Female community cat who became a pet scared off 2 coyotes attacking dog companion

This is another one those impressive cat stories were the modest cat companion protects either a dog or a child or even a toddler from danger including attacks from coyotes. 

This story proves that domestic cat companions living in homes where there are dogs and kids, regard the dogs and kids as companions, even offspring to be protected. It is female cats who appear to regard kids and dogs as their offspring to be protects and defended when danger is present.

They take on the courage of the mother cat protecting her kittens and take enormous personal risks. 

In this video we see the family's black cat, Binx - who the family adapted as she walked into their home as a community cat - notice that her small white dog companion was being attacked by one of two coyotes. The attack was about to be fatal when the Binx intervened and the coyotes decided to leave.

The video is interesting also because coyotes often attack and kill domestic cats in the US. Cats know that coyotes are a predator to them. And yet this cat runs towards them and takes up the larger profile to try and scare them off. She succeeded. 

It is unsurprising in one way because mother cats are fearless when protecting kittens.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Standoff between cougars and coyotes. Pictures.

Standoff between pumas and coyotes. Photos by USFWS Mountain Prairie.

These are three of a series of photographs of two young mountain lions seeking refuge on a large wooden fence from five coyotes. You can gauge the balance of power between these species of animal from the photographs. Five coyotes trump two juvenile pumas. I guess 5 coyotes might not trump 2 adult pumas. It is all about power and authority, one over the other. Sounds like human stuff and it is.

The obvious has happened. The young cougars have used their jumping and climbing skills to distance themselves from coyotes and to seek a sanctuary.

I don't know how it was resolved. I suspect the coyotes disappeared eventually and the cougars came down.

These photographs were, in fact, published some time ago. However, I noticed this short post was languishing as a draft on the main website for some time so I think it is worthy enough to publish on this subdomain site.

Puma kills are often scavenged by other animals including: bears, pigs, wolves, bobcats, foxes and coyotes. This is despite the fact that the mountain lion can sometimes rest near their cached prey. Therefore, a scavenger risks being attacked by the mountain lion. Clearly a mountain lion can kill a coyote but in the numbers that you see in the photograph and when the mountain lion is a subadult, it is a different kettle of fish.

Video shows how domestic cats escape the jaws of coyotes

This Ring doorbell-video camera shows us how indoor/outdoor domestic cats save their lives and escape the jaws of those resourceful and dangerous coyotes in the USA. They climb. The climbing ability of the domestic cat will save them countless times. They are great climbers as is every cat species. 

Some are better than others and some wild cat species actually live in trees more than on the ground. The domestic cat is in between the best and the worst which means that they are very skilled by human standards. I guess we all know that but it's a lifesaver when it comes to predation by coyotes. Coyotes can climb pretty well but nowhere near as well as domestic cats.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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For example, coyotes cannot climb trees (or if they rarely do, it'll probably be exceptional) because their bodies are not adapted to it and their claws aren't either. They're too rigid and their claws are too blunted. The domestic cat is enormously flexible and the the claws of their forepaws are very sharp as we all know 😇 .

Coyotes kill a lot of cats; stray, domestic and feral. Many escape but many don't. Sometimes cats frighten off a single coyote but the coyote may be infirm or inexperienced. Or they may have been ambushed and surprised by a courageous cat. But most often the coyote is a real danger to domestic cats.

Cat escapes coyote by climbing. Screenshot.

We don't have an overall number of domestic cats killed by coyotes in America in a year. But a study carried out recently in California by the National Park Service which found that 20% of urban coyotes' diets are made up of domestic, stray and feral cats. 

They are highly adaptable and a recent study found coyotes were present in 96 out of 105 cities surveyed in the US. They attack cats and dogs. In six months, in Culver city, there were 40 pet deaths recorded from coyote attacks. It is a major reason why cat caregivers keep their cats inside full-time in America. 

It's not a problem that people face in Europe. Certainly in the UK cat owners do not fear attacks on their cats by predators. It is not part of the British culture. It's road traffic which is the biggest danger in Britain.

Bird Lobby Still Conspiring Against Cats

Every now and again the bird lobby produce some study that supports their objectives. They use it to promote their objectives one of which is to get rid of the cat from the outdoors anyway possible. The bird lobby people say cats slaughter birds and exterminate species of birds. They tend to exaggerate and to disseminate misrepresentations to further their cause. (see also: Domestic Cats Do Not Decimate Bird Populations). There is a battle between cat lobbyists and cat lovers. I feel a need to provide some counter arguments in defense of the cat.

A recent example is quoting a study by Shannon E. Grubbs and Paul R. Krausman called "Observations of Coyote–Cat Interactions". The abstract (summary) for this study states that in tracking 8 coyotes (yes just 8) they observed over a period of 790 hours the coyotes interacting with cats on 36 occasions. On 19 of these 36 occasions the cat was killed by the coyote. 790 hours by the way is 33 days. So, on average about one coyote over a period of about one month killed 2 cats.

The scientists say that of the 45 instances that they saw the coyotes feeding they were feeding on cats 42% of the time. That comes from the American Bird Conservancy website in quoting the study. The immediate question is how many other instances of feeding in total were there over the 33 days? And what did the coyote eat on those other occasions?

On the basis that this is an accurate representation of the hunting and feeding activities of the coyote the American Bird Conservancy say that cats should be kept in to protect cats and birds. They also argue that TNR is a failure and that is supports the decimation of birds. TNR can work if conducted widely. It really needs a large scale approach.

However, other studies conflict with the one conducted by Shannon E. Grubbs and Paul R. Krausman and used by the American Bird Conservancy.

Studies by Gerht 2006,  Gerht and Riley 2010 and Morey et al. 2007 concluded that the feral and domestic cat made up 1-2% of the coyote diet. In some studies about 8% of coyote scats (feces) contained cat remains. It is probably fair to say that these other studies are more accurate as the sample size in the Grubbs and Krausman study is very small, I would argue.

Also it has to be pointed out that the coyote will eat birds and attack ground nesting birds. What percentage of the coyote's diet is birds? It would be interesting to make a comparison with cats. Also it may be the case that the coyote attacks cats when preferred prey is absent. The absence of some prey may be due to human activity. If that is the case the bird lobbyists' arguments are self-serving and distortions of what is really happening.

The American Bird Conservancy don't mention these things. They give the impression that the cat is the prime prey for the coyote when this is far from the truth. Rabbits and rodents probably top the list of prey items.

There is no doubt that the domestic and feral cat is at risk of being killed by a coyote in the USA. This must be a factor for the cat's caretaker. A secure outdoor enclosure is probably the best compromise.

However, the bird lobby really should try and strike a more balanced approach to promoting its cause. They will not achieve much by exaggerating and misrepresenting information.

See also: Can a cat escape a coyote attack? And How Feral Cats Affect Wildlife.