Question for rural/suburban moms regarding dangerous wildlife

[BarnMomma]

Hi

So I grew up in the sticks, DH in the city. The woods and its critters never bothered me but 30yrs ago in the northeast there WAS nothing to be afraid of. Now we have bears, coyotes, mountain lions(or reports of them) etc.

We just recently moved from the burbs to the country.(16 acres surrounded by woods on 3 sides) and DH is super worried about animals coyotes especially. See, at our old house we had coyotes terrorizing the neighborhood eating cats and attacking kids (maybe you saw the news reports) but that one was trapped and killed and was apparently rabid. "Real" coyotes as I will call them have never been agressive in my experience and were always something that you made noise at to scare off and went about your dayshould you encounter one.

DH is a nervous wreck about letting DS go outside even with us by his side unless he or I is armed with a gun. Well, DH works and I'm a sahm and I have a baby to carry so guess who won't be doing that anytime soon. We sure as heck didn't move here to cower inside.

So what do you rural mommies think? Do your kids play outside? Alone if older? Supervised if younger?

Should we be afraid of coyotes? Any other animal??

[lach]

I had some really weird mental health issues with my second pregnancy, and for some reason a fear of coyotes was paramount in my mind. I was basically refusing to go into the back yard for a few months in case we ran into a coyote!

I did do a bunch of research, and IMO there actually isn't all that much to be worried about. I wouldn't leave a tiny baby out in a field if there are coyotes around, but they aren't all that big and really prefer to go for smaller animals. They apparently also scare easily, and the way to face one is to scream and throw something at it.

[goldingoddess]

When I lived in the desert I saw coyotes at least once a week. They were always cowardly and never wanted anything to do with me. That said, I didn't have a child then, so it never even crosse my mind. And I've always had dogs, dogs bigger than coyotes. Do you have dogs?

I really think having a gun with you at all times is much, much more dangerous (in terms of an accidental shooting) than a coyote would be. How old is your son? Do you have a fence? Can you get one?

[BabyMae09]

Your chances of getting attacked by an animal while in your own backyard are a LOT less than one of your kids being injured by the gun you have, or getting in a car crash on your way to the grocery store.

Tell your DH you're not going to be cowering indoors, or carrying a gun (frankly, I'm shocked he wants you to do that while you have little kids with you) and then take the kids out and PLAY! Don't let him dictate what you do with the kids. Do what you need to do.

[Drummer's Wife]

We have coyotes here, too, and they don't really scare me. Carrying a gun isn't on my radar - we don't even own one. Coyotes, IME, usually come out at night when it's dark - which is not when the kids are playing outside. The few times we've seen coyotes in daylight, they are easily scared off as soon as they see us. We don't live near as rural as you, but I don't think I'd be overly concerned. Do you have a fence so the kids could at least play in the backyard w/o worry?

[Chicky2]

We have coyotes, foxes, bobcats, cougars, and who knows what else out there behind our house. We've had coyotes come up right under my dd's bedroom window when it snowed and it was hoping for a nice juicy chicken I guess. We always have the kids take our 2 labs with them when they explore. The 2 middle ones (11 and 9) can explore w/in yelling distance, lol. When they take the almost 4 yo w/them, they have to be w/in sight of the house. As long as they have the dogs I really don't worry too much. Those coyotes and big cats would much rather get one of my many guineas or chickens. I've taken off after a coyote w/a pickaxe once, and it was terrified of me actually coming after it.

[Adaline'sMama]

We have coyotes here as well. I have seen them, but honestly, they are terrified of us. If you so much as walk towards them, they run. I cant imagine them wanting to get close enough to hurt us.

[Breathless Wonder]

My biggest concern would be the bears, simply because they are losing their fear of humans in the north east, particularly in northern NJ. It's just been too much development, and unfortunately, they have less and less uninterrupted space to retreat to. They either learn to live alongside human beings, or die.

As for the rest: coyotes have been spotted in major cities, such as Chicago. Mountain lions and bob cats in general tend to be very shy of humans, IME. I grew up in a suburb of NYC, and they were around, even when I was kid. We hiked in the woods, we played outside by ourselves, I slept under the stars at overnight camp. Over the years, I've only seen 2 mountain lions (1 dead on the side of the road, one in a field in the middle of a very rural area, hunting deer), and 1 bob cat.

