You might have seen them while driving or in your backyard. Coyotes are generally reclusive, but they are around. And summer is one of the peak seasons for encounters.

Wildlife specialists say coyote sightings and conflicts occur during the summer for a few reasons. The first is because there’s simply a lot of people outside, in coyote territory. The second is that they’re currently in the season of raising their pups, so parents are going out and gathering food to feed their young.

Mandy Watson, a New York DEC wildlife biologist, says conflicts between humans and pets don’t happen very often, but it’s not unheard of. She says what wildlife specialists hear about most is daytime coyote sightings, approaching people or eating from a yard. She says it’s not necessarily something to worry about.

She recommends that people just continue to get the coyotes to leave their residence area. There are also incidents of coyotes following people, especially people walking dogs, and the coyotes can get aggressive towards the dogs. If you do see a coyote in your yard she says you should haze them. 

“Basically you go out, you wave your arms around, you make yourself look big, you yell at them, maybe bang some pots and pans, anything like that,” Watson said. “Some people like to walk their dogs with an airborne or something like that and that just basically you want the coyote to run away and you want to keep them being very wary of people so they're not getting too comfortable hanging around people.” 

Watson says when it comes to pets, you should always keep them supervised, walk your dog on a leash and make sure your yard isn’t hospitable to coyotes. That could include removing garbage or a compost pile from the yard and not feeding your pets outside, and pulling in bird feeders.