NATCHEZ — A number of local residents report seeing coyotes in Natchez’s residential areas, but animal control experts say the sightings are no reason to panic.

Natchez’s animal control officer Randy Meyers said the coyotes are long-term residents of the city.

“They live all over the city,” Meyers said. “Natchez is full of ravines and wooded areas, and they just run all over town.”

Meyers has seen the animals in the ravine near Homochitto Street, behind Margaret Martin Performing Arts Center.

The coyotes, Meyers said, do not pose any threat to humans.

“As far as I know, nobody’s ever been bit by a coyote,” Meyers said. “But they do eat cats and small dogs.”

Cats can make up a significant portion of a coyote’s diet, Meyers said. He said lone coyotes have also been known to lure dogs into the woods to be ambushed by the entire pack.

Meyers recommends that animal lovers play loud music to deter the wild animals while small pets are in their yards and to stay close by when walking in wooded areas, because most coyotes will not approach humans.

Local resident Floyce Rosenthal said she saw a coyote near her house on the corner of Ratcliff Place and Melrose Avenue across from a marshy ravine.

“It was definitely a canine,” Rosenthal said. “And it was not a dog and not a wolf, so it had to have been a coyote.”

Rosenthal and her neighbors have witnessed the animal more than once, and she has been keeping her cat inside as a result.

Rosenthal said she hoped the coyote could be captured and relocated.

“I hate to see anything harmed, but my cat hasn’t been happy with me all day because he wants to be outside.”

Meyers said the catch-and-release idea hasn’t worked out so far.

“They won’t go in a trap, I’ve tried and tried,” Meyers said. “They’re too smart.”

Steel traps might be effective, Meyers said, but cannot be used in residential areas because they could injure or kill a dog or cat.

Duncan Park Golf Course Superintendent Greg Brooking found evidence of a coyote pack’s more appropriate meal in the woods around the golf course: an eight-point buck.

“I don’t know how big the deer itself was, because it’s completely eaten up,” Brooking said. “Only spots of hair and skull and bones.”

Meyers said a pack of coyotes is quite capable of taking down a deer by first tiring it out, then attacking in unison.

Brooking said he has not seen coyotes in the last three months, but he’s not bothered by the natural wildlife in the area.

“I’d prefer there not be coyotes,” Brooking said. “But we like the foxes and the rabbits and the deer and everything else that runs through here. They’re just in this area, so it’s quite natural.”

Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks classifies coyotes as nuisance animals, and requires anyone 16 years of age or older who traps on any land other than their own to acquire a trapping license. Coyotes can be hunted, day or night, by a licensed hunter following regulations that can be found at www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/nuisance-wildlife.aspx.