I was all relaxed last night, close to falling asleep, when a lengthy high-pitched call jarred me awake, hair standing on end...coyote call. Yup. First there were several longer calls made by a single coyote, then after a long pause, there were shorter yipping calls. A single coyote, calling out repeatedly, not in a "Yikes I'm outta here" way, more in a "Hey everyone, come look what I found" kind of way. And it was CLOSE. Greeeeeaat ><
(Regarding coyote calls: "lone and group howls are given between separated group members when food has been found; and a yip-howl is often done after a group reunites")
Coyotes are smart, adaptive, opportunistic omnivores (fruit, garbage, small to medium sized animals, possibly very small children, etc) that have keen hearing and sight. I absolutely love nature, and I admire the coyote's ability to adapt and overcome challenges to keep their population strong, but at the same time, hearing them so close and being a potentially serious threat to my children, our dog, or our other animals makes me want to buy a suppressed rifle with night scope.
While most of our hutches were either built or modified by my husband, and I feel confident they could withstand a heavy attack by any predator short of a bear, there are a couple hutches that, while in good condition, are made of lighter stuff, and could be breached by a determined predator.
Add to that my plan to eventually have chickens, ducks, and miniature dairy goats, and my concern level ratchets up even higher.
I decided my first step is to learn about these clever creatures, find out what attracts them, and what repels them.
Right now, our entire yard, front and back, is contained by 4' cyclone fencing. Strong, allows light in for plants and grass, keeps our animals in and other animals out...mostly. Turns out, coyotes are smart AND athletic - they can easily clear a 5' fence. This leaves our fence decidedly NOT up to the task of keeping coyotes out, so I started looking at what it will take to keep the coyotes out.
There are several options; some more expensive than others:
Electric Fence: Running power out to our mini farm fence and setting up electric fencing is beyond our budget, both for initial installation, and monthly electric usage. Effective, but not a realistic option for us.
Extended, Angled Fence: Extending the top of the fence outward at a 45 degree angle to prevent a coyote from jumping over, and extending the bottom of the fence with heavy wire mesh underground also at an outward angle to prevent a coyote from digging under. This option would also be almost prohibitively expensive, even if we DIY'd it.
Roller Bar on Top of Fence: A special bar that rolls when pressure is applied, so a coyote jumping over and placing his feet on it would lose his footing and fall back, safely outside of the fence (Like someone balancing on a log in the water). This would be a simpler solution, if our fence was 5' tall to begin with. Since it's not, we're back to having to extend the fence first, then add the roller bars - nope.
Motion Detector Lights: I'm not sure how effective this would be. Coyotes are smart, so lights coming on, even if they were installed out in our mini farm (which I'm sure the neighbors would LOVE - not!), would probably not be a reliably effective deterrent.
Scent Marking: You can buy scent online or at a local sporting goods store. While most scent is intended to lure prey in, there are several options to help scare predators off. This is the option I'm starting with, while we look for a permanent solution.
DIY Clapper: Two wooden pieces, attached by a hinge - see a coyote? Slap the two sides together repeatedly to make a loud clapping noise to scare it away. Might be fun for the kids, might be effective, but if they're that loud, pretty sure it would annoy the neighbors eventually.
For now, I'm going to do my research, talk to the neighbors, find out how common it is to hear or see coyotes around here, what if anything they do about it, and work with them and the city to protect our family without escalating the situation further.
Here are a couple of very informative links, courtesy of the city of Puyallup:
http://www.cityofpuyallup.org/services/animal-control/coyotes-in-city/
http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/coyotes.html