I've had fairly close contacts with coyotes over the years, probably because I live on the desert edge of Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas. Funny thing is every time I look at them they turn their heads away as if they had no interest in my presence, kind of like a drooling dog watching you as you eat pizza and turning his head when you look at him like my dog mentioned below.
I was walking my dog in the desert one time, an old Great Dane/Doberman mix. We had walked around an area about a hundred yards away where somebody had dumped a brush pile. Several coyote pups were yipping at something in the pile, probably a rabbit. As I turned to head parallel to them but still distant, I heard two sharp barks behind me. It was mama coyote warning her pups to shut the bleep up. She had followed us and was only about 15 or 20 feet away. If I had continued on straight rather than turning, she probably wouldn't have put herself in danger like that with my huge dog. She trotted by us with my old, half-crippled dog in slow pursuit, giving herself up to save her pups. She made a right turn at a gully and disappeared. My dog returned and we moved on. The coyote pups had disappeared and gone quiet also.
Personally, I like coyotes but I can understand those who consider them a nuisance or a pet/livestock killer. They are that, of course, but they'll be around no matter how many of them we kill.
