Editor,
With Orange County urban coyote problems more frequently in the news and to get a better understanding of these events, maybe it’s time to take a look at the history/evolution of coyote-human conflicts in Orange County.
From the mid 1800’s to the mid 1900’s, as wild lands were being converted to agricultural uses in a mostly rural county, coyotes were trapped, poisoned and shot by farmers, ranchers and others as killers of livestock and poultry. The surviving coyotes quickly learned to avoid direct human contact.
By the mid 1900’s, land use in Orange County began changing from humans living off-the-land to humans living on the land. Agricultural land started giving way to a more suburban less lethal environment for coyotes. Some coyotes soon learned that the risk of nighttime foraging into these new landscapes was a much less lethal and more productive strategy than their past encounters with armed farmers and ranchers.
Suburban areas with an almost inexhaustible supply of trash, pet food and small pets soon proved an irresistible new habitat for opportunistic coyotes living near our cities.
These new suburban coyotes, with little fear of people, soon learned to live in our cities, not just near them. In many cities, nighttime hunting was supplemented with increasingly bold daytime activities. With an ample food source, the number and survival rate of pups increased and populations soared to levels unsustainable in their natural habitat. These young coyotes were taught the art of urban foraging by their parents, who were now skilled at finding urban food sources, which sometimes includes our pets. We now have multiple generations of coyotes living amongst us with no link to the remaining wild lands in the county.
As these coyotes lost even more fear of people, they expanded deeper into our cities, becoming more aggressive, sometimes taking small dogs off the leash or attacking humans even in broad daylight.
Coyotes now can be found in most of the county’s cities, not just those with wild land borders. Some suburban coyotes have morphed into urban predators, living miles from wild lands, deep in populated areas.
Predictable aggressive coyote behaviors are outlined in “Coyote Attacks: An Increasing Suburban Problem,” by Rob Timm and Rex Baker, professors at the University of California and Cal Poly Pomona, respectively.
Greg Stewart, Laguna Beach
Maybe classes should be offered to the public to educate them on the eccology and natural history of Laguna Beach. There have been many other species of animals that have been lost to one sided editorials.
The same type of farming that existed in Laguna Beach in the 19th and 20th century exsist today. Because of the terrain that is perfect for wild deer cougar coyote bobcat skunks roadrunners and reptiles, is not farm land it is real estate because of Laguna Beach and it’s proximity to the ocean and natural food sources the earliest known remains of humans in North America is here. Because of migrations of Europeans from the east and by ship because of pelting of sea otter and pinepeds , the natural habitat was lost. The coyote remains one of the few mammals that have survived the evolution of industry. They are here for a reason, we may not know that reason, but that does not give a few people that still think like they are in the 19th century the right to exterminate instead of co exsist with these animals. It is a good reason to make sure domestic canines of breeding are sequestered physically or surgically to avoid hybrids because coyotes have kept themselves and their kind in balance, we are the ones; sadly that are out of balance with our environment.
Its interesting to see the people who do not support thr trapping of coyotes that have attacked people and or pets never offer up anything other than opinions. I’d really like to see some peer reviewed studies.
Beware of animal rights groups like Project Coyote’s propaganda
For a list of science based studies check out project coyote lies dot com