Over the past couple of months, several locals in the Twin Creeks area on social media are claiming that coyote sightings have only increased in recent days. This has caused many members in the community to fear for the safety of their pets and personal wellbeing.

On the Neighborhood Watch app, “Nextdoor,” many living in Cedar Park have been sharing concerns about the coyotes. Community members like Sonya Jacobs have stated their fears and reported sightings of these coyotes in the neighborhood. 

“Driving home from dinner last night, I saw one standing on the sidewalk on Anderson Mill, approaching the light at Cypress Creek, just past Quiet Moon,” Jacobs said. “It wasn’t even 7p.m.. Cars all over the place. It was just chilling, standing there.”

Other citizens of Cedar Park have commented under these concerns, sharing similar fears.

“We saw this one last night,” Norman Root said. “Same thing, standing there, frozen, watching cars go by for almost five minutes. Kind of scary.”

Encounters have been more frequent with pet owners walking their dogs and have had to end the trip early, in the name of safety. Junior Marisa Kubasiak shares her experience as a dog owner and how it has impacted her.

“I have a very small dog,” Kubasiak said. “She’s a Chihuahua and all the birds swarm her, so a coyote can definitely eat her. I was on a walk with my dog, she was on a leash and she was just having the time of her life. Then we saw a coyote in the distance and it was staring her down. We had to turn the other direction and leave.”

According to FOX7, Cedar Park’s Animal Control Supervisor, Daryann Medvec said that the removal or entrapment of the coyotes present can cause a population boom, and that if they were to remove one, the next year would see up to triple the population. Medvec encourages others to take a more active approach when dealing with the coyotes.

“Coyotes can be stubborn and it can occasionally take more than one time to haze them out, but we recommend yelling,” Medvec said.“You can also spray them with a hose from a distance. Some agencies and other external organizations recommend water guns, the really big ones, that can be effective and have longer range. Coyotes don’t really have the ability to understand that you’re shooting them with water and rather feel that you have a really, really long arm.”

According to Animal Control, these coyotes also appear to have a skin disease known as “mange,” causing irregular behavior and higher apparitions, however, there have been no reports of them showing aggression.

We reached out to animal control for a further comment, but we did not receive a response. If you encounter a coyote while driving around town, Animal Control officers request you report it. You can contact them by calling 512-260-4622.