Katie Trent is used to seeing animals in the woods behind her house on Kiowa Circle, to the west of Lotus Lake. The visitors to her yard have including deer, turkeys and owls, but during the afternoon of Oct. 31 she made her first coyote sighting.

She wasn’t quite sure what she was seeing.

“When I saw it, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a big fox,” she recalled.
On second glance, she thought it could be a wolf because the animal was so filled out and seemed so big.

A Department of Natural Resources spokesperson identified the animal for The Villager as a coyote, based on the animal’s tail. If it were a wolf, the tail would be sticking up. Wolves keep their tails raised to indicate dominance, said the DNR spokesperson, adding that coyotes in the Twin Cities are often large because they have plenty of squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and dog food to eat.

Coyote sightings in the suburbs occur throughout the year. Previous stories about coyote sightings in Chanhassen were published in 2007 and 2006.

DNR officials say coyotes are nomads and do most of their rambling in a quest for food. To keep them out of the neighborhood, it's important to eliminate potential food sources, said officials. Furthermore, having an indifferent attitude toward a coyote in the yard has a similar effect to feeding it, they warn. Coyotes can be frightened away by loud noises.