Arlington has coyotes, but not the howling type Arlington County released video Tuesday that confirmed what many had suspected: They've got coyotes too. Arlington has had alleged sightings of coyotes, but no real confirmation until this video shot last month at Potomac Overlook Regional Park, Arlington's natural resources manager, Alonso Abugattas, said. Fairfax had its first sighting in 2000, and coyotes were spotted in Rock Creek Park in D.C. in 2004, according to this detailed story by Gregg MacDonald in the Fairfax County Times last year. Though coyotes are vicious predators, they generally leave humans alone, and they are expected to be good for our particular environment: they eat rats, foxes, feral cats, even the occasional smaller deer, Abugattas said, all animals who are either overpopulated or who harm the ground-nesting birds of this region. And while East Coast coyotes tend to be bigger than their West Coast kin, making their eventual rap war that much more interesting, they are not big on howling, Abugattas said. No classic baying at the moon or loud yowling for party friends. Just nighttime prowling, probably along the Potomac in the Arlington area, Abugattas said. Arlington also notes they have not been seen chasing any roadrunners, a joke I was not going to make. Here's more detailed info on their discovery in Arlington.