The scary part was that there were definately at least several, and maybe more. I've always thoughy coyotes were either solitary or worked in pairs, and the fact that there were clearly a bunch of them, coupled with the howling (honestly sounded just like wolves, and I didn't think coyotes howl like that) made me think they there coy-wolves.
Small feral dogs make coyote sounds. I had another relative that had a dog problem. the whole pack was started by a husky dam and a kelpie sire. they ended up with a bunch of wild inbred dogs that ate the weaker tamer of their pack. in a few years there were dogs that lived in the ditches and the berms and the tree lines. They got smaller every generation. Ended up about 15-20 lbs and creepy little animals that scurried around in the shadows.
They made sounds exactly like a coyote. eventually he had to kill them all. Traps and poison. They became a threat to neighbors.
They run in packs at night - running deer, especially. Our coyotes look a lot like Siberian Huskies - hear them yipping through my woods at night.
A little leary to go off into the woods alone anymore as they are getting pretty thick and some are agressive.
Had a couple 'hits' where my dog warned me, very quietly, that we had to get out of the area - He will usually set up a furious racket if he hears anything and would take on a moose without a second thought (He's a Shiba Inu, but thinks big and is fearless - and will not back down, except when it comes to coyotes.
The incidences in the woods, he just quietly alerted me and then dragged me back to the road. I knew enough to 'obey' as he's trained not to pull.
The first night he heard them running through the woods outside the house, he quietly came up on the bed and poked me with his paw on my chest until I woke up. I opened my eyes and he was staring me eyeball to eyeball. He made a quiet little "wuff wuff' and motioned towards the window.
I wondered what was going on and then I heard the pack. I had to laugh. It was like he was saying: "There's danger nearby. Be very quiet."
Their advantage to eating humans is we are an easy snack...No fur or tough hide to chew throught to get to the meat. No fangs or claws to fight back and cannot kick like a deer....