Coyotes have been spotted disturbingly near Skyline facilities, including the childcare center.
Often howling early in the morning as students arrive for class, are these animals a threat to students, staff, or the children on campus?
These wild canines have roamed around the hills and woods surrounding Skyline for some time now, but lately, they seem to be drifting nearer to campus. They have been seen as close as 25 feet away from College Drive.
Coyotes, like wolves, are closely enough related to domesticated dogs that they can breed and produce offspring with them. When a coyote and a dog mate, the offspring is called a “coydog” or a “dogote” depending on the gender of the parents. These hybrid animals can sometimes be found in the wild. This means that a coyote is close enough to a wolf to produce offspring together. The result of such a mating is an animal that is called the “coywolf” and shares traits of both wild animals.
Former Skyline student Shirly Drye, a volunteer at San Pedro Park, shared about a meeting that was held by the Academy of Sciences regarding the coyotes and deer in nearby areas. Coyotes and deer have learned to take advantage of human roads and bridges to get where they want to go. At the meeting, Drye saw pictures of a deer trotting across the Golden Gate Bridge and heard about a coyote who made its way into New York City and hid in Central Park. It took quite some time for authorities to eventually capture it.
The fact that coyotes seem to have no qualms about being entering areas inhabited by humans, combined with the fact that they can be predators, makes them somewhat dangerous creatures. Coyote attacks on humans are still fairly rare but they are still unpredictable and wild animals. A coyote doesn’t seem to be any more threatening than a dog but then again, you never know when a domesticated dog might snap.
For those wondering why coyotes might be coming so close to campus, the answer is quite simple. The main staple in the diet of a local coyote is the cottontail rabbit and the areas surrounding Skyline College have an incredible abundance of these rabbits. Coyotes are also notorious for having a taste for domesticated dogs and cats.
There have been only two known human deaths in North America as a result of coyote attacks. However, people can still be easily injured by coyotes, or contract rabies from them, so extreme care should be taken when this animal is spotted. Be sure to protect small children as they are much more vulnerable and can tempt a hungry coyote. Never feed a coyote no matter how hungry it looks as this will only ensure that the animal sticks around.
