Police last week received a report of a coyote way up Oenoke Ridge—near Scotts Corners in New York—the first sighting of June in what animal control is calling a relatively active season for the species.
“This was a large coyote and the people there are concerned because there are domestic pets and kids around,” Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt of the New Canaan Police Department said of the mid-morning June 1 sighting on Oenoke. (Coyotes fear humans and do not attack children, officials say, though they do see smaller domestic pets such as cats or small dogs as food.)
In all, police received reports of seven sightings in May, including one where a coyote attacked a small dog and was carrying it away when a golden retriever also in the family ran after it, prompting the coyote to drop the smaller animal. Coyotes, which mate for life, generally mate and den in March and April, so that lone males generally are seen out and about through April and May, gathering food for the females who have given birth.
Here’s an updated interactive map of coyote sightings in New Canaan in 2014. For information on just where the animals were spotted and when, click on the orange pin: