Keep an eye on your cats and chickens, coyotes are afoot in Wallingford!
On the Wallyhood Forums, Rob Cranfill says:
A buddy of mine, who’s an outdoorsy, level-headed kind of guy, said he just saw a coyote running down the street in Tangletown – around 7PM.
Taildragger confirms:
My wife & I and two of our neighbors saw two of them last night. One was running down the sidewalk on 57th and the other rounded the corner at 57th and Kensington.
And Penelope emailed to say she had seen them, as well.
Apparently, urban coyotes are not an uncommon occurrence. There are over 2,000 coyotes in the greater Chicago area, for example, and West Seattle and Ballard both have reported coyotes recently, as well.
They’re not dangerous to humans, but have been known to eat pets, so make sure they’re in at night (and don’t feed them outside). If you’re looking for a gun to protect your property, you can shop online for glock conversions.
On related note, there was an interesting article in the New York Times a couple weeks back on interbreeding between species: Should You Fear the Prizzly Bear? I had always thought, based on my high school science reading, that by definition, different species couldn’t interbreed and produce fertile off-spring.
Turns out, that’s just not the case. Despite the fact that “coyotes diverged from gray wolves one million to two million years ago, and dogs from wolves roughly 15,000 years ago,” they’ve begun interbreeding in response to the pressures from human expansion into their territories. In New England, “an unlikely predator has crept back into the woods…what some have called the coywolf. It is both old and new — roughly one-quarter wolf and two-thirds coyote, with the rest being dog.”
Crazy.
(Photo by g’pa bill).
What’s being done about this? Nobody seems too concerned.
Well, I was going to sit up on my porch here at 57th and Kensington, with my 22 caliber nerf gun and wait for them to return, but then it occured to me that the animals in question still had a lot of feral rabbits to attend to. And that there were some more pressing concerns than hunting/trapping wild animals in the city.
When the coyotes start mixing the recyclables with the yard waste, I’ll get busy.
I say leave them be. Hopefully they can cut down the rampant rat and feral cat populations
True men don’t kill coyotes.
There may be coyotes, but there is no such place as Tangletown. This is a fictional name. The factual name is actually “The Meridan District”.
Interesting video on urban coyotes by the Colorado Division of Wildlife: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LQMxZo0YSM
What’s being done about what? Coyotes are a part of urban nature. Keep your cat indoors, don’t let small dogs out unattended at night, etc. Nothing to worry about. We had thousands of them in Chicago and the only victims were usually outdoor cats. I think in the four years I lived there, one coyote bit a person. They’re less dangerous than some off-leash dogs.
Tangletown not fictional. Originally a trolley terminal. You get the picture.
“When coyotes start mixing the recyclables with the yard waste, I’ll get busy.”
Damn, how come this thing doesn’t have a “like” button?
I’ve never heard the term “The Meridian District” before. Tangletown is definitely the more common name for the area, but neither is official. It’s Wallingford on the south side and Green Lake on the north.
We’ve lived in the neighborhood for 40 years. A Kroll map we have from the 1980’s shows it as Meridian, not Tangletown. We never heard it referred to as “Tangletown” until those condos went up on the block of 56th and Meridian. We figured it was a marketing gimmick by the condo developers.
“Meridian” is a better name, I think, Tangletown is kind of dopey, but no one asked us long time residents about it.
Meanwhile, coyotes… maybe they’ll eat some raccoons!
I agree with you about Tangletown. Stupid name. Re: coyotes, I don’t want them eating my cat. I just don’t understand why they can’t be taken care of. So dangerous in an urban setting especially.
Cassandra, thank you for the great video. Those are excellent guidelines, and they underscore that coyotes adapting to an urban environment need not be automatically viewed as dangerous.
And when I say “urban,” it’s with acknowledgement that all sorts of animals have been traveling throughour city for years. Speaking of coyotes, anyone else remember 1997, when a coyote being chased by crows ran into the elevator in the Federal Building downtown?
I’ll watch the video again, but I see the two most important guidelines are the ones noted in the original post: (1) keep your pets inside at night, and (2) don’t put food outside. Simple and sensible!
