maybe 100 yards away.   I’m not sure if they knew I was there.  I was nervous but they didn’t do anything else.

We need more wolves around, they’d scare off the coyotes :)

[Luke Schmidt]

We camped close to a wolf den (we think) in British Columbia. We saw pups by the river than mom started howling. Later the whole pack opened up. Pretty cool.

[Terran Terran]

Maybe hungry. Coyotes will stand in the road, stopping cars for handouts. They associate people with food.

[Jerry Adams]

that would have been really cool to see Luke

as long as they weren’t hungry : )

I think the Coyotes stopping cars for food are the ones we should worry about hurting humans

[Terran Terran]

I had one stop me in JT. Healthy looking.  I didn’t feed it. I guess you could get bit. A coyote won’t hurt you. They’ll lead your dog off.  I worry more about hitting one. Just like the crows, they will follow you. They associate humans with trash to eat.

[Todd T]

I was awakened one morning at maybe 4:30AM by a pack of coyotes apparently chasing down something for breakfast.  The whole pack barked and yipped and moved in a full 360 around our camp, coming within maybe 20 yards (?) at one point.  They eventually stopped moving, apparently having caught (or given up on?) whatever they were after, then quieted down and moved away.  I wish I could have gotten out of my bag/tent in time to see it, but it may have been too dark anyway–just barely into twilight at best.  I could find no carcass, fur, blood, or digging when it was light enough to look.

[Jerry Adams]

A relative said they were walking their dog off leash.  Some coyotes came along and appeared to want to play and lead it off, presumably to eat it.

[Monte Masterson]

And some of the places I go there are huge numbers of deer and they’re not very scared of people either. I find that at the interface of outer suburbs to rural lands animals quickly realize their risk level is generally much lower. There’s far less hunting (usually) than in the sparsely populated backcountry. Also most county and state parks rarely allow hunting.

I often encounter deer that snort like crazy when they notice a human bedded down in their area. Man is it loud and it can go on for an hour or more. The deer also stomp the ground and I’ve become convinced it’s an intimidation tactic. Same with the coyote that approached my campsite and started barking at me, I believe he/she might have been trying to scare me off….seriously. Call me kooky but I really do think animals are that smart.

[Glen L]

Wildlife are all around us here, packs of coyotes and some almost tame deer. Lion kill sites are all over and I’ve marked a bunch. The ones we are very careful about are the javelina. They have blundered into us and we have blundered into them. They will aggressively chase humans when they feel threatened. Most of the time they just move on.

 

The only thing that we have had come into our camp purposely while we were there was a kit fox in Anza Borrego. It stole several food packages that were empty. We didn’t even know it was creeping around until it rattled a titanium pot. Its eyes reflected back to us when headlamps caught it. We found the packages under a bush nearby the next morning.

[AK Granola]

Deer can be annoying. Especially the biggest ones; they make me late to work.

[Ben H.]

I remember going to see/hear the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood bowl (in the canyons above Hollywood) and have the coyotes howl along with the orchestra. The Hollywood Bowl also lets you bring in food and wine. It was a wonderful evening with a great combination of wildlife and luxury, versus the night the skunk walked down the aisle….

 

[Matthew / BPL]

Not the same thing as you mentioned, Monte but here’s my coyote barking story… Car camping on the Mogollon Rim a few years ago I was making coffee at first light and my 40# cattledog seemed to be aware of something out in the trees. I heard a bark and saw a coyote maybe 50 or 75 yards out looking at us. The bark was returned by several responses in a circle around our camp. I quickly put our dog in the car where she stared with the widest eyes I’ve ever seen. The coyotes trotted off and were not seen again.

[Terran Terran]

I found a den on the side yard of a house I was looking to rent. I showed it to another couple that had also shown up. Anyways, I got the house. We were in an animal corridor. The neighbors raised pigs. Occasionally they’d lose one to the mountain lions. Honestly, I think I’ve seen more in town then anywhere else. Gardens attract prey.

I was leaving a friends house and scared up a kangaroo rat. A hawk came down and nabbed it. I thought , what are the odds?. Next time I went to visit, I saw the hawk. It was waiting for me to leave and scare up some food.

