West Seattle scenes: ‘Healthy’ coyote? Plus, Vincennes under tow

| Coyotes | Seen at sea | West Seattle news

Two photos shared this afternoon – obviously taken before the weather turned. First, Tom sent the top photo, taken at 12:45 pm in his backyard at 21st and Holly (map), observing, “That’s one healthy-looking coyote! He’s looking at our chicken coop…..” (Here’s info on coexisting with coyotes.) Next, from Gary Jones:

In the distance, looking over the top of Alki Lighthouse, Gary believes that was a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser under tow northbound, coming out of Rich Passage from Bremerton. Closer look:

We’re still researching in hopes of figuring out exactly what that ship was.

JB October 14, 2010 (4:03 pm)

That is a very healthy looking coyote! I grew up in the country and we never had coyotes that healthy looking! Something tells me an abundance of rats, pets, and garbage, along with an absence of competing predators has been good to the coyotes around here.

Does the city have any estimate of the numbers in West Seattle? My concern is that eventually we will have rabid coyotes to deal with, as well as hungrier ones, once they fully exploit their available resources.

I’ve dealt with one rabid animal in my life. I don’t care to do it again.

Also, what’s up with so much daytime activity? I’m used to coyotes being nocturnal.

JanS October 14, 2010 (4:44 pm)

magnificent, beautiful animal !!!

Ex-Westwood Resident October 14, 2010 (5:01 pm)

The coyotes will become more and more bolder as they lose their fear of humans. THAT is when it can get dangerous. I can see attacks on humans in the near future if something isn’t done about it. And I don’t mean introduce the natural predator.
The city may have to look at culling the herd, if for nothing else to maintain their food supply at a level for them.

Dave S October 14, 2010 (5:06 pm)

Regarding the cruiser, I would make an educated guess that it is the decommissioned cruiser Vincennes. The ship was decommissioned in 2005 and stored in Bremerton. Earlier this year a contract to scrap the ship was issued to International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville Texas. The tugs might be taking the ship to Texas.

Gregory October 14, 2010 (5:34 pm)

You won’t see any attacks on humans, that’s just foolishness.

WS Steve October 14, 2010 (5:36 pm)

As for the ship, it appears to be a frigate or destroyer, but it doesn’t match any of those now serving. Perhaps it’s been decommissioned.

Man from Spokane... October 14, 2010 (5:53 pm)

Quite a coyote there.

The ship is probably CG-49 Vincennes ( a brief blurb at the bottom of this web site: http://www.navysite.de/cg/cg49.html mentions decommissioning at Bremerton, as does the NVR. Off to Texas to be scrapped according to Wiki)

Dc October 14, 2010 (6:28 pm)

Look at that coat! He’s gorgeous!

S October 14, 2010 (6:59 pm)

That coyote is beautiful. Coyotes, Raccoons & Opposums, Oh My! I Love West Seattle and its wildlife.

hj October 14, 2010 (7:12 pm)

The ship is definitely a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, but the number has been stricken so I can’t tell which one. The only Tico I know that has been sitting in Bremerton awaiting scrapping is Vincennes, which is infamous for having shot down an Iran Air airliner in the ’80s. So if that’s the one, then it’s a real piece of US naval history on its way to the grave.

WSB October 14, 2010 (7:36 pm)

HJ, that’s a good lead – we’ll check further. I found this on the Wikipedia page for the Vincennes:
<>
- WSB October 15, 2010 (12:54 pm)
  
  update, the Navy confirms that was the Vincennes. Will probably publish a separate item on that later – TR

LDH October 14, 2010 (7:28 pm)

That coyote looks like a wolf.

JB October 14, 2010 (8:24 pm)

@Ex-Westwood Resident – I lived in a rural area with coyote’s for over 20years and never heard of an attack. They are very timid animals. Yes, they will eat your cat or small dog, and kill foxes, but they run like hell from humans. The threat of conflict will come from stupid people cornering the animal or something equally ill conceived. A rabid coyote, however, is very dangerous…any rabid animal is very dangerous for that matter.

