05/10/2025
🐾It's Pupping Season: Understanding our role in keeping both pets and wildlife safe
Coyote families are under immense challenges when they are caring for their vulnerable neonate young. Please apply best practices for safe and healthy coexistence by using a leash when walking the family pooch. Coyote parents are protective and defensive when it comes to their young ones. A dog is like another unrelated predator to the parents and is often perceived as a danger, threat or encroaching too closely.
🚫 Avoid intruding on den areas; never allow your dog to invade a den area off-leash, and photographers, please adhere to ethical guidelines when photographing wild animals.
🔎 Learn about stress reactions (vocalizing, body gestures, posturing) that a wild animal may demonstrate and respect these communications by calmly moving along and by leaving wild families alone.
🐺 Canids may "bluff charge", pace back and forth, howl, bark, and/or arch their back with teeth showing if a dog or person does not back away. Dogs are the most common trigger for a defensive or protective reaction by an adult coyote (towards a dog). While this type of canid communication can be alarming to folks, this is a coyote's way of avoiding conflict by warning the dog (and you) to move away.
📌Note: a curious dog may not distinguish between a coyote trying to move them away and respecting boundaries - that's where the pet guardian comes in. Choosing to leash-up is an impactful approach in maintaining distance between a beloved pet and their wild canid cousin.
🛑 When you overstay your welcome in a sensitive area such as a den or rendezvous site, coyote parents may es**rt or "shadow" you away from this location. They are concerned and these attentive parents need to be sure that you and your dog are leaving and not a threat.
🐕🦺 Always walk family dogs using a leash. If you suspect a den or pups are nearby, calmly leave the site and stay alert about your surroundings. Never turn your back and run.
🌿🥾 Stay on marked trails when recreating outdoors and remember to never feed wildlife. For more information about using humane methods [aversion conditioning] to encourage wildlife to move away from an area, review our resources "Keeping Strong Boundaries" at coyotewatchcanada.com
VITAL Reminder:
✅️Never attempt to deploy aversion conditioning (AC) commonly called humane hazing, near a den area, parents with pups or a food source. It is important to consider that AC is a vital tool that can reshape inappropriate coyote behaviour. However, AC cannot change human behaviour - this requires a collective community commitment and daily mindset.
✅️Never attempt to engage with parents or pups.
✅️Never interfere with a family while they are resting, eating, or caring for their young.
✅️Never attempt to harass or approach an injured, ill or cornered canid - give them space and social distance by calmly leaving the area.
🕰If you believe an animal may need medical assessment - report your observations to the local animal welfare/response agency immediately.
Lastly, coyotes and their smaller relative, the fox, play essential ecological roles in the ecosystems in which they live. They consume zoonotic and tick host species. Canids keep small mammal populations in check and serve as nature's clean-up crew by scavenging deceased animals as well. Let's celebrate and honour their significant place in our communities.
📷 Ann Brokelman | Content copyright Coyote Watch Canada