Eastern Coyotes are quite a bit larger than their western cousin. They have taken the place in the food chain left vacant by wolves. They can weigh upwards of 75 lbs. They also hunt in packs, just like wolves. They have become more aggressive here in NH in the last 10 years. They do not seem to be afraid of humans like they were 20 years ago.
They routinely kill cats and small dogs around here. They have begun to attack small children. Attacking a full grown man on a riding lawn tractor is most likely a rabid animal.
Not quite true, they tend to hunt in pairs, not packs and tend to weigh in the 30-50 lb range.
They are certainly bigger than their western relatives, but they are also very shy, and far more common that most people realize.
As I said before I wouldn’t leave a small animal outside, or leave small children alone in an area where Coyotes are known to be, but there is a lot about this attack that raises questions about whether these were actually coyotes or something else.
I never see them in packs around here. The only time I’ve ever seen more than one at a time is when the pups are small.
We live in rural NH.
When my kids take the dog out after dark, the older ones are bearing sidearms, and the younger ones are provided armed escorts, Ma, Pa, or one of the older kids.
Coyotes seem to have lost their fear of man. In small numbers, they do a lot of good killing woodchucks and other varmints. But in larger numbers, small animals become scarcer and the coyotes pack up and start looking for new, larger game.
Their numbers have increased a lot lately. Time do thin the packs out a bit.
The easterns descended from the Algonquin Wolf.
We have a lot of them in my neighborhood. The ones by me live in Griffith Park [just blocks away] which is the nation’s largest city park. They walk along the LA River, just 2 blocks from my house, and just come into the neighborhood.
About dusk, they roam all over the streets and yards and prey on both cats and dogs. A couple of months ago one killed a large yellow cat on my front lawn. It looked horrible with the field of debris several feet across. My neighbor found the front part of a cat on his lawn.
But there are stories of coyotes attacking people who are actively walking dogs.