Coyote Tales Give Pause

Southern California coyotes share a lot of qualities with Southern California humans. That’s why they keep getting into trouble. The coyotes, that is.

Like people, coyotes love suburban living. They enjoy the good life among the tended houses that sprouted up in their territory.

Coyotes, like most humans, prefer their rats dead. And though they sometimes go to great trouble to find a good meal of lapin sans moutarde (coyote for “rabbit, hold the mustard sauce”), they’re always up for fast food. Except the coyote version of a Happy Meal is human garbage -- or maybe your cat.

Complaints about coyotes shot up markedly in the last year. The Los Angeles Animal Regulation Commission agreed in June to trap aggressive animals after complaints surged around the city. Human residents of Silver Lake complained anew in September after a coyote snatched a pet Chihuahua from a yard.

Most recently, a group of Leisure World residents in south Orange County is demanding that wildlife officials excise the coyotes, which pay no attention to the gated community’s borders. Leisure World is their neighbor, edged by two wilderness parks. A creek, a favorite coyote entertainment center, runs right through it. The retirement community’s lush landscaping is great for hiding and attracts lots of rats and rabbits .

The more serious part of the human-coyote clash is that, according to wildlife officials, some coyotes are getting more aggressive. In a coyote’s view, we humans are less intimidating than we look from a distance. The dry weather also has drawn more coyotes to well-watered suburbia.

Southern California recorded 17 coyote attacks against humans in 2001. In the most serious incident, a coyote went after three children at a San Clemente elementary school, biting one on the back of the head. There were only three attacks the year before.

Fortunately, the rains are here and that will mean more coyote dining in the wild and less in frontyards.

Officials are willing to kill aggressive coyotes, but further effort is useless. Like any annoying neighbors, when old coyotes leave or die, new ones move in. They also birth bigger litters when heavily hunted. On the up side, they keep rat populations down.

Wildlife officials keep telling humans the same things about how to discourage coyotes: Bring your pets and their food indoors. Keep a tight lid on trash. Less clever and adaptable than coyotes, humans ignore this.