Coyotes have been prowling Harford County for at least 25 years, but a local hunter recently got his first look at what could be one of the elusive canines known for attacking pets, livestock and competing with native predators.
"I've been hunting for 24 years," Chris Bueche, 50, of Bel Air, said Tuesday. "I've never seen a coyote."
Bueche provided two photos he snapped of the creature from his tree stand around 8 a.m. Saturday. He said the animal may have been a dog. In addition, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources official and conservationist from Harford County, both of whom saw the photos, said the animal likely was a coyote but could have been a dog or a gray fox.
"I see a lot of foxes out there, so I'm familiar with how the foxes look," Bueche said.
Bueche was alone in a tree stand about 15 feet off the ground Saturday, the opening day of the state's two-week firearm deer hunting season, when he saw a doe walk by.
He did not shoot her because she was small, and he was waiting to see if a buck was following her.
While there was no buck, the doe came back a short time later, and she appeared to have been "spooked," Bueche said.
"All of a sudden, the coyote came out through the thicket and woods," he said.
Bueche said the creature "just kind of walked by."
He said it had features that would indicate it was a coyote, such as pointed ears standing straight up, and he noted the creature did not have a fox's signature bushy tail.
"He was a lot larger than a fox, but he was dark," Bueche said.
He snapped photos of it with his phone. The photos show a canine with a long tail, pointy ears and gray and black fur. There are black patches on the tip of its tail, its feet, midsection, ears and muzzle.
"It almost looked like a German shepherd, a real small German shepherd," Bueche said.
He said the suspected coyote came back about half an hour later, and he came closer to the tree stand, but did not approach Bueche.
He said he was part of a group of hunters on the property of the Harford County 4-H camp near the intersection of Cherry Hill Road and Route 24, and he sent his fellow hunters text messages, urging them to look out for the coyote.
Coyotes, which are native to the western United States, are not indigenous to Maryland or any other state east of the Mississippi, but they have spread east of the Mississippi through the 20th century, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' website.
Coyotes were first seen in Maryland in Washington County in the early 1970s, and state officials have known of them being in Harford County since the late 1980s, Peter Jayne, the associate director for game management for DNR, explained.
Jayne looked at Bueche's photo, and he said he was about 90 percent sure the creature is a coyote, although it could also be a dog.
"The ears look right, the muzzle looks right, the tail looks right," he said of a coyote's features.
Bob Chance, a Harford County conservationist, said coyotes typically have bushy tails, long legs, elongated snouts and a "salt-and-pepper, grayish-brown coat."
Chance, who also looked at Bueche's photos, said it was "inconclusive," and the creature could be either a gray fox or a coyote.
"The head profile, to me, is fox-like," he said. "The fur is coyote-like. I would have to go with the experience of the hunter who's seen a lot of foxes."
Jayne said the greatest density for the coyote population is in Western Maryland, and the population in Harford County is of an intermediate density.
"It's not at all surprising that someone would see a coyote in Harford County," he said.
Jayne said DNR officials presume coyotes came to Harford County by following the Susquehanna River from Pennsylvania.
He said the creatures, which he called an "opportunistic predator," can be a nuisance when they attack livestock such as sheep or pet cats.
"One of their favorite meals is house cats, and they will come on and snatch a cat off of a porch," Chance added.
Jayne said coyotes are omnivores because they eat plant products such as fruits and berries, and animals such as mice, chipmunks, rabbits and deer.
"Generally, we don't get many serious complaints about coyotes," Jayne said. "They're very secretive; you rarely see one."
Jayne said coyotes and red foxes prefer the same habitat areas such as fields, woods and hedgerows, which can bring them into competition with each other.
"One of the biggest impacts of coyotes moving into Maryland is we are seeing localized declines [of red foxes] in places where coyotes are more common," he said.
Chance said he receives "a couple inquires a month" about coyote sightings, and that they have been sighted in the past around Darlington and northern Harford County around Eden Mill, as well as the tributaries of Deer Creek. He said there is a "thriving population" living at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
"They're here, but they're extremely sly to have survived," he said.