Wow, that is odd. I've had two close encounters with coyotes in the past couple weeks. I was sitting alone by our fire ring in the forest behind out house after my wife, kids, and some friends had left after a cookout and a pack came by, probably after smelling ribs and hotdogs. I didn't see them because it was pitch black dark out, but they were only about 100 ft away when they all started yipping. I turned my headlamp on and pointed their direction and they lit out in an instant. I barely heard a rustle when they did.
The other was last friday when one by himself came into our front yard to see if he could snatch one of our chickens. Our dogs saw him and chased him off.
It's legal to kill coyotes here. Not many people hunt them for sport, but some do. Right now there are far too many living nearby us and it has occured to me that I might have to shoot a few before too long. I thought I might try to pop them with a paintball gun first to see if they'd relocate on their own.
This is the first time I've heard of more than one attacking a person though. Weird.
We have a problem with coyotes around here as well. There were none the first 7 or 8 years after we built our home, but jackrabbits were plentiful. The coyotes came in and wiped out the jackrabbits. I was walking on one of my jobs last year and came upon some scat. The scat contained a tiny collar in it, probably from a cat.
This spring I witnessed how they do it. I have an invisible fence for my dogs that encloses them on two acres around the house. There were two coyotes in the pasture just outside the barrier. One of them would come in close and lure my big airedale to chase after him. The airedale (Rooster) would charge after him, but peel off at the barrier. The coyote circled around and came right back and did it again while the other one was waiting crouched in the fringe. Of course this all stopped as soon as I had time to get out my Henry .17 HMR. (Now it sits by the back door)
I tried for a couple years to fire warning shots, then dusting them with bird shot, then #4 shot, but they kept coming back. Now it's full scale war and take no prisoners. There are 4 fewer that there were last spring.
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