Scat: A Wild Twist

I know my scat. Foxes, raccoons and deer routinely leave it on old wood railroad ties, on slate pathways, in piles of oak leaves, and sometimes right near the front step on my house. I don't mind sharing the outdoors with them. (Their scat doesn't scare me; bear scat, that's another story. When we see that in Mantua, I may stop my daily walks.)

Neighbors in my forested area just a (hard-pitched, long) stone's throw from Washington, D.C., have sighted coyotes frolicking in their yards. Definitely not dogs, they say, but wild animals prowling for food. 

The first coyotes were reported  in Northern Virginia a few years ago, so this is no surprise. Two years ago after a snowfall and before the snowplow came, two coyotes sauntered up the middle of my street, illuminated by the private Kmart parking-lot type light that an elderly neighbor paid to erect. The coyotes were yellow against the snow, with a loping walk unlike most domesticated dogs.

In 2011, I reported this on our community website:
A neighbor reported that an animal that appeared to be a wolf had been hit on Route 50. Another neighbor reported that he saw what looked like cougar in the woods. So what wildlife lives in Mantua?

We are fortunate to be near parkland and woods, and it helps to remember that critters like raccoons (Mantua Elementary school’s mascot) have been here for a long time. For about a decade, we’ve been seeing more foxes.

We called federal, state and county agencies to ask whether wolves and cougars are among us. Here’s what an endangered species biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says:

“I can tell you that there are no wild wolves in any part of Virginia, but you all do have a healthy population of coyotes, and these can get rather large and be confused as a wolf. The other thing is the possibility of someone owning a wolf or wolf hybrid (wolf crossed with a dog) and one of these being possibly hit by a car. It is my opinion that the animal hit on Route 50 was most likely a coyote.

“As for cougars, the only ones that would be in your area would have to be some person/s pet. There are too many people in this country who feel they need to own such animals, and they often hurt someone or get loose. I work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and our agency is responsible for those plants and animals that have been federally listed as endangered species. The eastern cougar is listed as endangered, but a recent review by our agency has found that there is strong scientific evidence that the eastern cougar is extinct. This does not rule out the possibility that some western cougars may be making their way east.

“Northern Virginia does have bobcats, but these animals are very shy and elusive, doing most of their hunting for prey at night. I have worked with resource agencies for 23 years and have only seen a bobcat two times.

“I feel it is very safe to say that there are no wild cougars in Fairfax County.”

To learn what wildlife lives in Fairfax, go to

www.fairfaxcounty.gov/living/animals/wildlife/

But here's the twist on the recent coyote sighting: A neighbor says a wildlife biologist analyzed the coyote scat and found wolf DNA. Does this make the animals more dangerous, or less, or does it matter? Do we need to do more to protect small domesticated animals? Do we need to protect the baby foxes in the neighborhood? (One is shown below near a tree.) Coming soon: The Coyote Wolf? I've got my camera ready!