Confrontations with coyotes can be deadly for cats – but one fierce feline managed to turn the tables this week in North Vancouver.
Photographer Norm Lee said he was cleaning his backyard barbecue Tuesday afternoon when he witnessed a tense standoff between an orange tabby and a coyote.
It began when he saw the coyote fleeing across the yard with another animal hot on its tail.
"I just thought it was a cougar chasing a dog," Lee told CTV News. "And then I thought, 'That's a really small cougar.'"
The photographer then grabbed his camera and managed to record video of the animals facing each other down on a log. And though it appears the coyote is creeping toward the cat to attack, Lee inists the cat was the "aggressor."
Moments later, the coyote bolted into the woods, leaving the cat triumphant.
But the outcome could have been much less amusing. Sgt. Simon Gravel of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said the cat is lucky it managed to intimidate the much larger predator.
Coyotes play an important role hunting other urban wildlife, including rats, raccoons and skunks, and Gravel said they don't shy away from attacking household pets.
"It's a very common occurrence," he told CTV News. "Generally, small cats will not have a chance against a coyote."
Small dogs, particularly those that are allowed to wander around off-leash, are another easy target.
Gravel said coyotes are already quite comfortable in urban settings, but that homowners can minimize the chances of the animals entering their yard by locking up attractants, scaring them away whenever they're spotted, and by never, ever feeding them.
"Often they're perceived as hungry and people will see them and feed them. That's the biggest threat for coyotes," Gravel said. "It's important to not make them feel comfortable."
Anyone who spots a coyote that’s potentially habituated to humans can report the animal to the Conservation Officer Service's 24-hour hotline at 1-877-952-7277.
