Coyotes are on the prowl in downtown Orlando-area neighborhoods

Residents near downtown Orlando have noticed new neighbors prowling their streets, checking out their yards, and in some cases, leaving bloody evidence of a recent meal.

Coyotes, the pointed-eared canine relative of the wolf, have been sighted with regularity in Lake Eola Heights, Colonialtown and other neighborhoods on a near-nightly basis.

They trot down brick streets, hide out in city parks and sometimes eye people walking small dogs.

Some are fearful of the coyotes and worry they’ll snatch beloved pets, but living with wildlife seems to be the new normal.

“We’re getting some urban critters, and it sounds like it’s something we’re just going to have to get used to,” said Patty Sheehan, the area’s city commissioner.

Earlier this month, a black bear spent several days evading traps and sleeping in trees at Lake Eola Park, the city’s signature park. So far, coyotes haven’t been spotted in the park, despite frequent sightings in adjacent neighborhoods.

But unlike the bear, which Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission eventually lured into a trap, the agency doesn’t trap and relocate coyotes, officials said.

“Coyotes are known to adapt to urbanized areas and often establish populations in highly urban settings,” said Lisa Thompson, an agency spokesperson. “Removing a single or even multiple coyotes from a given area often does not eradicate the local population in the long term, as other coyotes will often move into these areas. For [bears and coyotes], taking proactive steps by securing food attractants will help minimize conflicts.”

Coyotes have expanded their territory from the deserts out west into nearly every U.S. state over a period of decades, reaching Florida in the 1970s and ’80s. They’ve also been spotted in every county in Florida, according to FWC, and have been known to thrive in both urban and rural areas.

Stan Gehrt, an Ohio State University researcher, has tracked coyotes in Chicago for more than 20 years, documenting their movement from the suburbs into the city, one of the densest in the country.

“Coyotes have been able to make their way into most, if not all, of the major metropolitan areas across the U.S.,” he said, noting a steady food source of small mammals, rodents, birds, roadkill and food scraps.

He said coyotes in Florida are usually between 25 and 30 pounds — smaller than those he tracks in the Midwest — and typically live in family groups that include an alpha pair, and then three or four others that are typically offspring of the pair. Each group typically marks a territory of three or four square miles, and in the summer months usually get more active, so sightings are more common, he said.

“This time of year, especially going into the later summer, you’re going to start seeing pups being a little more obvious,” he said.

Tracey Jacobs, a Lake Eola Heights resident of about 10 years, said she’s seen the wily canines for about the past two years. In January, a neighbor said a community cat was taken by a coyote, and in April, Jacobs’ security camera captured a young cat getting snatched by a coyote from her front yard, with the remnants left on her property.

The following night, the coyote returned about the same time, but she hasn’t seen it since.

“We’re always worried about our dogs and our cats, and we just see the sightings in Eola Heights more than we’ve ever seen before,” she said. “I feel bad for the coyotes because there’s no place for them to go.”

Jacobs had yellow signs printed for her and some of her neighbors warning neighbors of the present coyotes, as well as included warnings on Facebook and in newsletters.

Matt Uva has been seeing coyotes — as many as three at a time — within the past year near his home in The Milk District, sometimes prowling for food and other times stalking people walking dogs from half a block away.

On his nightly walks before bed, he’s taken to “hazing,” or shooing them away, with a dried bamboo stick from his yard. He said the coyotes run away, but sometimes he’s close enough that he could whack them with the stick.

Uva said he’d be interested in an effort to thin the coyote population in the area.

“Personally I would love to see some kind of action; I don’t know what that action is,” he said.

State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, said her office has been getting more coyote complaints from a growing list of neighborhoods in Orlando. She’s heard from people living in Baldwin Park, Lake Eola Heights, Audubon Park and the Milk District.

An interactive map updated monthly by FWC shows a concentration of sightings ranging from Corrine Drive, south to State Road 408, between the executive airport and Interstate 4. The map only shows sightings reported to the agency, which doesn’t actively seek coyote reports, and dots often include a note of a “killed animal.”

Stewart spoke with FWC this week with hopes of addressing neighborhood concerns. She wants the agency to host an educational meeting. She’s also calling for a task force to be created in Orlando, similar to one in Chicago, focused on urban coyotes.

While FWC does not trap and remove coyotes, neighborhoods could hire a trapper at their expense, Stewart said. Trapped animals also must be released within the same county they are captured.

“I want them to tell people that they do have alternatives,” she said. “They could hire a contractor to remove the coyotes with the acceptable devices.”

The Humane Society of the United States also advises against trapping and removing coyotes, saying the traps can hurt them and inadvertently harm or kill other wildlife. Relocated coyotes are at greater risk of being hit by cars or injured or killed in territorial disputes with existing coyotes, according to the Humane Society.

Sheehan said the area had a virtual meeting with FWC and State Rep. Anna Eskamani two years ago about coyotes, and said she was wary about trapping them causing further problems.

“They say that if you take the coyotes out, it’s kind of like feral cats and new coyotes will move in and you won’t know what new coyotes will be like,” she said. “It seems like a better thing to learn to live with them.”

Gehrt said coyotes often are in subdivisions in neighborhoods without people knowing, as they usually stick to the shadows, bushes and secluded areas. But yelling at them, taking a few steps in their direction or tossing something in their vicinity should be enough to get them to keep moving. They’ve been known to take small dogs and cats, and sometimes get aggressive with larger dogs who come close to their dens.

He said securing garbage cans, keeping pets inside or on a short leash and not leaving food out — particularly at night — are key to limiting options for coyotes and eventually them moving on to more fruitful areas.

“The neighborhood itself could be doing the right things, but it only takes one or two residents not doing the right thing and that could be bringing them in,” he said.