Woman climbs tree to escape coyotes - Near Boston!

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Friendly yearly reminder that it's pup season so they are more actively hunting day and night.

She only saw a single coyote that was 400 feet away but she is convinced there was a pack surrounding her? Coyotes don't hunt in packs and 400 feet isn't exactly a threat. Fox News strikes again.

I read if first in the Boston Globe. Does that make the story OK?

We used to have coyotes come into our yard often. Always a pack of 5-8 of them at any time. If they weren't hunting, were they just hanging out together?
 
I read if first in the Boston Globe. Does that make the story OK?

If they weren't hunting, were they just hanging out together?

Sensationalizing normal everyday things is their MO. There really is nothing to see here.

I should say they *rarely* hunt in packs. The norm is for them to hunt by themselves or in pairs, especially in developed areas where there are other sources of food readily available for far less effort. You'll see them come together to defend territory from other packs.
 
I used to climb trees to get away from people, and those things are super dangerous.

Hahahaha, I was on a bushwhack to the Whitewall summit a few summers ago and heard other people talking. My first instinct was to hide.

It was a surreal moment. Intellectually I knew these were fellow bushwhackers who I would, most likely, enjoy meeting but the impulse to avoid them was overpowering.
 
Sensationalizing normal everyday things is their MO. There really is nothing to see here.

I should say they *rarely* hunt in packs. The norm is for them to hunt by themselves or in pairs, especially in developed areas where there are other sources of food readily available for far less effort. You'll see them come together to defend territory from other packs.

Who, the Globe? They generated the story originally. Maybe the local news channel.

I don't claim to know what the coyotes that were always coming through my yard were doing. Just that there was a "gang" of them. The sounds I'd hear at night were pretty frightening, along with the gnawed on bones I'd find later.
 
Who, the Globe? They generated the story originally. Maybe the local news channel.

I didn't read the globe story. Was referring to the Fox story in the OP saying the coyote(s) "forced" her up a tree... from 400 feet away.
 
I didn't read the globe story. Was referring to the Fox story in the OP saying the coyote(s) "forced" her up a tree... from 400 feet away.

Right. The original stories, like much of the national news media, were taken from local sources. So, I assume you have an issue with the original news source then?
 
I didn't read the globe story. Was referring to the Fox story in the OP saying the coyote(s) "forced" her up a tree... from 400 feet away.

It didn’t say that. It said that she was surrounded and then climbed up a tree. Typical misinterpretation. I feel they generally get it right.
 
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Right. The original stories, like much of the national news media, were taken from local sources. So, I assume you have an issue with the original news source then?

I suppose I do? The media blowing up this subject specifically always rubs me the wrong way. It's always a big bad wolf, run and hide, what about the children analysis. In reality this woman probably walked by an active den during pup season with her off leash dog. People should obviously be aware that coyotes are out there but the fear mongering is absurd. This woman probably reacted the way she did because of the way the media portrays these animals.
 
It didn’t say that. It said that she was surrounded and then climbed up a tree. Typical misinterpretation. I feel they generally get it right.

First line of the article: "A woman hiking on a Massachusetts reservation says coyotes surrounded her and her dog, forcing her to climb a tree to safety."
 
She only saw one.
SAUGUS, Mass. – A woman hiking on a Massachusetts reservation says coyotes surrounded her and her dog, forcing her to climb a tree to safety. Coyotes, plural. Typical “spin”. Make it seem different than what it is.
 
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Mod Note
I don't think nitpicking the details of the wording of the news reports is adding anything to the discussion here. Please drop that part of the conversation.
 
Perhaps it’s a matter of perception for this women. Wether the press is sensationalizing this event or not maybe it’s just a case of being in a more urban area. Who knows what her prior experiences are. Has she been on Safari or climbed 8000 meter peaks and seen yetis and what not before. It’s entirely possible she is only a suburban citizen that has limited outdoor experience along with very little exposure to wild animals. Therefore maybe she reacted in a way she thought appropriate based upon her prior experiences.
 
It’s entirely possible she is only a suburban citizen that has limited outdoor experience along with very little exposure to wild animals. Therefore maybe she reacted in a way she thought appropriate based upon her prior experiences.

This. The first time my dog and I encountered a coyote in the Middlesex Fells, I had no idea that so many of them lived in the area, had no expectation or running into one in what I felt to be a fairly urbanized setting, and certainly no idea of how worried to be or what to do. Had it not run away from us, chances are good that my initial response might...not have been optimal.
 
http://http://nhpr.org/post/something-wild-why-coyotes-seem-be-everywhere-2#stream/0

"To be fair the fear and anger directed coyotes also comes from the documented attacks on domestic pets. The fact is that coyotes feed on small mammals, and as generalists that sometimes means domestic cats and dogs. Schadler says the best thing we can do for coyotes is educate them. And the best time to educate them is mid- to late-May as the juveniles are emerging from their dens. “They are naïve; they will wander up people's driveways and into people's backyards and try to play with people's dogs, kids, cats. People should haze them by chasing them being loud and making it uncomfortable for those coyotes to be anywhere near their backyard.” This will condition the coyotes to fear humans and steer well clear of us."
 
I encountered a coyote last fall at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. When it crossed my path, I was initially annoyed that someone let their dog off leash and it slipped silently into the shrubbery before I realized that it was actually a coyote. Evidently there is an established year-round population: https://mountauburn.org/coyotes-at-mount-auburn/
 
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