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Seems logical to me that If you grow your own food and raise poultry in the city, you’ll increase the number of predators. There’s a reason real farmers tend to own shotguns.
My family has been in the Meridian area since the early 1900’s and no one has ever heard of Tangeltown until Elyaian Tangeltown moved in. Trolley wires ran along several streets and the drivers would switch the wires from one line to the other but no one called it Tangeltown. It’s a dumb name.
Coyotes won’t bother people if people don’t bother them. They do like to eat other animals, since they are carnivores, so please keep your pets indoors or with you on a leash so they will be safe.
Hmm, I thought the “Tangletown” was a reference to the convergence of streets, and while it may be a recent invention, if it’s a local slang name that people use (or not), it doesn’t bother me.
By the way, I’m in south Wallingford, so in honor of the goo that bubbles up over in Gasworks Park from time to time, I tell people I live in “Tarmont.” 😀
I believe the official procedure for someone to “take care of them”, as someone so delicately put it above, is to summon Wildlife Services, an agency of the US Department of Agriculture. Somewhat critical article in the Sacramento Bee about their operations – http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/28/4450678/the-killing-agency-wildlife-services.html
As I understand it for the Seattle area, they’d be operating as contract killers, funded directly by the neighborhood. You could expect to get various stories from them, as they’re used to talking out of both sides of their mouths, the desk guys may or may not have anything to do with what the field guys do, and the general attitude is that we don’t really want to know what they do.
It shouldn’t come to that unless the coyotes get aggressive. If they start seeing us as a soft target, they will get aggressive. See the Colorado video above for the story.
Another way to get the word out – I don’t know how exactly I’d go about this, but if you happen to be able to catch loose pets wandering around, and you could tag them with “Coyote Snack Program – this pet donated by owner” or something to that effect, it might reach someone who needs the clue.
I saw the coyote early Saturday morning in Woodland Park. He looked pretty scared of my dog (who is pretty large) and I. Hopefully he will eat the rabbits that are there.
Tangletown is the historic name of the area and was named in honor of the tangle of streets coming out from the trolley terminal. It fell out of fashion for decades and came back into fashion when the pub/restaurant opened.
All in favor of decreasing the raccoon population.
Coyotes pretty much everywhere in LA. They do eat cats and chickens and….
If you don’t want your cat eaten by coyotes, don’t let the cat out. Not trying to sound harsh, but even without coyotes, the neighborhood is full of hazards–dogs, cats and wild and feral animals that could harbor diseases; motor vehicles; litter and spills toxic to animals; and more. The best way to keep the cat safe is to keep it an indoor cat.
To Tangeltown {sp} Resident,
I am a longterm {30 yrs} Wallingford resident in the area now called “Tangletown”. Word has it the name was invented by the owner of Zoka. If you have historical documentation of “Tangletown” having ever been the historic name of this neighborhood, please provide the documentation.
I’m not so sure they aren’t dangerous to humans anymore. Two events make me think this.
First, so you have an idea about me: I’ve always been into nature. Go camping on my own often where wolves and bears would be more of a worry than a measly coyote. I say that so you don’t think I’m over-reacting.
I used to live in Renton with my ex and a 90lb male boxer. We used to walk him on the railroad siding behind the Black River Riparian Forest. One sunny afternoon a man came around the bend towards us and mentioned that there was a blue healer up ahead that seemed to be lost. We were calling our dog to leash him when we saw a very young coyote obviously trying to get his attention. It worked, and the coyote lured him through a thicket of blackberries into the forest. We were, of course, calling him and I dove through the thicket following them.
They moved fast. We could hear the branches breaking as they went into the forest. Then we heard branches breaking in all directions converging on them. We freaked! I started looking for a weapon. in that type of forest everything on the floor is rotted so all the branches broke. I just grabbed the biggest one I could easily swing (8′ by 3″). At about that point (3mins into the ordeal?) our dog must’ve realized something was up because he started coming back towards our voices. I estimate they were about 50 yards away from me at that point. I was in a clearing on the forest floor about 15 ft across, surrounded by downed trees. My dog leaped over a downed tree into the clearing (and to me), with the pack following right behind him. The first 2 coyotes were damn big – never seen a coyote near their size. They hesitated only a second when they saw me, leaped on in and proceeded to circle me. I (5’10”) became as big and loud as I could and swung the branch down (which broke into a thousand pieces). Luckily that freaked them out enough to take off. But they had decided to take me on before that.
