Ryan Toomey was walking his dog through Queen Elizabeth Park in Glace Bay, N.S., on Sunday evening when he started hearing noises.
“Next thing you know, I counted six coyotes that crossed the trail in front of me,” Toomey told CTV Atlantic on Monday.
Toomey said he walks in the area most days and had not experienced something like this before, but when he looked behind him, he saw even more of the animals.
“If I had to take a guess, I’d say at least 10,” Toomey said. “At least. They were everywhere, and the noises - it was just, I’ve been down here before and have heard them, but I’ve never ever seen them and especially that close. I’d say at some points they probably got within ten feet.”
“To have five or six together is a bit unusual, but not that unusual,” said Andrew Boyne, director of wildlife for Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources.
Boyne said coyote sightings are common across the province, and the vast majority of the time the encounters are harmless.
He said it’s hard to know too much about population numbers but added that sightings from the public have actually gone down in the past ten years.
“We get fewer than ten reports of aggressive coyotes per year,” Boyne said. “So, we get reports, but very seldom do we have to step in. Generally, coyotes move off. So we don’t view them as being a big problem as long as people are sensible about them.”
Back in Glace Bay, Toomey said the coyotes he had a close brush with didn’t try to attack him or his dog.
He admits that coming across them might have been a one-off incident, and added he planned to walk in the area again Monday evening.
Still, he wants people to know to be vigilant.
“Definitely scary, and I stuck around last night for a little while,” Toomey said. “I think I stopped like three or four people with their dogs about to go down. Then I just, after that I headed home and just wanted to relax after that - it was pretty intense.”
Boyne added that people should keep their pets leashed and beware of their surroundings, just in case.
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