Originally Posted by Kukuforguns
Coyotes are among the more skittish wildlife that I encounter, and every one I've seen has made itself scarce immediately. They're way down my concern list, way below some other species that I'm also not particularly concerned about. And I'm saying that as a board member of the local chapter of The Wildlife Society. If coyote-human encounters in California were anything other than very rare, I'd know about it.
The key in that wikipedia article is the reference to hybrids. I'm a little skeptical of wolf hybridization in SoCal unless it's happening with captive animals since the only naturally occurring wolves in California at the moment are in the far northeast part of the state, and they've only recently arrived back here. Here's a link to an article, I know the CDFW biologist they quote: http://www.sfgate.com/science/articl...es-3554309.php
There's at least one 1970's rural midwestern report of a pack of "coy-dogs" attacking children. I first heard the story from a biologist in Decatur IL, her credibility is good and I have no reason to doubt her. However the literature indicates that this mix is even less common. At best it was a rare example in a small localized area.
As for pit bulls, this past summer and fall I spent a great deal of time on a project site that has perhaps the highest pit bull density I've ever see outside of an urban area. It's an approximately 750-acre site, overgrown sand dunes and wetlands and 27 miles of roads to nowhere, an old 1960s failed subdivision that was never built. There are a few scattered junky trailers and tents and perhaps 100 "residents," some are cranky old libertarian guys who just want to be left alone and who own the lots they live on even though living there full time is technically illegal; most though are tweakers, head cases, and some clean but down on their luck transients. It's quite a cast of characters, and most of them have dogs, and most of those dogs are pit bulls. One family alone owns seven of them, of which they describe six as nice dogs, and one as mean. I have a full time team of people out there among this craziness, overseeing a construction crew removing some of the roads.
Needless to say, we encounter pit bulls pretty frequently. There's a lot of variation. Some are well trained dogs and well cared for and controlled by their owners. Others roam free and a few are semi-feral. Most keep their distance from us, a few stand way back and bark. Still, there are enough of them out there and enough of those have irresponsible owners that we're very careful. No one works alone, everyone carries spray. As far as I know I'm the only one that is armed, although some of the construction guys might be too. The Sheriff has told us not to count on a quick response, we're 25 minutes from town.
My only close call so far was not a pit bull, it was some big mottled-black mutt about the size of a small pony that might have been part mastiff, it was screened by vegetation and was growling as we came around the corner 30 feet away. Fortunately it held it's ground and we walked by, and I never had to actually draw.
We have one more year out there, April to December. It's going to be interesting.
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