In just 24 hours, two different coyotes have caused vehicle accidents in Geary County.

The first accident was around 6:30 am on Monday, February 13th on Highway 77 mile marker 167. Geary County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a single vehicle non-injury accident where a coyote ran in front of a vehicle driven by Georgeann Wilken of Clay Center and she was unable to avoid striking the animal.

On the same day just after 10:00 pm Deputies responded to a Interstate 70 mile marker 311 where Dalvin Drinkard, Fort Riley, overcorrected and struck a guardrail in order to avoid a coyote.

What in the world is going on?

Jesse Gehrt, Kansas Wildlife Parks and Tourism Game Warden, said that the incidents aren’t an immediate cause for concern.

“Normally it’s really cold this time of year, but now it’s a little warmer – my personal opinion is that [they] are probably just out getting a jump on a little bit of hunting, and seeing what’s going on,” said Gehrt.

Coyotes are generally considered to be an intelligent animal – why are they running toward moving traffic?

“From what I’ve seen, most of the coyotes accidents happen at night and I don’t know if it’s just the warmer weather that’s causing them to move around a little bit more…I think it’s just by chance that they get hit, they are a very smart animal…but it’s just like anything, you know – they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Gehrt.

Gehrt said there’s no immediate risk of increased coyote sightings.

“From what I’ve seen [they] are pretty uniform really, especially out in the rural areas you’re going to see them – where you’re really not going to see them, but in theory you’ll see them pretty evenly dispersed; but in Geary County, not necessarily,” said Gehrt. “A lot of times they’re concentrated more around food sources like a cattle feedlot, or a farmer’s cow died out in the pasture – you’re going to see them frequent that area a lot more; as far as around town, it’s kind of the age old thing – we as a people are moving out into their territory, especially west of Junction City where it’s really expanding – their territory or their home ground is slowly getting taken away.”

According to Gehrt, the two accidents involving coyotes were nothing more than a coincidence.

It is worth noting that both accidents occurred during dark or early morning/evening hours.