Years ago while riding my bike on my daily commute, here in Pasadena California, I was bitten by a coyote. I think it took my shoe for a wounded bird. The natural rotation of my leg jerked it out of the coyote’s mouth. I had an old Peugot road bike with a derailer that had a screw that often came loose dropping you into the lowest gear. This happened at the moment that I attempted to sprint away, dropping me into my lowest gear. Coyotes do not sprint away after their victims but lope along at a pace of the victim waiting for them to tire. I finally in exhaustion decided to treat it like a dog. I threw my right arm back in a point and screamed “STAY’, and much to my surprise he did. When I looked back finally he was just standing there where I had shouted, just looking at me. Incidentally coyotes, unlike dogs, run silently on pavement. I didn’t know he was there till he grabbed my leg.
Incidentally, the mountain lion killed the biker and severely injured another biker.

I've never had any trouble from coyotes other than them stealing poultry from me.

The ones around here are elusive and are usually seen dashing at high speed from one draw to the next.

If I see ANY wild animal stand it's ground or come at me I would conclude that it is diseased.

By the way, I can go out any night of the week and listen to the coyotes sing.

Here's a shot taken from my back door.

http://users.cis.net/coldfeet/fields.jpg

It is not the coyotes you need to worry about, it is the big kitty. Someone killed a 200 lb. mountain lion in western Iowa.

Cannot post picture successfully.

>>>listen to the coyotes sing

Their Latin name is Canis latrans. . ."singing dog".