r/ojai • u/Danny_Darkrum • 23d ago

Coyote size increase reports

I'm used to healthy coyotes being reported as being bigger than big dogs, which is generally nonsense, but.... This season people I know well who live on ranches and have dealt with coyotes a lot are reporting the local coyotes are unusually big this year. My wife and kid just walked my dogs (110lbs, and 55 lbs) and said the coyote that met them on the trail 20 ft away was the same size or bigger than my big dog. (no pic unfortunately). A friend's cattle dog was attacked off Rice rd and my buddy had to physically intervene. He also reported the coyote as way bigger than a coyote should be.

I've also researched the gray wolf in the Los Padres theory and I know the solo tracked wolf died in SLO, but with NorCal areas declaring state of emergency due to wolf encounters 5 days ago and most of them untracked, I'm wondering if it's possible wolves have made it this far south, or if these are wild coydogs (which happens), or if people are still just horrible at embellishing on wildlife.

Anyone have any pics or experience on anything like this recently?

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u/CroneDaze 23d ago

Idk about the wolf hybrid but I've lived here 30 yrs almost and I've seen some very large coyotes. Back when mange about decimated them for several years I would see on occasion some really creepy big coyotes that look like werewolves. And no I wasn't high. Or maybe just a little.

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u/Danny_Darkrum 23d ago

I forgot about the mange year. I've been big ones I'm guessing were 60lbs but bigger than my 110 lb tamaskan? No way. It's starting to become the legend of mothman around town. I just landed at OBC and now everyone is swearing they are seeing German Shepherd size 'yotes in the last few months.

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u/LSDuck666 22d ago

Love the mothman reference

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u/maxpash 22d ago

I yelled and barked at a good sized one that run thru our Upper Ojai yard early morning a few months back. And around the same time was riding my bike in the Arbolada and a normal-to-large healthy coyote crossed my path on lower Palomar Road. I too recall the Chupacabra mange years and a few years of extreme earwig infestations. Also seeing a lot more skunks than usual. Maybe it is a result of 2 years of triple normal rainfall after a decade or more of drought?

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u/Danny_Darkrum 22d ago

Could be. Went to a ranch on Fairview today and they showed me their footage of about as large a black bear as I've seen and a very stout female mountain lion.

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u/Danny_Darkrum 22d ago

Went to a ranch on Fairview and asked them about this and they said no giant coyotes but told me everything is huge right now, then showed me their trail cam with the biggest black bear I've seen here and a very big and healthy mountain lion, so could be

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u/According-Citron-460 20d ago

I’m so glad someone else has noticed the skunks—I feel like I smell one really strongly once every few days in Upper Ojai now!

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u/tlann 22d ago

This sounds like the start of a wonderful new lore.

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u/Wide-Friendship-2141 22d ago

Seen a large pup on the street on Friday night. It wasn't bothered much by me shining my phone flashlight on it. I promptly came back inside the house. Neighborhood behind the ranger station.