Coyote spotted in Piedmont Park

ATLANTA — Neighbors are on edge over a coyote seen roaming through Piedmont Park.

Channel 2's Matt Johnson saw the coyote in the park near 10^th Street on Monday.

He said the coyote kept to itself and didn’t even flinch as dogs barked and people came near it.

No one seems to know how the coyote ended up in the park.

“I’ve never seen one, and I don’t know how it got here,” neighbor Jeff Porubsky said.

Experts say they started getting calls about the coyote last week as people raised concerns.

“We've got my dogs, me, little dogs and kids, and they can definitely do a number on them,” Porubsky said.

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So far, there have been no reports of any aggressive behavior by the coyote. He seems to be living off of scraps people leave behind.

“I was watching him earlier. It looked like he had a chicken bone or something, something that someone just threw out,” Porubsky said.

Timothy Herdina spotted it on Christmas day.

“It was definitely surprising to see it,” he said.

He says he hopes someone can help return it to its natural habitat, despite how friendly it's been.

“He's not very big, and he was very docile and didn’t seem like he wanted any interaction with humans, but probably should be relocated,” Herdina said.

In the meantime, Porubsky said he plans to keeps his dogs close and his guard up.

“He's peaceful now, until he's not, and then we have a problem,” he said.

Experts with the Atlanta Coyote Project say that it's mating season,

They say coyotes pose little risk to people, as long as no one is feeding them.

“If they start getting access to food, as associating people with food, they’ll start to overcome their wariness of humans and they’ll start to expect food,” expert Chris Mowry said.

Johnson reached out to animal control, but it was closed for the holiday.

Cox Media Group