A few weeks ago, a hole appeared under the front sidewalk of our neighbours, Mark and Sandra. The hole was a den dug by local coyotes. While we didn’t see them dig it, we had enough interactions to know this is what happened.

Lately, the female has been a constant presence in The Villa, with many chasing her out, but she only returned a different way soon after.

Last evening, coming home from our weekly family dinner, the female coyote was in the process of taking the cubs somewhere when our presence interrupted her. The cubs made their way back to the den, and the female returned soon after. After assuring herself that it was quiet and safe. We turned off the van and sat still.

It was still quite light as we arrived home, but as the next hour progressed, it was getting darker, and the quality of the video was poorer, but still, thank you, Apple!

Soon after the female returned to get the pups, the male coyote also showed up. For the next 40 minutes, we sat and watched them groom and play with the cubs.

It is fascinating and frightening to see wild animals settled into an urban neighbourhood. These animals exist around humans and somehow seem to thrive. By the way, as an aside, our hare population has been down, I noticed!

There’s more to report from The Villa, but I will leave that to another post. In the meantime.