A new family is calling Bismarck home…

They moved here sometime this summer. And, so far, they’ve become the talk of the town.

“It just looked at me and turned the other way,” said Nick Cimarosti, who saw the coyote in his neighborhood.

It’s no secret there are coyotes in northwest Bismarck.

“It trotted right down our sidewalk and all the neighbors were outside,” said Cimarosti.

Her picture is everywhere — eating apples in someone’s backyard in broad daylight.

She’s been dubbed the “infamous Bismarck Coyote.”

“I followed it back up to the Mormon temple — it stopped in that yard, stared at me,” Cimarosti said.

Coyotes are considered urban wildlife, meaning they can live in town or in the country.

“There are coyotes in Bismarck all the time,” said Stephanie Tucker, a furbearer biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

Tucker said they know this particular family well. They were tracked using night vision technology and found that it’s a mom and her three or four pups that are living in the hills of Northwest Bismarck. She said they are perfectly healthy coyotes.

But what’s turning heads is that they’re not night owls.

“Personalities, every animal has its own personality like people do and some are just more comfortable during the day than others are,” said Tucker.

Social media is blowing up with the daytime sightings. Some think it’s wildlife at its best. Others are scared for their children and pets.
And rightfully so.

“People seemed kinda scared of it, but I don’t think they’re aggressive animals, but they are wild so they can be unpredictable,” Cimarosti said.

So don’t let your guard down.

Tucker said they currently pose no significant risk to human safety but know the do’s and don’ts if one is walking down your street.

“We want you to haze it, we want you to yell at it, wave your arms, make it so it’s scared of people. We want it to maintain that natural wariness,” said Tucker.

She said, for now, the Game and Fish Department has no plans to break up this family that’s calling Bismarck home.

“We’re not eliminating coyotes just for being coyotes. But we’re keeping our finger on the pulse of the situation and we definitely want people to report coyotes if they start acting aggressive,” said Tucker.

Tucker said coyote attacks are very rare. In fact, there are only two recorded deaths ever in North America.

Still, she said never approach a coyote and don’t let your pets approach it.

Keep your pets on leashes and, she said, never, ever feed the coyotes.

Another interesting note — Tucker says coyotes don’t generally travel in packs, so if you see more than one, chances are they’re related.