Residents say coyote sightings on the rise in Sun City Summerlin

With her children and grandchildren grown, Barbara Hadzoglon calls her 10-pound pooch, Nickolina, her baby, so finding a way to rid her retirement community of potential predators has become a pet project.

The 80-year-old Sun City Summerlin resident has been vocal about coyote sightings and attacks in the retirement community, which she and neighbors say have been increasing.

Hadzoglon and her husband, Chris, say the concerns about coyotes from the community’s elderly population, some of whom have physical limitations and worry about their own safety and their pets, haven’t been taken seriously, even after reports of attacks on pets.

“I’m not going to stop. I haven’t lost this dog yet,” Hadzoglon said, nodding at Nickolina.

“It’s a wild animal, it belongs in the wild and not in a senior community.”

COEXISTING WITH COYOTES

Coyotes in populated areas across the United States aren’t rare. There have been numerous past efforts in Nevada to reduce the “very healthy” population of coyotes statewide, but their adaptable nature has allowed coyotes to increase their numbers and broaden their range statewide, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

And coyotes aren’t uncommon even in urban areas — they dwell among human residents in cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas and Chicago.

Local government and wildlife officials, veterinarians and Sun City security personnel have urged concerned residents of the 55-and-older age-restricted community to keep a diligent eye on their pets outdoors and have offered tips on how to coexist with coyotes.

Sun City Animal Hospital sent an email to clients this month, including the Hadzoglons, about coyote attacks on pets in Sun City and Summerlin being on the rise over the past nine months.

The email offered tips, such as keeping pets closed indoors overnight, checking yards for coyotes before taking pets outside, keeping pets supervised even in fenced yards, using short leashes and avoiding walking animals at dawn and dusk.

At a recent Sun City resident meeting that drew more than 100 residents, a panel of animal control, humane society and Nevada Department of Wildlife representatives advised them to scare coyotes away by putting pennies in a can and shaking it, and to not feed coyotes or leave pets’ food dishes outdoors.

‘GETTING SO BRAZEN’

The Hadzoglons take Nickolina outside in their fenced yard on a leash and then quickly back indoors; she hasn’t been on a walk in a month. Chris Hadzoglon recalls a time recently when he had Nickolina out in the yard and heard what sounded like coyotes fighting over a rabbit, so he grabbed her and rushed inside.

“Obviously we live in the desert and Sun City kind of butts up to a desert area, BLM land that’s inhabited with wildlife,” Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony said. “We’re trying to educate folks in Sun City and elsewhere. But it’s not like we’ve got hundreds of coyotes roaming around Sun City Summerlin. And if someone sees a coyote, they can scare it away.”

In Anthony’s seven years on the Las Vegas City Council, he’s received “very few” calls about coyotes, he said.

Doris Beck doesn’t have pets, but she often sees coyotes from her yard that backs up to a Sun City golf course, and she’s had coyotes digging in her flowers or watching her while she’s gardening, she said.

As she spoke on the phone with a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter last week, Beck said she was looking out her window toward the golf course and at that moment saw at least four coyotes emerge from low brush across a fairway.

“They’re getting so brazen,” Beck said. “I just don’t trust them when they get in packs like that.”

Hadzoglon contacted Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office about coyotes in her neighborhood and received an email response Monday noting that her message was forwarded to the Nevada Department of Wildlife for review.

Hadzoglon plans to try to speak at the next resident forum at Sun City about coyotes; meanwhile, she fears they’ll become increasingly aggressive during their mating season early next year.

“I pray every day my little Nicky doesn’t become a victim,” Hadzoglon said.

Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.