[Dan]

Even though you know they won’t attack, it’s pretty creepy in the wilderness at night when they are making noise near you.

I have had coyotes taunt me in various ways on many occasions, in the wilderness and in our local open space (although the local population has really decreased over the last decade). Sometimes they bark/yip, sometimes they just trot along parallel to me. I’m usually with my dog(s), so I generally assume that’s part of it, but I don’t know.

One of my dogs was a real hunter, and she always used to chase them in town, but I don’t think she ever caught one. In the wilderness, I didn’t let her chase.

[Martin Van Laarhoven]

I’ve never had a coyote bark at me while camping :) but it sounds like this one was just trying to play the role of a noisy watchdog, lol

[Dustin V]

Monte, I’d speculate the barking was because you were near a den, a kill site or some other place the coyote didn’t want to leave. It’s funny that you at first thought it was just ‘a small dog’ which they are, but that’s part of their camouflage; they look and sound like just a small dog so they blend in.

Behind my back fence is Coyote Gulch, which is aptly named. Before the recent years where mange and other illnesses have decreased populations, we used to see coyotes out there all the time. A pair even raised pups there for a couple of summers. We still hear them howl, bark, attack the raccoons… I’ve never been barked at in town; only scared a few on pre-dawn runs. The local fire trucks sometimes turn on the sirens to get the coyotes to reply.

On a backpacking trip about 20 years ago, a pack howled on the hour, every hour, all night long. By about 4am I finally sat up and yelled at them, “Shuddup!” which they did for a moment. And then at 5am…

[Brad W]

Probably had den nearby. I have camped in an area that must have had 20 coyotes within 100 yards. Started roll call around 11pm. Went on for an hour. Then at 5am, they seemed to circle our camp-maybe 50 yards away, and howl, bark for 20-30 minutes. I think just irritated we were there in that space. Never saw them as it was pretty brushy, but it was a little unnerving at first. Was never afraid of any attack.

[Dan]

Earlier this week, I woke at 4am to a loud chorus of yipping that went on for several minutes. It sounded like they were right in my yard, but I suspect they were actually in a small open space park across the street. My dog Max was sleeping on the floor by my bed, and he started to get interested, but I told him that he wasn’t going to get involved. Last month we moved to a new house that is close to open space, so we probably need to get accustomed to seeing more wildlife. Fortunately, we have “bear-proof” trash and compostable carts. The accessibility of our yard does give me some concern, but we rarely hear of incidents involving large dogs, mostly it is small dogs and cats that get attacked.

[jscott]

Many years ago I drove up to Tuolumne Meadows one spring  the week after the road opened in early July.  I had no hiking experience in snow. I’ll spare you the details but luckily on my second morning out I ran into someone who knew what he was doing and so avoided wandering off into a completely wrong drainage where I would have entirely freaked out. (Remember, snow covered the trail everywhere immediately going up from Tuolumne Meadows.) Instead we made it to a spot past Sunrise camp–which at the time seemed hard, given all the snow. There were two bear poles and we hung our food in bags. As night fell the coyotes came out. It was an El Nino year and snow had lingered everywhere into early July. deer had been out in the just melted meadows browsing on what they could find as night fell. I heard what sounded like demented human voices in the night. Yes, I’ve heard lots of coyotes howling: this was something else. A pack cornering and killing prey. My hair stood on end.

Two young men had come late into camp. One hung his entire pack in a tree. The other hung his pack on the second bear pole. An hour later a bear came into camp and fell out of the tree while grabbing the hung pack. He let out a howl to rhyme with the coyotes. Next, he spent an hour pushing over a bear pole to grab the second pack that was hung, stupidly, by the other guy who’d stumbled into camp. My new friend kept tossing green branches onto the embers to create a fire flare. I was in a kind of stunned, calm state. Entirely out of my depth from the moment I headed out.

The bear kept on huffing and howling while pushing over the pole. Between the coyotes and the bear it was a memorable night.

I learned a lot on that trip.

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