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Saturday, May 04, 2019

Coyotes

Nextdoor.com is a localized blog that allows you to interact with your neighbors. Most of the posts are asking for advice, e.g. who knows a good plumber.

But there are a large number of posts about coyotes, as if anyone who sees a coyote feels the urge to inform everyone about it.

Coyotes are wild animals, and nobody should try to give them a nice back rub, or fail to be cautious. 

That said, coyotes are all over the place -- an estimated 2,000 in DOWNTOWN Chicago alone https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-downtown-coyotes-met-0117-20150116-story.html and an estimated 4,000 in Cook County. https://news.wttw.com/2017/12/27/why-are-coyotes-thriving-chicago-area 

There are only two recorded deaths from coyotes in the US and Canada, one in the 1980s and the other in 2009 https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/coyotes-people-encounters

By contrast, 30-50 people die from dog bites each year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_States 

Sure, leaving your toy dog out in the back yard at night isn't the best thing, since it might become a coyote snack. But let's have a sense of perspective. 

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