By DREW SHAW, ARLINGTON REPORT

Feb. 28, 2025

Wild barks and yaps crack across the streets of Sam Kieschnick's Tarrant County subdivision as he falls asleep.

It’s music to his ears.

“It's that same sound that serenaded early explorers and indigenous people to sleep that we can still hear here in Dallas-Fort Worth,” said Kieschnick, an Urban Wildlife Biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 

Not everyone agrees. Every winter, during coyote mating season, a routine rise in sightings of the animals in urban environments surprises and concerns North Texas residents. People call animal control offices and post pictures of coyotes, alerting neighbors to the sightings of the unwelcome, opportunistic wild dogs.

Populations of coyotes are normal in every North Texas city, Kieschnick said, and people shouldn’t be scared of them. 

They are more commonly spotted from January through March for two reasons: The season’s scarce flora limits their hiding places, and coyotes are using the time to establish new territories. 

“It's not a reason for concern that we see animals that have adapted to the urban ecosystem,” he said. “Coyotes are remnants of the past, so yes, they live in the wilderness, but they also have adapted to our urban areas.”

‘MORE SCARED OF US’

Increased development and shrinking green spaces don’t discourage the animals from living in a city. Like raccoons, coyotes find food and shelter wherever they can.

“Tarrant County is growing — we have more eyes, more people and more development, so we have more people that can see more coyotes,”  Kieschnick said.

Arlington officials see a rise in coyote sighting reports during the season, mostly from people who are frightened by seeing the animals in their driveways and parks, said David Davis, an Arlington animal services officer. 

The city has an online map tracking coyote sightings. They are most commonly spotted in the west of the city around Lake Arlington and River Legacy Park, Davis said.

Coyotes aren’t naturally aggressive toward humans, Davis said, so the reports often result in animal control officers showing up to the scene, teaching the caller how to scare off coyotes and allowing the wild dog to wander off.

Coyotes should be “more scared of us than we are of them,” Kieschnick said, more for their safety than ours. When people see the animals, they should try scaring them off using “hazing techniques,” he said.

Clapping hands, making loud noises and throwing things at coyotes is the best way to scare them off, Kieschnick said.

LEARNING TO LIVE WITH COYOTES

Attempting to remove coyotes from an area typically backfires, as the animals have more pups when they notice their local population has declined.

Coyotes use their nighttime calls to measure how large their local herds are, Kieschnick said. If female coyotes don’t hear enough barking, they ovulate more to increase their litter’s size — a trait known as “density-dependency.”

“When you remove one, more move in during that short period of time,” he said.

Even though coyotes are a natural part of both urban and rural ecosystems, residents should still report the animals to the city if the animals act aggressive or strange. That could be a sign they are diseased, Davis said.

“Coyotes provide an ecosystem service — they are controlling populations of squirrels, rats and rabbits,” Kieschnick said. “I think it’s a pretty cool thing we have this remnant of the wild that can still live with us.”

Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at [email protected] or @shawlings601. 

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This article first appeared on Arlington Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.