[mommariffic]

I second bears. We used to live on 30 acres in North Jersey and we had bears in our backyard that came OVER the fence and ate apples from our trees. DH has gone into the yard and had a bear run near him...not to mention the other assorted animals.

But that didn't stop me from exploring with my DD almost every single day. We brought the dogs, and I never felt scared. My thoughts are that yes, the animals unless sick or very brazen are 100% more scared of you.

Before you get a gun, get a dog. Seriously, my dogs would scare the crap out of ANY animal [big German Shepherd and a Collie/Bernese mix] I felt safe with them..I would NOT fell safe with a gun. That's way too extreme I think, there's danger lurking in every corner and before you get an armed weapon [I'm not even against them, but you don't need one just to explore nature!] I would read about what to do when encountering animals.

[meemee]

i am writing from my friends experience. they have coyotes adn foxes. they have kids, dogs and cats who all go outside. however they are pretty savvy too.

the only thing as pp said is to be concerned about bear. a bear has attacked the compost bin and crossed the property but never entered their house. however they are on the other side. on the opposite side the bears happily tear down screen doors to enter houses and raid the refrigerator for ...... yup - icecream. they make a beeline for icecream.

my friend lives up a mountainous area. and no human has been attacked. some cats have been taken away by birds. if anything my friend feels humans and pets are left alone coz there is enough sheep around.

i have house sat in another part at another rural property where my 3 year old played alone outside while i cleaned up or did anything. the only thing we had to do was specially cover the garbage and recycling because of bears. there was plenty of all kinds of wildlife but none that i ever saw near the property in the two months i was there except for deer. on the way i saw a fleeing coyote... but nothing else.

if you are concerned go talk to your neighbours. talk to the local grocery store. talk to the police and or post office. they are the best people to give you the heads up to calm your dh down.

both my friends said their 'gun' was their dog.

to me it sounds like he has heard too many horror stories or read too many books/seen movies.

'the dingo AITE my baibee" is not true quite that true.

[mamadelbosque]

Coyotes are so not even on my list of things to be scared of. Bears *maybe*... but thats only if you have a *LOT* in your area (unlikely), or you have a habit of leaving lots of random bits of food lying around to attract them... (hopefully not!!).

[JayGee]

We have coyotes too. One beat up my elderly cat pretty badly one evening and she's only 6 1/2 pounds of 16 year old ornriness . If he couldn't kill her, I wouldn't be worried! We have also had a raccoon in our house (on the counter, eating bread !) My children play outside, in the woods, and the yard.

[lifeguard]

I'd get your dh a couple books on the subject from the library. There really is no need to be that worried. Yes, you should remain aware of your surroundings but that is true in the city as well (for different reasons).

Personally I do not worry about wildlife with ds. At this age he's still always within sight & as he gets older I know we'll find a balance.

We also have dogs so if nothing else they do alert us to "intruders".

[limabean]

We live on the edge of a canyon and regularly see coyotes and rattlesnakes. We do check the yard for snakes before letting the kids out to play, and we teach them not to go into bushes where they can't see the ground, but we don't really worry about coyotes at all.

I mean, if we had a housecat that we let outside I would worry that it might get eaten, but it's not even on our radar to worry about a coyote getting our kids, even though we see one maybe every few months very near our house. So far all they've ever done is nonchalantly walk away from us when we've encountered them.

[Tjej]

If you don't have a dog, you could get one. That might help with your and your DH's fears. I know having our dogs makes me feel a lot better about the wildlife.

Tjej

[joycenjackiesmom]

We have coyotes, foxes, bears, mountain lions, raccoons, bobcats, deer and elk in our area. My 12 year is allowed to wander the neighborhood (with friends) during daylight hours. My 7 year old is able to be out in the yard and has a couple of close neighbors that I let her walk to (because I can see her the whole way.) Honestly people driving too fast and loose dogs are more of a concern to me than the wildlife. I do not allow the girls outside alone at all after dark when the "scariest" wildlife is most active. I do at times change what I allow the girls to do based on sightings---last year there was a rash of mountain lion sightings when a family of three settled in town for a month but even then outside in a group was ok during the day I adjusted the time to come home earlier to be sure she was home well before dusk. Male elk during rutting season are probably more dangerous than the others because they are active during the day--and people don't consider them as dangerous as they can be.

