Ottawa Coyotes

by Anna - Dog Walker in Ottawa

For the last three years I have been walking my German Shepherd dog daily at the field on Breadner Street and Uplands Drive in Ottawa, near the Ottawa Airport.

Occasionally you can spot Coyotes there; however they always stay out of sight when people walk their dogs.

Just recently that has changed as I was walking two dogs one of them spotted Coyote standing beside the trees and started barking and running towards him. I immediately called the dogs, leashed them and we started slowly going away to the parking lot while the Coyote kept watching us leave.

Once we were out of the field he disappeared behind the trees.

A few days later my German Shepherd noticed a Coyote at the same location and barked at him then we proceeded to leave as before, when we were close to the street the Coyote started running towards us, so I ran across the street to my car, put my dog there and saw the Coyote just across the street from me, he was smaller than I though before and very skinny (about half the size of my shepherd).

Two days later on July 16th, 6:30 p.m. I parked the car on the church parking lot and with other people there watched a small Coyote in the middle of the field, I waited for him to go away and I went across the street with my dog for a walk.

When we were coming back to the car the Coyote was standing about 20 meters from my car at that time. I had started whistling and my dog started barking at the Coyote, the Coyote didn't even move, it looked like he was waiting for us to get to the car.

I quickly put my dog in the car and I was watching the Coyote to go around me to get to the other side of the road to the next field (he did not try to attack us). This Coyote, although as small and skinny as the other one I saw earlier, had no hair on its tail, which make me believe that he might be sick with mange. Maybe that's the reason that they coming closer than ever before.

I'm not sure whom to contact regarding this situation and if there is any help that could be provided to them, once they are healthy they stay away from people as they were in the past.