First in a series.
Coyotes remain a hot topic on local social media. Whether that’s because of increased coyote activity in the world or increased human social media activity about coyotes is unclear.
On the Friday evening before Labor Day, three people told a Sun employee that they saw a coyote on the Greenbelt, between the Mary Wilson Library and the Red Car. The employee did not see the coyote.
In July, a coyote expert told the Sun that coyote activity was normal for the season. (See “Coyote activity called normal” at sunnews.org.)
Pet owners are worried about their pets.
What should be done about coyotes is another issue. The Seal Beach Coyote Management Plan encourages the public to “haze” the animals. Others believe coyotes are a part of nature and should be left alone.
This is the start in a series about the urban coyotes that live in our area.
“Yes, we have received reports involving coyotes and deceased animals, but I think some context is important,” wrote Seal Beach Police Capt. Nick Nicholas in an Aug. 13 email.
Nicholas is the SBPD’s Support Services captain. His responsibilities include running the city’s in-house animal control program.
“The reports we have received generally involve other wildlife, such as rabbits, birds, squirrels, or unidentified animals that were reportedly killed by coyotes or were found deceased in an area where coyotes were also observed,” Nicholas wrote.
“I would also caution against treating every report we receive as a confirmed event. We document information provided to us by residents, but in most cases we are not independently verifying whether a coyote actually killed an animal, whether the animal was already deceased, or sometimes even whether the animal involved was a coyote. These reports are useful for identifying trends and understanding what residents are observing, but they should not necessarily be interpreted as independently confirmed findings,” Nicholas wrote.
“Coyotes are opportunistic predators, and rabbits, rodents, birds, squirrels, and other small animals are part of their normal diet. Unfortunately, unattended cats and small dogs can also be vulnerable. Seeing a coyote carrying prey, feeding on an animal, or near a deceased animal is therefore not necessarily evidence of abnormal or unusually aggressive behavior. Daytime activity is not, by itself, abnormal either,” Nicholas wrote.
Not everyone has heard about coyote activity in their neighborhood.
Patty Campbell, who edits the College Park East Neighborhood Association newsletter, wrote in a Aug. 14 email that she had not heard of any coyote activity in College Park East. “Usually that happens in the spring when they have young they are taking care of,” Campbell wrote.
“Coyotes have been a long term issue here, as you know. Haven’t heard anything recently. I hear more from the rest of SB,” wrote District Five (Leisure World) Councilman Nathan Steele.
Some sightings can be confirmed. Debbie Fawcett of CatPAWS photographed a coyote on July 31 as the coyote walked between homes, occasionally stopping to lay down.
“The skinny coyote walked between the homes and lay down. I started toward him and he got up, so I backed off,” Fawcett wrote.
On Aug. 4, resident Bruce Bennett texted the Sun a photograph of a coyote on Fourth Street, standing over what appeared to be a dead animal of some sort. It was not possible to tell from the photo if the coyote had killed the smaller animal or if the coyote had simply found the body.
Whether social media reports are the best information source is another question.
“We do not monitor Nextdoor, and I would not consider it a reliable source for determining the extent of coyote activity in the community. It is a social media platform where information is frequently unverified, incomplete, duplicated, or several steps removed from the person who actually witnessed an event. Posts often lack a specific date, time, location, or enough firsthand information to determine what actually occurred,” Nicholas wrote.
“There is also a real danger in giving too much weight to that type of information,” Nicholas wrote.
“One person may post that they heard a cat was killed. Someone else repeats that coyotes are killing cats in the neighborhood. Another person then reports hearing that several cats have been killed. Before long, a single unverified story has turned into a supposed pattern of confirmed incidents. It becomes a vicious game of telephone, and social media can amplify that process very quickly,” Nicholas wrote.
“We are certainly aware of the number of recent sightings being discussed, particularly on social media, and there does appear to be increased public attention on the issue,” Nicholas wrote in an Aug. 10 email.
“That includes the discussions generated by your recent articles, which have likely made more people aware of coyotes and more inclined to report or post about what they are seeing,” Nicholas wrote. (See “Coyote activity called normal” at sunnews.org.)
“That increased discussion is useful because it keeps the community informed, but it can also create the impression that coyote activity has suddenly increased when what we may actually be seeing is an increase in reporting and awareness. Much of what we are hearing remains anecdotal. Daytime activity by itself is also not necessarily unusual. Coyotes in urban environments can be active during both the day and night, particularly when moving between areas, searching for food, caring for young, or adapting to human activity,” Nicholas wrote on Aug. 10.
Next: Residents concerned