The other event was from this summer in Oregon somewhere a guy used his phone to capture footage of a pack following and circling he and his elderly dog on their evening walk through the neighborhood. He made it home, put his dog inside, and grabbed a shovel that was by his door to shoo them away but they kept circling him and trying to get at him, even as he swung it at them.
I think under the right circumstances they could be very dangerous to certain humans
Any wildlife biologists here?
Are these lone coyote sightings or has a pair/pack taken up residence? Would we expect pup sightings if so?
This definitely falls within the category of Northlake RVs&Busses. /s
Knowing the reputation of Coyote, sightings of either have to be related. Lions and Tigers and Bears! Coyotes and Busses! Oh My!
I also understand they might attack if you show fear and run away even if not in a pack. I’m not only afraid for domestic animals but for children who may not understand. The video was very educational.
There is a pack of coyotes that lives in th UW Arboretum (as told by a staff Naturalists there). That’s not that far!
Personally I am more afraid of the large racoons that live in our block…
This is an article from HistoryLink that talks a little bit about the name of Tangletown:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=3461
My neighbor told me the guy who build my house shot a black bear at 40th and Stone Way in 1909. So, could be the wild animals are finally getting ready to mount their revenge. Or maybe the coyotes have been imported by “Gerald” to kill that poor guy’s chickens when the possums couldn’t do the job…
There was at least one coyote in Woodland Park today. My kid’s kindergarten class was there and a runner stopped to tell their teacher he’d seen one.
Having grown up on a farm on the edge of Capital Forest and having a lot of experience with coyotes (having shot 3 on my property to prevent more killing of our chickens and barn cats) I can vouch for what Jeff is talking about. They are very intelligent and clever. While a lone coyote is RARELY any threat to a human, if you ever encounter more than 2 together it’s an entirely different story. They are curious, especially when hungry, but not brave at all on their own. In a group or pack they are both exceptionally brave and exceptionally clever.
That being said,
My brother may have lost his best dog this week from a similar ambush to what Jeff mentioned. He’s a scent hound and it takes nothing to get him following his nose. On several occasions he has been lured by a lone coyote PRETENDING TO BE WOUNDED (yes, they will do this… they have multiple strategies). When he dove into the deep woods to check it out, there was a group of 3 to 5 coyotes waiting in ambush. Luckily nothing a .308 couldn’t take care of. Sadly, this week he took off when my brother wasn’t nearby and couldn’t be caught up to. You can’t turn a scent hound away from a chase, even with a shock collar. He was gone and he hasn’t returned for 3 days. He’s not the kind of dog to ever get hit by a car (way too smart for that) and seeing as he was being used to track cougar by the owners we rescued him from, it’s highly unlikely he was taken on by 1 or 2 coyotes, if even by 3. I fear he has fallen pray to another ambush strategy by a pack.
I’m rambling, the point is that there is a huge difference between ONE coyote and TWO OR MORE. Also, never underestimate their intelligence and NEVER EVER follow a limping coyote into the woods unless you have the experience, the right rifle and the balls to finish the job. I’m guessing most people living in Wallingford don’t fit that description. So just keep your pets inside if you have coyotes roaming your neighborhood. This is becoming common occurrence in parts of Seattle due to over-development and nowhere else for the coyotes to go. If you’re a fellow country boy stuck in the city, you know what to do should you encounter one that doesn’t scare off easily. If you aren’t, here are a few tips:
– make yourself as big as possible
– be as loud as possible
– try your best not to show ANY fear
– if one ever rushes you, rush him harder
– if one ever gets on top of you, try to get your arms around his neck with your
face away from his, choke as tightly as possible and hang on for the ride
I have a kinship with Wile E and my license plate reads YLEKYOT. However all of our cats are rescues who were brought up outdoors and if you think you can educate them to be inside-only cats, you have another thought coming. You will never be able to open a door without doing a hockey goalie imitation. We usually are able to corral them before midnight but I thought that up here, in Haller Lake, there were no such wily critters. That is one reason that we have not moved out of the city and its Nazi administration (the garbage police — really?), so I am dismayed to hear that we are not all that safe. I know that the cats are very wary of dogs, even those on a leash, but my anxiety level is increased. By the way, our cats all receive the best care from Cats Exclusive and always come indoors to eat. Even so, we have problems with ‘coons coming in the cat door at times.
