Night time riding with an Ebike

[Trail Cruiser]

Wild animal attack is very rare but if you encounter such situation how do you defend yourself?

Protect yourself from dogs.

 

[Over50]

Coyotes DO NOT chase or attack or do anything against HUMANS. They run away from us...No Need For Fear!

We had a lot of coyotes around the house growing up. Never had a problem and true to your statement they always fled if close and if far they might just stand and watch. I did lose a cat (we only found her tail) to what I suspect were coyotes. I was often out alone in rural areas. My thing growing up was catching and collecting snakes so I would often be out in the wilds at dusk, daybreak and during the night. I encountered coyotes all the time and never had an issue. But our border region did have problems with rabies. We used to get lots of talks and training in school. And as an aside, my wife has had rabies treatment after being bitten by a stray dog in Mexico (but that is a story for another day). Katman - how about riding with a can of bear spray? One of those that fires to like 30 feet?

 

[Katman4532]

That's pretty extreme and unrealistic; @Katman. Whatever you want to call "prodromal" is not a realistic statement. How do you know that the coyote you encountered was rabid. That is serious and in our area of Central Texas it's no joke! Your suggestion of guns does nothing but create fear and we Texans don't buy into fear. You don't encounter coyotes all that often. I KNOW, I live where there are a lot of coyotes and You are creating an incorrect image of how they act.

Coyotes DO NOT chase or attack or do anything against HUMANS. They run away from us.

BTW I've lived in a very rural eastern area of Travis County in Central Texas with a lot coyotes in the space with us for about 30 years. Both Travis and Bastrop counties have continued to do their rabies prevention via air drops for a long time. No Need For Fear!

Actually, I do have a fair knowledge of
The Lyssavirus (causative agent of Rabies). I'm a licensed Medical Technologist with 39 years experience
(20 years in Microbiology). The behavior of this coyote was confirmed by Animal control as strongly suggestive of early stage (prodromal)
Rabies. The animal was shot by APD in
the next door neighbors front yard. The head was sent off to the State lab for
confirmation and if memory serves
me right, it was confirmed as being rabid. Since then we've had 3 confirmed
Rabies cases inside city limits in the past year in skunks. Look, I know coyotes don't normally come anywhere
near humans, but behavior changes when they're rabid. Baiting with vaccine impregnated bait is a great way
to control rabies, but it's not 100%. No
vaccination program is. Coyotes in our
area are not as fearful of humans as they once were. My wife and I have seen them on more than one occasion in our neighborhood. Look, if you think I'm being an "alarmist", then feel
free to cancel my account. I'm done.

 

[Ann M.]

@Katman4532, please don't jump overboard on this discussion. I totally agree that foxes, skunks and potentially coyotes can carry rabies. HOWEVER, There are county wide vaccination programs that have been in place for years in Central Texas. In the rural area where I live that means the health officials are dropping rabies vaccine throughout the area. Please do not spread fear with a few limited observations.

Yes, I have also seen different animal patterns; including deer where there hadn't been any until 5 years ago; adult coyote traveling in broad daylight, and this summer, a new one; the coyote youngsters dashing to and from nearby water holes in daylight. Also, before we moved from S. Lamar, the neighborhood around Barton Springs & Lamar had several reports with pics to back it up of Coyotes roaming in this city area, sometimes in the day. Definitely protect your pet cats. It is the responsibility of everyone in the neighborhood to remove any potential food source for coyotes; and I know that is a real challenge.

 

[Ann M.]

@Rincon, sorry to hear that the coyotes are more aggressive where you live. It's really not their nature to attack people; however, if there have been periods of drought or excessive building in areas that were previously wild that would contribute to different animal behavior.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I think you need to keep in mind how rare animal attacks actually are. In the United States approximately 0.008 percent of all deaths are caused by animal attacks.

More info (and the cool infographic below) at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-kill-you-this-summer/?utm_term=.fd215e71c03c

... oh, and as an added bonus, mosquitoes are responsible for over 3 million human deaths per year worldwide. So if you want to maximize your safety from wild animals bring bug spray.