WS Mom October 14, 2010 (8:38 pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

Change the language, to coyote…hide your kids, hide your wife…

Mongo October 14, 2010 (9:48 pm)

JB,
Knowledge is a great cure for ignorance — please do a little research before you start claming we’ll be having rabid coyotes…

from http://www.nwcphp.org/docs/rabies/Rabepi.html

“Animal Rabies in Washington State
Currently, Washington has no terrestrial animal reservoirs of rabies. Bats are the most commonly rabid animal in this state. Of the 5175 Washington bats examined from 1960-2000, 433 (8%) were rabid. Rabid bats have been found in almost every county in the state. The virus has been identified in the bat species common here, and likely occurs in all of the 16-18 bat species present in Washington.
Other than bats, only eight individual animals from this state have tested positive for rabies since 1960. In 1976, an unvaccinated cat from Thurston County was found to be rabid. The following year, a five year old unvaccinated dachshund tested positive for rabies. These were the last confirmed rabid cat and dog in the state.

Two other domestic animals have been diagnosed with rabies since 1960: a horse from Benton County in 1992; and a llama from King County in 1994. The llama was found to be infected with a bat variant of the rabies virus. Because the specimens from the horse were fixed in formalin, the virus strain infecting that animal could not be further characterized at the time.

The only other animals to be identified as rabid in Washington since 1960 were four pet skunks. Two of the skunks were inappropriately imported into Washington and were likely infected out-of-state. The remaining two skunks were pets improperly given live attenuated rabies vaccine.”

CCW October 14, 2010 (10:16 pm)

Damn, I think I’m in love with a coyote.

Leroniusmonkfish October 14, 2010 (11:28 pm)

I see coyotes walk down the street in broad daylight here in AZ. No threat other than to small pets.

Tom October 15, 2010 (8:00 am)

The photo was taken thru the window. I then slowly opened the door (to get a better photo) and he heard it and left.

I was confused for awhile, wondering if it was actually a coyote, because it looked like a show dog.

No question that he’s eating well!

Bobbie October 15, 2010 (8:57 am)

I have Coyotes all over my property and up and down the river we live on. Coyotes don’t attack people, they run from us! Even my dog has had a lot more problems with attack by coons (coons twice, coyotes none).
But I am noticing coyotes out in the day here too. over the last two years they are out mid day much of the time..We hadn’t seen them at all (tho we knew they were there because we heard them a lot) for the previous 14 years during the day.

don October 15, 2010 (10:30 am)

Obvious German Shepherd/coyote cross…

don October 15, 2010 (10:38 am)

Heh. Magnified, looks like the cross was made by photoshop…

Idle minds…

Tony October 15, 2010 (12:00 pm)

just googled “coyote attacks on humans” and came up with a laundry list:

2/11/10 Coyote attacks New Brunswick woman.
A New Brunswick woman who wrestled with a coyote Wednesday was still shaken hours afterwards but managed to walk away needing only a tetanus shot and a bandage.
Marie Simon of Saint-Charles, near Richibucto, said she went into her backyard about 2:30 a.m. to let her puppy Sampson out.
“He started pulling to go back in the house,” Simon said. “I thought it was just a puppy thing, and I heard a snarl and I turned around and I thought it was just a dog and ended up it was coming right at me. All I could see was teeth.”

1/27/10 GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Police in Westchester County are looking for a coyote that has attacked twice. The first incident involved a woman walking on a trail. The second involved a pit bull. Both attacks happened in the town of Greenburgh. What began as a leisurely afternoon stroll through a local wooded park ended in a shockingly violent and unexpected attack.

10/28/9 Cape Breton park. Toronto singer killed by coyotes.
Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old Toronto singer whose debut album was released in March, has died in a Nova Scotia hospital after being mauled by coyotes in a Cape Breton park.
Mitchell was hiking Tuesday on the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park when she was attacked by two coyotes. Another hiker, who was walking nearby, heard her cries for help and called 911.

