Coyote Spotted Rambling Around Ellington Neighborhood

ELLINGTON, CT — A coyote was spotted roaming around an Ellington neighborhood on Tuesday morning.

The animal was making its way through yards along the Mountan Road corridor at about 8 a.m. One resident said he reported the sighting "to be on the safe side."

There are dense wooded areas in that part of town into Vernon and Tolland near Shenipsit Lake Reservoir, but the area also has thickly settled residential sections.

It was one of many sightings in the area this year. Local and state officials have repeatedly said to keep a distance and monitor pets who might be outside when a coyote is in the immediate area.

According to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Coyote Fact Sheet, coyotes were not originally found in Connecticut, but have "extended their range eastward" during the last 100 years from the western plains and midwestern United States, through Canada and into the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states.

They can be on the large side — there is one easily weighing 80 pounds has been seen regularly in Vernon — because they have bred with wolves on their treks east.

According to the DEEP, coyotes were first reported in Connecticut in the mid-1950s.
Most coyote reports were from northwestern Connecticut through the 1960s, but coyotes eventually "expanded their range" throughout the entire state and are now "a part of Connecticut's ecosystem," according to the DEEP.

"The coyote is one wildlife species that has adapted to human-disturbed environments and can thrive in close proximity to populated areas," the DEEP Coyote fact sheet points out.
And from the western states to Connecticut, they have bred with wolves, making the eastern coyote larger, according to the DEEP.

The typical eastern adult coyote is about 48-to-60 inches long from nose-to-tail and weighs between 30 and 50 pounds, according to the DEEP.