I was walking my dog, on leash, at Woodland Park today and spotted a coyote. It was a beautiful day and there were a lot of people and dogs in the park. If you let you pooch off leash there, I’d think twice about doing it if these animals are present.
Would the people who saw the coyotes wandering through their hood mind putting up some signs alerting people of the sightings and that they should lock their pets in! It would be appreciated by many, I’m sure. Many people don’t know much about Coyotes and that they will attack and kill cats and small dogs. I just learned of this while walking my dog last week and I live two blocks from Kensington and 57th! I’m telling people but sadly I noticed lots and lots of fur on 57th and Kensington 3 weeks ago and my neighbor mentioned she’s seen similar on walks in different locations. For those of you who don’t like cats, sorry, but our animals mean a lot to us and aren’t ‘just’ cats. I’m locking mine in now.
Thanks Wallyhood, This is a great site.
Signs might help, you never know, but a coyote can have a pretty large range, so people would still have coyotes slipping through their back yards before they ever saw a sign. See my post number 17 for another idea on reaching the people who need to think about this!
I saw one about a week and a half ago on the corner of 52nd and Woodlawn. I was sitting at the bench on the corner about midnight when a coyote came jogging up 52nd from Green Lake Way, looked at me and my friend briefly and continued trotting down Woodlawn to 55th Street and out of my view.
and btw its not tangletown its Wallingford. the link above about Wallingford’s history is awesome- thank you tangletown resident, but youre actually a Wallingford resident.
heres the only quote on tangletown from the posted article
“Contiguous to the north and east of Wallingford’s Division of Green Lake is a section remembered by some as “Tangle Town.” The likely source for this name is the irregular configuration of the blocks in an addition set by Wallingford’s son in law, the Green Lake pioneer, William Wood. Part of Wood’s South Green Lake Addition extends as far south as 51st Street. At least for some this part of Tangle Town is also part of Wallingford. ”
It is a name new developers gave to the area, much to my dismay (and all my buddies from around the way) but maybe im just biased cuz tangletown the restaurant replaced my beloved Honey Bear Bakery.
on a side note, the Honey Bear in Lake Forest Park don’t even have the same cinnamon roll recipe, not worth the trip haha
I think Tangletown is generally considered a section of Wallingford.
And by “generally”, I mean “by me”.
I just saw a coyote walking down the middle of Green Lake Way between 53rd & 55th before he turned & disappeared into the park. Saw one running around the corner from 55th to Woodlawn a week or so ago too while out walking my dog. On both occasions, he stopped and looked for a moment before continuing on his way. Didn’t seem too interested in us, but it makes me wonder about all of the recent missing cat signs posted around the neighborhood lately.
FYI – the coyotes are still hanging around Woodland Park. My son’s kindergarten class is there every day and they saw one at least twice this week.
I ran past a dead coyote along Aurora Ave S near Woodland Park Zoo today.
TI have heard that the name Tangletown refers to the cable cars that began and ended their routes here – tangled cables. Very wide NE 56th and N 55th streets. I prefer the name Meridien which this is also.
And yes, many of us consider ourselves part of Wallingford.
@ #27 Tangletown Resident. Thanks for the link to History Link. A fascinating, detailed and comprehensive history of our area. I’ve saved it to read through again.
Saw a coyote right before the start of the Seahawks game (about 11:30am) at the corner of Wallingford and 52nd. Just strolling down the sidewalk, then turned into someone’s driveway and disappeared. Wasn’t expecting to see that in the city!