BALTIMORE COUNTY — Walking down the street in a quiet neighborhood, you turn the corner and all of the sudden you're faced with an animal you may have never seen in person. Leaving you with a feeling of fear.
It's what Amy Kline said her daughter expressed in an alarming text a few months back, when her daughter was walking home from babysitting in a neighborhood in Towson.
"She said mom there's a really strange animal. I’m running to the alley and so my husband jumped in the car and he drove off and met her in the alley and she came home she told us it's this big animal bigger than our dog, grey, I think it was a coyote,” said Kline who lives in Anneslie.
Sightings like this have become common over the last several weeks. When faced with this situation, do you take off like a roadrunner?
"No, I definitely would say they shouldn't be scared to encounter wildlife,” said Joshua Tabora who is a DNR Furbearer Biologist in the state of Maryland.
What should you do if you encounter one?
Tabora explains what to do if you encounter a coyote:
"I would definitely try to keep a safe distance and I wouldn't approach it. But in general, coyotes are shy and skittish animals" said Tabora.
Tabora said it's best to walk away. It's what Caitlin Sprouse did when she and her three-year-old faced a coyote on the Marshy Point Trail a couple weeks back.
"I looked up and was like oh that is not a fox, more like grey looking much larger,” said Sprouse. "He or she definitely stopped and looked right at me and I just grabbed my son's hand and we turned and walked the other way.”
Looking back she saw the coyote wasn't following them. Safe from the encounter.
Tabora said a common misconception is that nocturnal animals only come out at night. But they can also appear during the day.
Coyotes have been in Maryland since the 1970's. Development over the years has changed the way animals act with the landscape.
"I think things like ring doorbell camera, WIFI enables security cameras that are running all throughout the day and night are capturing evidence of animals that have more or less been there the whole time,” said Tabora.
Their prey is similar to prey that fox go after. Having things around the house like bird feed or trash will attract rodents that in return will attract coyotes.
While it may look like a coyote, it doesn't mean it is one.
"Red foxes will have like black legs and feet they will often have a tail that's tipped with either white or black kind of like a paint brush, coyotes are more of a uniform color throughout," said Tabora.
The more common to see them is mid-December into late February.
"I think taking the opportunity to just recognize, like seeing a wild animal for what it is it's a special opportunity," said Tabora.
Rabies is rare, but if you see an animal acting unnatural report it to the local animal control.
