Coyotes attack from the rear and the flanks of their prey.

This morning I met Diana at 6am to go running in Aliso & Wood Canyons. I hadn't been running with her since before I went on my sabbatical, so it was really nice to chat and catch up. Diana is used to getting up before the crack of dawn, but I'm not, and I was surprised that it was still pitch black dark outside when we met. I saw a group of runners head into the canyon with headlamps on, but we didn't have lights and didn't want to be running in the wilderness when it was still dark out. So, we ran 2.5 miles on the roads and through Laguna Niguel Regional Park and then ran into the canyons once it was light out. We ran 7 miles on the main fire road in the canyons. Since it was still very early, we didn't see very many other people on the trail. When we were about 2 miles back in the canyons, Diana stopped all of a sudden and fearfully asked me "What is THAT?!" Both of our hearts stopped beating for a second. I was really, really hoping that we were not about to come face to face with a mountain lion. Diana quickly jumped behind me (which I thought was funny because I am about the biggest wimp ever and would certainly not be able to fight off a mountain lion and save the two of us!) and I just as quickly noticed an animal in the bushes next to the trail. It took a few seconds for me to realize that the animal was only a coyote. Despite my insistence that the coyote would not bother us, Diana didn't seem to be too convinced. But, there was no where to go but forward! The coyote crossed the trail and we ran by it and then it got on the trail and followed us for a little bit. A few miles later we were both spooked when another runner came up behind us but we were soon relieved to see that we had a human, not a coyote, following us.


I've seen many, many coyotes here in SoCal--I've even seen them on my street in my condo complex. It's kind of sad that we're invading their environment and then when we come upon them, we get all offended like they've invaded our space. After looking up coyotes on Wikipedia, I found this kinda scary information:

Coyote attacks on humans are uncommon and rarely cause serious injuries, due to the relatively small size of the coyote. However, coyote attacks on humans have increased within the past 5 years in the state of California. Data from USDA Wildlife Services, the California Department of Fish & Game, and other sources show that while 41 attacks occurred during the period of 1988-1997, 48 attacks were verified from 1998 through 2003. The majority of these incidents occurred in Southern California near the suburban-wildland interface.

Anyway, Diana and I had a great 9.5 mile run. By the time we got back to the start of the trailhead, there were tons of runners and bikers entering the canyon. But at 6:45am, it was just us and the coyotes.