That is a very familiar sound I hear at night at least once a week here. Yes, coyotes bark as well as howl and yip. I've seen them in the mornings and also in the late afternoons while it's still broad daylight, but mostly we hear them late at night. About a month ago I was awakened by a solitary coyote, very close to my bedroom window, who barked, yipped, and howled for 15 minutes straight! Thats unusual, they normally raise a racket for about 30 seconds. Just a few coyotes can sound like 50!
When we were building our home, my DH would bring me over every day to see what progress had beed made that day. One afternoon, as I was being loaded into the van, I noticed 3 or 4 jackrabbits frantically zigzag jumping ( boy, are they fast!) from our lot to the lot next door. They had been rousted out of the field of tall weeds by 4 coyotes who were trying to corral them up. I'd never realized that they can work in packs like that until I saw it first hand. It was a very coordinated effort, but jackrabbits are very, very fast, unlike cottontails.
They will also take dogs. My brother lives in San Clemente, CA. Years ago, they had one small dog grabbed by a coyote in their front yard, in the daytime, as my sister-in-law was unloading groceries from her car. The dog yelped, she screamed, and the coyote dropped the dog as it ran across the street. Lucky dog.
Last month, as my brother was walking his dog along a somewhat busy street, people kept honking at him. Finally, a car stopped along side of him, rolled down the window and told my brother there was a coyote about 10 feet behind him. Sure enough, there was. It was after the dog. He scooped up the dog, quickly! Dogs have been snatched right off leashes there.
Another brother lives in Las Vegas. He posted a video on FB of a coyote in someone's block wall fenced yard, walking around a swimming pool with a beautiful cat in it's mouth. Then it jumped up on top of that 6 ft. wall, looked around and over he went! Shocking and sad, right in the middle of the city, not on the outskirts.
Neighbors have lost cats here. We don't let our cats go outside until after about 9 a.m. because I've seen coyotes in the mornings. The cats don't feel safe, so stick close to the door. We leave the slider open about 8 inches so they can get in quickly if needed. They are in for the day by 11 a.m. Sparky lets me know if there is a coyote, dog or human around . . . she runs through the house growling!
Of course, my mountain living daughter has lots of coyote stories, and more. My San Clemente brother recently had a mountain lion sighting in his yard too, caught on security camera footage. A man on a nighttime walk alerted him on a community FB page of the sighting, so he checked the security camera footage. Sure enough, even saw the man on tape, who had moved across the street when he saw that cat! Scary! Keep your pets in at night, even in the city!
Here's a coyote bark. Sounds like a small dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FcN5kBXAiw
Good video about coyotes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euG7R11aXq0
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