Get out and enjoy your rural living!

[mckittre]

We have bears and coyotes. The coyotes you rarely see and are mostly in the winter, the bears are nearby relatively frequently in the summer (mostly eating berries, but they'll go for trash and such if you leave any out). I'm outside with my toddler all the time, as are most folks around here with kids - never any stories of any trouble. I might not leave a baby sitting in the yard by himself for an extended period of time, but that's a bad idea for other reasons. I let him get briefly out of sight (at 20 months old) but try to keep fairly close track of him - more for what he'll get into (the well, the road) than for the animals. A dog is nice. Ours is a scaredy cat but still barks when the bears are around, so you know they're there.
If your husband insists on a gun, how about a cannister of the pepper spray for bears? - smaller and less dangerous

[peainthepod]

We have coyotes, black bear, moose (very dangerous when rutting and in spring!) that roam our property, and in the general area (like within 20 miles of our house), mountain lions, grizzlies, and wolves.

I wouldn't let my toddler play unsupervised in the yard because coyotes have been known to attack small children, but I wouldn't let my toddler play unsupervised in the yard anyway because he's too young not to wander off into the road. We do own firearms but I wouldn't carry one on my hip just to play outside! The only time we would open carry as a precaution against wildlife attacks would be if we were hiking in the backcountry in known lion or grizzly or wolf territory, which isn't something I'd be comfortable doing with very small children anyway.

I think your DH would benefit from some good old fashioned backyard camping and a lot more time outside. Has he ever spent much time outside the suburbs and city? I grew up in cities and lived in cities for most of my adult life, and moving to the country was pretty unnerving to me at first. It took some time for me to get comfortable being outside in the woods, in the dark--especially with my little one in tow! Camping, even just in the backyard, really helps people get used to those fun country nature sounds that tend to scare city people to death.

(Ever hear a rabbit scream? It sounds like a child or young woman being tortured! Deer sometimes make this grunting snuffling sound that resembles an angry bear about to charge. A pack of coyotes laughing and singing to each other can be spine-chilling if you've never heard it before. Etc.)

Camp out for a night or two on your acreage, and have fun with it! Build a fire pit, make s'mores, pitch a tent, sing songs, bundle up in flannel and sleeping bags and learn clean camping as a family. That's a valuable, cheap skill to practice together and it's an absolute blast.

Something else you might do is get some wildlife safety literature from your local forestry service/rangers office. Most counties have pamphlets about how to safeguard your family and property from the local wildlife while preserving the ecosystem and natural habitats. Your DH might be reassured to learn how rare animal attacks are, and how most of the time they're entirely preventable with just a few basic commonsense precautions.

[crowcaw]

We have coyotes and mountain lions. I see lots and lots of coyotes but they don't worry me; maybe if dds were alone outside in the canyon at night I'd have a problem, but that's not going to happen. Mountain lions are only reported and I've never seen one. The relative probability of a mountain lion encounter vs an accidental firearm discharge would make me leave the gun at home. We don't have bears. The wildlife I am most leary of is rattlesnakes. I also see them all the time and in the prime rattlesnake season I usually go out and rattle our bushes before letting dds in the yard and also have found things to do other than go hiking.

[LynnS6]

Let me get this straight... your dh wants you to carry a loaded rifle around two small children so that you can then drop your infant, raise the rifle, sight it and shoot at a moving coyote? I think the chances of your accidentally shooting a moving child would be way higher. Why did he want to move to the country again?

I second everyone else's suggestions:
-Get your husband to research coyotes. He'll find they're not that dangerous.
-Don't leave your baby in a field and wander off
-Get a dog -- preferably a nice big cheerful one like a lab mix or a sheep dog (just make sure they get lots of exercise)

To that I'd add:
-Take gun safety classes if you haven't. If you have, send him back for a refresher.
-Buy a whistle or carry a cell phone.