Cross Breeds

How can I find out if wild coyotes are in the area? Cats' missing?

I lost 4 cats these last 3 months and obviously I'm now keeping the rest indoors..especially at night. I suspect coyotes but am unsure because i haven't seen any and I've been staying up late and getting up early keeping my eye out. I also haven't heard any howling. I don't believe it's a fisher. All the rest of wildlife has seemed to disappear..like raccoons and skunks. What can I do to at least see them? Any possibilities I can follow them to collect my cats bodies? What are their habits..when are they active? I don't plan to hunt them..as much as I am extremely emotionally upset my babies are gone. I know they were just doing what comes natural..I just want to know their habits and what time of year and day to watch out for them. I don't want to loose another of my babies. I live in central New Hampshire by the way. Not implying theyre eating the skunks and raccoons..just that those animals know something dangerous is in the area and hi-tailed (no pun) out of the area.

Public Comments

1. More likely a dog than coyotes. Coyotes can just yip and squeak and you wouldn't think its a coyote but it is. The disappearance of the coons and skunks might lead me to believe its feral dogs more than coyotes. Coyotes are very sneaky and you won't be able to follow them. We kill them by calling to them like wounded animals and then shoot them when they are in range. I have shot all of mine when they have mixed with the cattle.
2. You'll be lucky to ever see a coyote. But if you sit out at night you will hear them they are very loud when try to gather the group! so to speak. You will hear them howling like wolves and yelping. They are very smart animals and live in holes in the ground. Most of the time you will never see the borrows.
3. There may be other reasons....like animals control or catchers.....or people who catch animals for science. Never saw a dog or yote attack a stinking rotten skunk that smells and taste bad. Remember skunks smell real bad to humans and dogs and yotes have 500 times more sensitivity........eeeeeuuuuuuuuwwwwwww! If you have dogs and yotes you will see tracks and scat around. Also cats are pretty good fighters with claws and teeth. They also are fast and can climb trees to escape. Cat run away all the time or get picked up.
4. Coyotes can definitely take a toll on your cats. Within about 3 months they virtually wiped out all my friends cats at her home in a very rural area here in central NC. She went from 10 cats down to 1 in a very short time.
5. You don't say if you live in the suburbs, or in a rural area, but 4 cats in three months is pretty lucky for a couple of feral dogs. However anything is possible when they pack up and run a neighborhood at night. I have two other culprits in mind though, when it comes to cats there are no limit to cat haters or conservationists who want roaming cats gone due to the damage they have done to ground nesting birds. They could easily have been the victim of "live" trapping, as these traps would also handle coons, skunks, and opossums. These people usually euthanize the animal they catch. Some of these people do it for the furs, so they consider cats a nuisance. The second culprit, which lives in your state is a Bob Cat. If you have a 30 to 40 pound male living in the area you will most likely never see it. They do love to eat domestic pets, and will even eat young Bob Cats. They are also the primary predator of skunks. Unfortunately they are aggressive killers who kill more than they can eat. They are ambush hunters so you normally will not see them foraging for food. They are most often seen early at night and before dawn, when they are traveling to and from their ambush sites. The males are territorial and their area can consist of several square miles. There are estimated to be a million of them in the US, but the majority of humans will never see one in the wild in their life time. I have been among the lucky few. They are as beautiful as a Tiger. As for Coyotes they do forage for food. You might think about investing in a infra red game camera, which depending on quality can be purchased for under $100.00. They are movement activated and have a memory chip you put in your computer to view. If you strategically locate that camera I guarantee you will be shocked at what is running around you place at night. Good Luck.
6. There definitely coyotes in Thornton, NH. I have seen two or three different ones here in the last couple of years. We do our best to make sure that our cat is in before it gets dark.
7. Following them to find the bodies of your cats would not be a good idea. If it was coyotes your cats would be long gone by now. The best thing I could think of is get someone you know to come and do some coyote hunting. If the hunter can kill even just one it would be helpful. This might seem a bit cruel but a good way to get rid of coyotes is to hang a dead one. Sometimes this tactic works sometimes it doesn't, but the best thing to do is to hang a dead one from a tree. This is a waste of the animal but its better than wasting your cats. The reason this works sometimes is because coyotes are smart enough to realize that one of their buddies is hanging from a tree and that they should leave.
8. I can't really say I know of a silent coyote. If they are around you will hear them. Two can make some of the most high pitched yelping commotion you ever did hear. No chance of following them to collect the dead cats. If they killed them they killed them to eat them. Coyotes are active all year but here I have a bigger problem in the winter. They eat all year long. Packs of dogs may be the problem. My neighbors and I have had that trouble around my home with all our animals. Horses, donkeys, cattle, domestic deer, chickens, ducks, our dogs, cats and the wild animals.
9. If there are coyotes within a mile or two, you will be able to hear them howling between an hour or so after sunset to 1 or 2 am. Is there someone that is poisoning the animals? Or trapping them? I am not sure anything would kill many skunks, and I don't think anything smaller than a cougar could kill a coon.