Coyote sightings reported in city

By Rachana Dixit

Published: August 2, 2008

About three weeks ago, city resident Martha Derthick found a mutilated raccoon in her garden. Soon after, she found a skunk carcass in a similar state in a neighboring yard. And while all of this was happening, Derthick said, her neighbor’s cat — a cat that often played in the 2-acre garden she and her neighbor have — had gone missing.

It didn’t take long for Derthick to figure out that there might be coyotes prowling around her house on Meadowbrook Heights Road.

“I knew coyotes were spreading through the country, going East,” Derthick said, adding that she’s aware they are present in Albemarle County. But, she said, “I was not prepared for this.”

Recently, Charlottesville has been getting more calls of possible coyote sightings within the city limits. Bobby Durrer, the area’s animal control officer, said he’s received two calls in the last couple of weeks — one of which was from Derthick, the other from employees at Foods of All Nations on Ivy Road.

“The ones that called in, [at night] is when they’ve seen them,” Durrer said.

Derthick said she thinks it’s possible to mistake a coyote for a fox. But Mike Fies, a wildlife research biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said coyotes are much more substantial — possibly weighing up to 45 pounds, as opposed to 12 pounds for a red fox and 8 pounds for an eastern gray fox.

Fies said coyotes first arrived in the southwestern part of Virginia in the 1970s, but they started to migrate into Virginia’s northern valley the following decade.

“They’ve been around for quite a few years,” Fies said.

Now they can be found in every part of the state, and Fies said he estimates they number around 50,000, though populations are difficult to track. Coyotes are extremely adaptable animals, Fies said, adding that he was not surprised that they might have worked their way into Charlottesville’s city limits.

“If there’s a food source, they’ll move into just about anywhere,” he said.

Most active at dawn and dusk, coyotes can weigh anywhere from 15 to 45 pounds. The dog-like animals have varied diets, eating things like rabbit, rodents and berries. According to the state game department’s Web site, coyotes’ current presence in Virginia is due to introduction by humans.

Though things have been changing as of late, Durrer said he gets many more calls about coyotes in Albemarle.

“We don’t deal that much with coyotes in the city,” he said.

Travis Johnson, who works for Bill’s Spotless House Cleaning Service in Charlottesville and washes Derthick’s windows, also said he has customers out in Ivy and Crozet who have seen signs of the stealthy animal.

“A few people that I have washed windows for have mentioned to me that they have heard them in the evening,” Johnson said.

Despite evidence of its existence in the area, the elusive animal has still managed to stay somewhat hidden. Johnson, Derthick, Durrer and Fies have never personally seen one.

“I never saw it,” Derthick said, referring to the coyote she thinks was in her garden. “They’re famously wily.”

However, John Holden, vice president of the Rivanna Trails Foundation, said he’s encountered coyotes for years in Virginia and West Virginia. Last year, he saw one just north of Pen Park on the Rivanna trails.

“There’s no real surprises that they’re here,” Holden said. “It would really be up to them.”

Holden said he has never felt in danger when in the presence of a coyote.

“They just don’t bother people,” he said. “I guess if I were a domestic cat I would worry.”

Fies noted similar behavioral patterns, saying the animal can coexist peacefully with humans.

“The mere presence of a coyote is not cause for alarm,” Fies said. “As long as they’re acting naturally, they’re not a problem.”

But it’s not impossible. Fies said coyotes become a problem when their presence around homes is encouraged, for example, by unintentionally leaving food out. Coyotes by nature are opportunistic feeders, so they can gradually lose their fear of humans and become bolder.

“They learn to associate man with the food source,” Fies said.

With pets that love to be outdoors, Mekena Yarbrough of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA said they should not be left outside unattended.

“I might be more mindful,” Yarbrough said. “There’s always that risk.”

“This cat was out for hours at a time,” Derthick said about her neighbor’s pet that went missing. Had she known, she might have kept the cat inside more often when she watched it, or made sure it kept close to the house — as coyotes are not ones to care about city-county jurisdiction lines.

“No one has said to me, oh you’re crazy,” Derthick said. “Nobody has said it just can’t be.”