[mikestew]

I take care of an outdoor cat in the neighborhood, and yes it's possible that a coyote will eat a cat or small dog.

I live near a trail which also serves as a wildlife corridor, including coyotes that we regularly see on our dog walks. Years ago, we had a feral cat that we would feed and care for (including neutering). He remained outside because he refused to even be brought inside, let alone live with us. This guy was huge, and looked like he had won his share of fights with the scars to prove it. If a cat would survive in the wild, it would be this guy. But even he wasn’t tough enough to hold off (what I assume were) coyotes forever, and one day he just quit coming around.

After that I’ve noticed that we just don’t have outdoor cats in our neighborhood.

(And for context, we aren't out in the boonies; this is within the city limits of Redmond, WA, where the local elementary gets locked down about once a year because mama bear and her cubs showed up off that same trail.)

[abrookewood]

This isn't such a bad thing. I love cats, but assuming coyotes are native to where you live, having them around is way better than outdoor cats (feral or otherwise) as they kill a ridiculous amount of native species.

[jdminhbg]

Coyotes aren’t native to the northwest, they moved in after European settlers extirpated the wolves. They almost surely are less damaging to natives though.

[PicassoCTs]

Well, there is a place for both killers. The coyote down on the forrest floor- and the cat up int he tree canopy. Everyone is happy.

[novaleaf]

I'm in cottage lake woodinville, same.

Even more bizarre I fenced in my yard hoping to keep out the rabbits, but they always find a way in. Last winter I went out there and found a dismembered rabbit in the middle of the yard. I went to get a bag to pick it up, and when I got back, all that was left were a couple feet. An eagle maybe? I left the feet, but nothing came to get them :D

[gcanyon]

We had a house near Matthews Beach, and when we moved in there were many rabbits in the neighborhood and in our yard. We have a terrier-mix mutt, and there weren't rabbits in our yard for long...

[mikestew]

We have had the opposite experience: over the years, mama rabbits have had multiple litters in our backyard. We have two pit bull terriers, and they would chase the rabbits (never catching them), so mama rabbit knows there are dogs. My only theory is that the dogs are a known quantity, and the dogs keep the real predators out of the backyard.

That, or rabbits are just that dumb.

[gcanyon]

My dog definitely caught rabbits. He even brought two kits into the house. He's a sweetheart in every other circumstance, but he loves toys that squeak when he mauls them.

[arwhatever]

We just had this a week or so ago. Stray cat was so cautious that at the end of convalescing in our garage following getting fixed (we had to trap him) he stayed in the garage all day after we opened the side door, and even then, near dusk he stood on the threshold and looked out for 11 straight minutes before taking a step out.

Last week coyotes took him (in part of the country quite far from King County) at night right next to our house, right next to his most familiar territory, and not 20-30 feet from a number of structures he routinely climbed on top of but which coyotes would have no chance of following.

I currently can’t help but take a dim view of coyotes at the current moment, for selfish reasons. I hadn’t thought this to be at all likely given the apparent caution the cat took, but I did spent a couple of years building up a good relationship with that sweet guy.

[davely]

I lived in a semi-rural area with some foothills behind our property growing up.

I distinctly remember that our neighbor had a number of different cats over the years. They were never around that long. He always named them _C.B._

I never thought much of it, maybe he was just a fan of chatting of radios.

I was in my teenager when I finally realized what C.B. stood for in this context: Coyote Bait

[brianaker]

"I’ve noticed that we just don’t have outdoor cats in our neighborhood"

Stop neutering cats, encourage alley cats.

[mouse_]

poor kitty, but, native predators beating back invasive ones is a huge win

[chaosbolt]

A huge win to whom?

I'm a little too simple to assign moral values like good/bad or win/lose to nature things, all I know is I like cats more because they're cute, so I'll always take them over coyotes.

Humans could be considered invasive too, it's not a huge win if a super predator starts beating us back. At least not from our agreed upon definitions of "win", then again if one starts to play with the meaning of words, one can say the sky is green.

[transcriptase]

Most natural populations of a given species have density-dependent population regulation. Be it from a reduced food supply, or multi-year cycles where they provide ample food for their predators population to grow to the point they become the food supply being reduced until their predators population shrinks and the cycle begins again. Disease transmission also acts to keep populations in check when density increases too much where food is essentially unlimited. Negative feedback loops are fascinating and were unique in the sense that we’ve managed to short-circuit nearly all of them to virtually every other species detriment.

[schnebbau]

A huge win to all the birds and smaller mammals that are killed in the billions every year by domestic cats that shouldn't be there. They fuck up the whole system.

[nick__m]

outdoor cat's are an invasive species, they put unatural pressure on birds population so I hate them !

[bmacho]

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