New Canaan Police: Coyotes Dwell behind Norwalk Armory

New Canaan police believe three new reported sightings of a “coywolf”—cross between an eastern wolf and western coyote—are the same animal.

Norwalk Armory. Credit: Michael Dinan

Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt also said most of the coyotes in this area live in the wilderness behind the Armory right on the New Canaan-Norwalk line, off of Merritt Parkway Exit 38.

“They run around back there, and a month from now the females will give birth so that the males become lone hunters,” Kleinschmitt told NewCanaanite.com. “That’s the only time the coyotes den, is when they’re giving birth, and then it’s a 10-mile radius for them to find food.”

This photograph of a coyote on an Evergreen Road property was taken March 13, 2014. Credit: Maria Naughton

Though the high season for coyotes generally doesn’t arrive until the weather is a bit warmer and females give birth, frequent sightings are popping up all over New Canaan. The coyote pictured at right was spotted off of Evergreen Road on Thursday (March 13).

A coywolf originally had been seen in New Canaan in December up at Tobys Lane, then photographed March 2 at Proprietors Crossing.

Pet owners are urged to make double-sure that small dogs and cats are not left outside and unattended in areas where coyotes are sighted.

This animal, which looks to be the same 'Coywolf' spotted up on Proprietors Crossing last weekend, was photographed Thursday morning in New Canaan, at Marvin Ridge Road. Credit: Kathy Mitchell

The most recent sightings—on March 5-6—include a coywolf up at the New Canaan Transfer Station, Old Norwalk Road and Marvin Ridge Road.

New Canaan resident Kathy Mitchell photographed the coywolf March 6 on her Marvin Ridge Road property.

She first saw the animal ater her dog “let out this bark like I never heard,” Mitchell recalled.

Here's another look at the same animal. It looks to be the same 'Coywolf' spotted on March 2 up near the South Salem, N.Y. line. This photograph was taken March 6 in New Canaan, at Marvin Ridge Road. Credit: Kathy Mitchell

“I went to see and up top [her property has three levels] by the stone wall in front of the garden was the coyote,” Mitchell told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “Very calmly walking along. I went to find the camera. It walked slowly, than sat and scratched its ear. It calmly and slowly walked up across the back yard and over to our shed and disappeared.”

The coywolf returned in the afternoon, curled up on the Mitchells’ fence and slept, she said.

“I came home from Norwalk and could see her on top just looking around and lying there,” she said.

Here’s an updated map with coyote sightings—based on Kleinschmitt’s assessment, we have marked one single coyote for the most recent sighting in the area of the Transfer Station-Old Norwalk Road-Marvin Ridge.