Wildlife experts say when it comes to coyotes, perception may not be a reality.

This comes as some neighbors fear the coyote population is growing.

On Friday, KRON4 spoke with a man who believes coyotes are less afraid of us than they ever have been.

“Over here by this little tree down here, this little oak that’s struggling there, my wife found the carcass of a cat that was half eaten,” neighbor Peter Hensel said.

Hensel says that happened last fall near his Corte Madera home on Willow Avenue.

And he says it was the work of at least one coyote.

More recently, he describes another incident witnessed by his neighbor down the street.

“Two fawns bolted in front of his car, being chased by seven coyotes, and they surrounded the fawn, grabbed its rear legs through to the road, dragged it off to the side of the street, and had a little grisly feast,” Hensel said. “And…I don’t believe that belongs in a civilized area, I’m sorry.”

Hensel says he’s lived there for 46 years but didn’t start seeing coyotes on his street until three or four years ago.

And he says in the past year, he and his neighbors have reported up to two dozen coyote-related incidents.

“The number of sighting reports over the last five years has not fluctuated higher or lower,” Marin Humane Capt. Cindy Machado said. “It’s relatively the same.”

Machado says at the turn of the century, the county adopted a non-lethal predator program, choosing to take steps to protect livestock being attacked by coyotes, rather than rounding them up and displacing them.

“When coyotes are removed from an area, it actually increases the number of litter sizes, so it could actually create more problems on coexistence,” Machado said.

Not all neighbors fear coyotes like Hensel.

“I love coyotes, but I might not love them so much if it was my pet that they attacked,” pet owner Julie Garrett said.

​​​​​​Hensel wants the county to take an accurate count of all coyotes living there, round them up, and send them back to open space.

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