Visibly shaking, Stephanie Koenig’s neighbor described the vicious attack she had just witnessed on her front lawn.
She went to survey the scene herself.
“It was a brutal attack,” Koenig said. “It was gruesome. Its neck was mauled, and its rear end was chewed up.”
The deer in Koenig’s Timonium yard was the victim of what turned out to be — to her surprise — a coyote, according to county animal control officials. The July 20 incident was one of several recent coyote sightings in Baltimore County, including Towson and Catonsville, according to alarmed residents who have reported the animals to 911.
But state wildlife experts said while sightings are rare, coyotes have an established population in every state in the country and every county in Maryland. The animals have migrated to the area through natural range expansion, said Patricia Allen, an education specialist with Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources Wildlife and Heritage Service.
“They are fairly common but you don’t see them very often because they don’t like to be around people,” Allen said. “They are fairly elusive.”
Coyotes, which resemble small German shepherd dogs, are what Allen described as “opportunistic” eaters, meaning a diet of anything that’s available, creating a potential for danger. They’ve been known to snack on dog food left outside, berries, and small furry animals including pets.
Baltimore County animal control officials said they’ve received several reports of sightings, but no complaints or requests to have coyotes removed. But sightings in Catonsville in the Hilton Avenue area in 2005 disturbed residents like Kathy O’Dell, a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who spotted one in the outskirts of Patapsco State Park.
She called a local newspaper.
“Coyotes will sometimes mistake babies for small animals,” O’Dell said. “I felt like I should let somebody know.”
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