ORIGINAL: VA5326
Got a pic of a healthy coyote off of my game cam today (will post tomorrow). Has anyone ever seen or heard of sightings of yotes in Fairfax before? It is a pretty urbanized county and I was quite surprised. I know they can adapt to urban environments and what not but I've never seen one in this area before. Needless to say, my buddy and I were beside ourselves today when we saw the picture.
Ol' yote is hell on house cats. I honestly don't mind a few of them being around.... you give a few turkeys and fawns and save countless hundreds of quail, birds and rabbits from the pasture panthers.....problem is there is hardly ever a 'few'.... they are like cock roaches... if you see ONE... then you probably got 50.
Issues come when they start pickin' off livestock (chickens and guineas) and interbreeding with displaced mongrel hunting dogs that wander aimlessly this time of year because their owners are too trifling to train their dogs and too cheap to buy collars (yes it happens... flame away). Coy dogs are down right dangerous.... especially to kids.... plenty enough deer around NOVA to go round.
My godfather shot one in goochland on the last day of deer season in the 02-03 hunting year. And I know of one that got clipped on Parham Road right near Rt 1 (in front of Brookland Middle School) in Richmond back in the late 1990's. A friend's house cat got picked off by one out in Hunton area of Henrico as well. They've been around... just getting more and more prolific.