Coyotes: Looking for love, your house pet

WEST CHESTER TWP. – It's not just Valentine's season for humans. Coyotes are out looking for love, too.

And, more ominously, to snack on your house pet.

It's coyote mating season, and this year's season of romance includes an uptick in Butler County home and retail construction that is leveling hundreds of acres of woods and fields. The increased activity has some indigenous coyotes wandering into new territories, wildlife experts warn.

A small dog in West Chester Township was attacked by a coyote this week and there have been other sightings of the wild animals, says Barb Wilson, township spokeswoman.

The smallish dog that was attacked was out in the yard of an Ashford Glen Court home – just north of the Beckett Ridge golf course community, says Wilson.

The dog survived, but some house pets left outside unattended – especially cats – often don't escape a coyote's dinner menu.

"It was a shih tzu dog (average weight 5-7 pounds), a smaller dog," says Wilson. She says a few residents elsewhere in the township, including some subdivisions along Lesourdsville Road, have recently reported seeing coyotes.

"More people are starting to see them and sometimes people get kind of distressed," says Wilson.

Increased sightings in recent weeks have also been reported in western and eastern parts of Hamilton County.

Though they are predators, coyotes rarely threaten humans but have been known to see unattended infants and small children as game for attacks. They primarily feed on rabbits, rodents, birds and other small animals but will scavenge for other food, especially when there is less to eat during winter months.

They are attracted to bird seed from backyard feeders, trash cans and dog food and water dishes, says Brett Beatty, Southwest Ohio assistant wildlife management supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The natural predator of coyotes – wolves – are long gone from this region.

Coyotes can expand their hunting and mating territories up to two miles, especially if their habitat is being changed, says Beatty.

Besides new housing construction in communities throughout Butler County – including The Oaks in West Chester, covering 85-acres of cleared land – there is now the largest retail and residential development in the county's history being built – the $350 million Liberty Center. The massive project is rising on a 100-acre plot of once largely wild fields at the border between West Chester and Liberty townships.

Prior to the historic construction project, drivers would periodically spot coyotes in the fields adjacent to Liberty Way Road, which will be the main feeder roadway to Liberty Center.

Liberty Township officials say they have no recent reports of coyote sightings there or elsewhere in the township just north of West Chester.

Beatty says large construction projects "definitely destroys their natural cover."

And the winter-time lack of brush and tree foliage also annually spikes coyotes' visibility, he says.

Wilson reminds area residents to remain calm and remember that "coyotes have been around forever."

"They were here first," she says. "So we have to get used to them."

C OYOTES: WHAT YOU CAN DO

Confrontations with coyotes can be avoided by taking simple precautions or by altering behaviors to avoid confrontation. Most human and coyote interaction occurs as a result of people intentionally or unintentionally feeding wildlife.

Basic steps to ensure pet and child safety:

• Teach children not to approach or feed any strange animal.

• Small children should not be left unattended outside.

• Carry a walking stick, noisemaker or pepper spray at night or during the early morning if walking with pets.

• Keep pets on a leash. Coyotes are less likely to approach a pet if it is in close proximity to a person.

• Check your yard before letting pets outdoors.

• Go outdoors with small dogs, especially after dark.

• Keep cats indoors, especially after dark.

• Change your routines; coyotes learn neighborhood habits (ex. don't let the dog out every morning at 5 a.m.).

• Call the police or animal control officer if you see a coyote acting aggressively.

(Ohio Department of Natural Resources, West Chester Township)