Bear

This article about coyote behavior is not recommended for most readers of this newsletter.

Bear

I recommend that most people don’t read this article. I am writing about this case because it was an unusual situation, something I had not encountered in the past 18 years. I think it would be important for people to know if they do the work I do, but if your pet is missing right now, this isn’t really very likely to help you.

Bear was a sweet, friendly Bichon, about 5 years old, I think. He was 11 pounds. He had a family that loved him and he was well taken care of. A door was not properly closed, he wandered out, and within moments he just happened to encounter a coyote. Certainly I have failed to latch a door a few times and my dogs have gotten out. I have been able to round them up quickly and get them safe. It was just unfortunate timing that the moment Bear wandered out the door, curiously exploring, possibly looking for his family, a coyote passed right by the front of their house. This wasn’t in the wilderness or a rural setting. This was in a standard suburban housing development with a green belt between homes, just like you find all over Western Washington.

Their surveillance cameras caught Bear coming out to the driveway at 6:51 PM, while it was still full daylight, on a nice, sunny spring day. In the video, Bear is just sniffing around, and then he hears something. He runs around the RV while the camera sees a coyote coming from the West. The coyote sees Bear, and then turns and runs away from him. The coyote doesn’t sprint away, but runs at a medium speed, kind of galloping away. We see Bear running after the coyote, not barking, but with a playful gallop as if he is curious and like he might want to play with this animal that looks like a dog. How would a little dog who has never seen a coyote know that this is not a typical dog? They run behind a van, and then there is no more video of Bear.

The owners of Bear contacted me. I told them that I couldn’t use a search dog right away because it was too warm, and because I had other searches lined up for the coming days. Because I happened to be just a few blocks away at the time, and because the owners were away on a trip, I told them I could just go look at the situation near their house, to see if I might see any evidence or signs, based on my experience. They said they would like me to go look. Because they had video of Bear chasing a coyote, they did not have high hopes that he was still alive.

When I got there, I saw white fluff everywhere, from the cottonwood trees. It almost looked like it had snowed. I thought it would be very difficult to see any evidence with so much white fluff everywhere. I noticed where there were footprints, probably human, in the grass, leading to a trail into the woods. I followed that path, looking at the ground carefully. I noticed one bit of white that was maybe a little different than the other white fluff everywhere. I went to pick it up, to examine it, and I was startled when it was attached to a foot. I brushed away a little of the leaf litter, and saw that it was a foot.

The body of Bear had been covered so perfectly that I thought it must have been done by a human, which really didn’t make any sense. I asked AI, which I don’t always trust. The sources of information are a bit thin, but I don’t see any obvious reason to doubt them. AI said that coyotes have been known to bury remains in a shallow depression by covering a body with leafy debris, so they can come back later. They don’t want other predators to find the body before they come back. I absolutely did not know this was a known behavior of coyotes. I assumed, based on all the evidence I have found with my search dogs over the past 18 years, that a coyote would immediately consume some or all of a small animal right away, and that they would carry away whatever they did not immediately consume.

In 18 years of searches, I have seen the aftermath of a coyote attack probably more than 300 times. I have been able to find this evidence because my dogs pointed it out to me. It was usually something small and hard to notice with the eye, requiring a dog’s nose to locate. If there had ever been a body of a small dog or cat concealed in this way, I am 100% certain my dogs would have discovered it. Perhaps it is the timing of when we do these searches. Maybe this behavior is more common than I was aware, but we don’t detect the evidence or find the body because the coyote has already returned to claim his meal before we start the search. I am including pictures because I want people to know what this looks like. The pictures below are not graphic. It looks like Bear is sleeping. I absolutely would have overlooked this concealed body if I wasn’t looking very carefully for traces of evidence. Several people had already walked right by this location, nearly stepping on the body, and they did not see it.

One other note. Based on evidence in the form of witness statements, we know that coyote attacks are sudden and that in most cases a cat or small dog will be killed instantly, and they normally don’t suffer a slow and painful death. Coyotes aren’t being merciful. They are being stealthy. They don’t want their prey to make any sound that might alert other predators or other coyotes who might take their prey. In hundreds of witness statements, what is notable about coyote attacks is what they didn’t hear. In case after case, the owner of the cat or small dog says their pet was there one moment, they looked away, and when they looked back 30 seconds or a minute later, their pet had simply vanished, as if beamed away by aliens. This is the coyote way, sudden and silent. That the body of Bear looked completely normal, with no sign of injury, is further proof of this attack method. The coyote broke his neck suddenly, and covered the body quickly, and then sneaked away from the area before anyone could notice him.

I am not making any claims about how frequently this happens, although I think it must be rare. Also, I can’t guarantee that the coyote was the one who covered Bear’s body. Given that we saw the coyote on camera, and the burial site was maybe fifteen feet from where Bear and the coyote were last seen on camera, it is the most logical explanation. I was really very surprised at this behavior because it seems like I would have encountered this situation before in 18 years of searching for thousands of lost pets. I wanted to document this case so that the information might help someone else who is looking for a lost cat or small dog.

In this first image, most people would not even know there was a dog there. This was after I brushed away a bit of the leafy debris. When I first looked, only about half an inch of white fur was visible.

Note: the post by the body kind of looks like a grave marker. There were other posts or sticks in the vacant lot, sticking up like this one, which had been placed there at some time in the past for some other purpose. It is just coincidental that the coyote covered the body right by this post in a manner suggesting it is a grave marker, which it is not.