Coyote Sighted Near Poxabogue Golf Course

A coyote was spotted in the Hamptons early Friday enjoying a morning romp.

Dell Cullum, a nature photographer who trapped and photographed coyotes during a decade spent out west, was driving near the Sagaponack-Wainscott border behind the Poxabogue Golf Course at around 6 a.m. when he saw an animal running through a field.

"Immediately I said, 'That's no fox.' "

He followed it, at first in his car, yelling at it in the hope that it would turn so he could get a good front-face shot.

"It didn't look at me once, and that's when I knew it was a coyote." Coyotes ignore humans, he explained.

He got out of the car and ran after it with his camera. The coyote, bigger than a fox and with the gait of a canine, ran across the road to dart into the woods. "It stopped just long enough," Mr. Cullum said, for him to get a photo of its face.

The animal looked very healthy, he said. No mange could be seen on its fur. "It seems a little thick around the midsection," said the photographer. "I think it's out in that field filling that belly with rodents."

"It's clearly a coyote."

This was not the first time a coyote has been spotted on the South Fork. In July 2013, the State Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed that a photograph a Water Mill farmer took was, in fact, of a coyote.

Mr. Cullum, who called the D.E.C. after the sighting, said officials believe there are thousands of coyotes throughout the state, including on Long Island. The D.E.C. has not yet seen his photos.

In January, a friend of Mr. Cullum's, Allison Lupo, reported seeing an animal that she described as a German shepherd attacking a deer on Schellinger Road in Amagansett. Mr. Cullum set up cameras for three nights to no avail. However, as soon as Ms. Lupo saw the picture taken Friday, she said that was the type of animal she saw attacking the deer.

"They're here. They're dogs. They're smart. They're easily domesticated," Mr.Cullum said. "They feed off of small game, pets, rodents . . . and garbage. They love garbage, and that's what gets them close to people, and they only become an issue then."

Mr. Cullum, who runs a wildlife rescue and removal business in East Hampton, said he has coyote traps here. He has asked the D.E.C. if he could relocate an animal he traps. In the meantime, "I'm not going to mess with it until somebody calls me."

For more photos of the reported coyote, click here to visit Mr. Cullum's blog.

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