Spotting a coyote in the urban or suburban setting is not too common. While their population may be increasing, the animal is nocturnal and seldom come out during the day. They usually move during the day only to search for prey and most humans encounter them when they leave food out that the coyote can pick up through smell.

Even if you do come across a coyote, chances are they will be scared of you more than you are scared of them. Humans aren’t a natural prey of coyotes so they usually do not attack. They also scare off easily so you shouldn’t be too scared. If the coyote doesn’t run when they see you then they are probably accustomed to being around humans. Some people unknowingly leave food out for coyotes so they become used to being around human even without them actually being present all the time.

When this happens, coyotes are more reliant on food that they find in the suburban or urban setting. They usually go through the garbage and other items they can find out. So encountering them is more common because of that reason.

So do coyotes attack humans?

Like we mentioned humans are not on the list of preys for coyotes. You probably have a better chance of being killed from a champagne cork than you do from a coyote bite. In fact, more humans die from an errant champagne cork than they do of a coyote attack in a year.

Coyotes won’t go out of their way to attack you, they are scared of humans. It completely depends on your behavior around the coyote. There have only been 2 deaths related to coyote attack since the 1980s. So coyote attacking humans is very rare. There are even rare instances in which coyotes bite humans. The animal-like other warm-blooded animals contract rabies. So in the rare instance that a coyote does attack, it important the person get tested for rabies. But like we said, humans have a higher chance of being killed by an errant champagne cork than that.