5/8/8 Lake Arrowhead, CA Coyote Drags Toddler From Front Yard. Animal Releases 2-Year-Old Girl When Mom Appears; 3rd Incident In 5 Days. A coyote grabbed a 2-year-old girl by the head and tried to drag her from the front yard of her mountain home in the third incident of a coyote threatening a small child in Southern California in five days, authorities said.

WSB October 15, 2010 (12:06 pm)

And I’ll say it before somebody else does. Search for information on “dog attacks” (as in domestic pets) in the same period and you will come up with hundreds if not thousands (of course, most don’t turn into news stories, because it is so common). Yes, coyotes have attacked humans, but so far, it’s been rare. If you follow the “coexisting with coyotes” tips – don’t leave food out (and that goes for small pets too!) among other things – each and every one of us can help reduce that chance. It’s also important to know what to do if you come face-to-face with one – I’ve been writing about and researching this now for almost the full three years we’ve done news on WSB, and I don’t even have that memorized yet (but need to) … TR

M October 15, 2010 (12:12 pm)

Do they make fur coats out of coyotes?

I know they make them from foxes.

Happy Friday everyone!

waterworld October 15, 2010 (1:49 pm)

Hmmmm. I am not sure that’s a coyote. I think it might be a czechoslovakian wolf dog, with or without a little editing.

MsEvelyn October 15, 2010 (2:02 pm)

What a beautiful beast! I wish that Man could work out a way to live with the coyotes without having to lose our beloved pets! I very much appreciated the “rabid animals” info above. Knowledge is power!!

WSB October 15, 2010 (2:05 pm)

Interesting.
http://picsdigger.com/image/b7d3b09b/
.
Will add a question mark to the headline.

Tony October 15, 2010 (5:13 pm)

WSB, you prove my point. We humans regulate dogs, we license, feed and house them. Dog bites occur and dangerous dogs are removed and their owners can be held responsible. Dogs without owners are captured. Coyotes are predators that must hunt and kill small animals for food. Put it this way – if a band of feral dogs were living in the woods hunting down our pets would we allow that?

ws mom October 16, 2010 (7:18 am)

Tony-so should we also do something about the ‘feral’ humans who kill millions and millions of animals per year through animal testing, slaughterhouses, running over animals with their vehicles, starving their animals; humans take over so much land that when animals start to creep into urban areas and act shocked?

brokeasajoke October 16, 2010 (12:15 pm)

They keep the rat population in check,

peabody October 16, 2010 (2:18 pm)

Coyote attacks on humans are extremely rare. I wouldn’t lose a second of sleep over that possibility.

However, it certianly looks like this beautiful guy has enjoyed an abundance of cats and who knows what else. Keep your pets inside!

Sarah October 17, 2010 (3:40 pm)

Just saw two coyotes off High Point Drive SW, North of Forest Lawn Cemetery, 3pm, while jogging. Impressive to see them in person, then took another jogging route. Thanks for the “coexisting” article, WSB!

tk October 17, 2010 (10:34 pm)

Took them 50 years to tame the Siberian fox. I doubt their fear of humans will disappear anytime soon. They shoot them everywhere else but Seattle. lol

tk October 17, 2010 (10:39 pm)

sorry, had to come back and say this… “the dingo ate my baybay!”

diane October 24, 2010 (2:57 pm)

there are more problems with racoons and our dogs around here than coyotes and I know they eat rodents-yay! If you kill them nature will create more pups in the future litters to get back the poulation-exist with them and leave no food/garbage around

Tom October 30, 2010 (10:52 pm)

Never thought of that, a Coyote-Shepherd mix. Seems reasonable…. The coyotes I’ve seen in the desert don’t have that poise, they are skulking all the time, and just look scraggly. Not this boy he looks like he just came from a dog show! I’ve never seen any another dogs in our backyard, except another coyote 10 years ago, (a very scraggly one!)

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