What should I do if I see a coyote?
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Have you seen a coyote in your neighborhood or backyard? We have too! Here are pictures of one trotting across one of our staff members’ yards in the near-west side of Madison, captured by their doorbell camera. In general, coyotes will keep to themselves, and you should just let them go about their business. You may even want to enjoy watching the coyote(s) from a safe distance. However, in certain circumstances their behavior may become concerning, and you’ll need to take action.
Yes, there are coyotes in urban areas in Dane County!
You may think coyotes just live in rural areas but they’re very adaptable animals, enabling them to live their entire life in urban areas, including here in Dane County. They’re opportunistic feeders and shift their diets to food sources most available. Their diet consists of things like rodents, insects, and fruit, but pet food, bird feeders, and unsecured garbage cans may attract them to our yards.
Check out these signs of coyote presence to know if they might be in your neighborhood.
Coyotes can get too comfortable living among us.
While they normally avoid humans, there are situations where coyotes may start showing concerning behavior, like appearing regularly during daylight hours and not moving away from humans. They may be acting aggressively towards humans and/or domestic pets.
Hazing coyotes reminds them to be fearful of us.
If you see a coyote and its behavior is concerning, take action by hazing it. This means making yourself as big as possible, waving your arms, and shouting at it. You can also use a whistle or other noisemaker, throw objects in its direction (but not at it!), or squirt it with a hose. If the animal continues to approach or becomes aggressive, remove yourself and any others from the area, and call 608-255-2345. Hazing needs to be a community effort and only works well when everyone does it. Want a visual? Watch our popular coyote hazing video to see hazing in action!
We can co-exist peacefully with coyotes.
First things first, please do not feed coyotes! This is a big factor in coyotes frequenting areas where humans are and losing their fear of humans. Here are some other tips:
- Don’t leave your pets alone outside, including cats! Even if your yard is fenced, a coyote can jump over it.
- If a coyote is minding its own business, avoiding you and your pet, let it be.
- If a coyote is approaching you or a pet and the above scenarios don’t apply, haze it.
- If a coyote doesn’t leave after repeated attempts to haze it, calmly leave the area and call 608-255-2345 for help.
When coyotes are reminded to be fearful of us and we don’t create conflict with them, we can co-exist peacefully. Learn more about coyotes and when you see one in Madison, report it to the UW Urban Canid Project, who are studying how they live in Madison and how we can co-exist with them.
This content is free for use with credit to Public Health Madison & Dane County .
