Coyote sightings—as well as gruesome descriptions of missing, mangled and half-eaten cats—are popping up with increasing frequency on Nextdoor and other social media sites, conjuring replies that either offer suggestions and sympathy or blame politicians for not ridding the state of predators.
Every year at this time, there seems to be an increase in sightings and concern that coyotes are becoming more invasive. Kyle Orr, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, has another explanation for what appears to be an upward trend—human invasion.
“It would follow that there would be more sightings,” Orr said. “We keep adding more people to the state, and we keep building farther into their habitat.”
Orr added that suburbs and residential areas have a lot of what coyotes want—more water, open spaces like parks and golf courses, and plentiful food sources, be they rodents or domestic pets—and they adapt readily to residential areas. Relocating them to the wild, he said, isn’t effective because “there is no ‘wild’ with coyotes.”
“They certainly can and do survive in wilderness, but if they feel like moving back, they will,” Orr said.
Historical incidents of coyote bounty hunting still didn’t eliminate coyotes, which Orr said was a good thing.
“Coyotes have their uses, such as keeping down the rodent population,” he said “We want people to cohabit with them and take common-sense precautions.”
Shut down Wile E.’s buffet
Both Orr and Ted Stevens, manager at Long Beach Animal Care Services, stressed the primary precaution of not feeding the animals, either deliberately or inadvertently.
“[Feeding them outright] is illegal,” Orr said. “And they don’t need the help. Once they’re in an area, they lose their fear of humans. So, limit their food sources.”
Coyotes will eat anything and everything—animals alive and dead, trash from uncovered cans, pet food left out and even fruit fallen from trees.
Stevens hasn’t observed a general increase in coyote behavior from year to year, but sightings do increase during the hot months, he said.
“It always picks up this time of year because coyotes are more active and they’re out later, and the pups are also coming out of the den,” Stevens said. “People are out doing things, too, so there’s more opportunity to see the coyotes.”
Self-education is always key
ACS’s Living with the Urban Coyote page has a link for reporting coyote activity, and a map pinpointing coyote sightings in Long Beach and the level of activity, from low to high. Other links include an overview of the urban coyote, cautions and precautions for pets and humans, and what to do if a coyote is encountered. Hazing, or jumping and yelling and waving your arms around to ward off the animals, is an often-suggested practice that Steven said has mixed results.
“I don’t know whether coyotes are becoming hardened to hazing or getting used to people,” Stevens said. “Certain coyotes are less responsive to hazing. I read comments like ‘I yelled and screamed and he didn’t run.’ It’s also hard to tell what kind of hazing is done—yelling through the screen door is less effective than screaming and clapping, or throwing something at them. As for the cats, we’re still having more of them killed by cars than by coyotes.”
In other words, the best place for cats is indoors, although there are examples of inventiveness for intractable felines who will not be brought indoors under any circumstances. These guys are usually former strays who haven’t totally acclimated to people.
The high-tech Center for Urban Resilience coyote-behavior study, a three-year assessment of coyote activity in Long Beach, is in its second year of operation, and Stevens is expecting to get good data about behavior and diet from scat analysis and information from the tracking devices on the trees. More community meetings may be scheduled as well.
In the meantime, Stevens advises residents to educate themselves via the wildlife page. Common-sense precautions on the page include the following:
- Never feed coyotes or any other wildlife.
- Keep pets and pet food indoors. If feeding pets outside, do so during the day (no more than one hour), and remove the food and water bowls when finished.
- Stay close to your pets when taking them outdoors, and always keep them on leashes, especially from dusk through early-morning hours.
- Remove fallen fruit from the ground.
- Bag food wastes such as meat scraps or leftover pet food, and keep trash in containers with tight-fitting lids.
- Use hazing techniques to shoo away coyotes. Examples are standing tall, yelling and waving arms while approaching the coyote; using a whistle, an air horn, a bell, a can of pennies or any other noisy device; banging pots or pans together; stomping your feet; using a water hose or pepper spray; or throwing tennis balls or rocks at the coyote.
- Never run away from a coyote.
Coyotes are indeed wily, and people need to be wilier than they are.