By Charles M. Kelly
The Seal Beach Coyote Management Plan is under review pending an update, according to Seal Police Capt. Nick Nicholas. Capt. Nicholas, the support services captain for the Seal Beach Police Department, gave the City Council a presentation about coyotes during the June 23 council meeting. Nicholas said the Coyote Management Plan was adopted in 2015 and would be refined this spring.
“Look for that in the next coming weeks,” he said.
The council took no action at the June 23 meeting.
The following is not a transcript, but highlights from the presentation.
Dr. Ted Stankowich, director of the CSULB Mammal Lab spoke to the council before Capt. Nicholas did. (The logo for the Mammal Lab shows a skunk raising its tail to an approaching coyote.) Stankowich has a Ph.D. in animal behavior from UC Davis.
Stankowich said coyotes are everywhere. He said they were the most prevalent predators in urban areas all over the country.
“Our focus in my lab is to learn about how coyotes perceive their environment: How they learn about their natural prey, how we can use this knowledge to reduce conflict between humans and our pets and the coyotes,” he said.
Stankowich said the Urban Wildlife Information Network currently had 42 cameras all over Orange County. Stankowich said there were “a couple” of cameras in Seal Beach.
He said the network loses two or three cameras a year. He said the cameras get vandalized.
Stankowich said they had done studies of the coyote’s diet. According to his slide presentation, scat analysis found human food in 14% of the scat and cat remains in another 14%.
Stankowich said a survey of pet owners found that cats that spend more time outdoors have more negative experiences with coyotes. “But no effect with that in dogs,” Stankowich said.
“Smaller dogs are clearly at higher risk of being attacked by a coyote,” Stankowich said.
“But most interesting to us in my world, dogs with more contrasting colors, more black and white in their coat, are less affected by coyotes,” Stankowich said.
(An earlier slide in his presentation showed a coyote carrying a black and white cat in its mouth.) According to Stankowich, scientists think that coyotes fear skunks.
He said coyotes mate in the early part of the year. (January to March, according to the slides.) “That’s the one time of the year when large dogs are a little bit more at risk,” Stankowich said.
He said the young were born a couple of months later. Coyotes have one litter a year.
“They feed on their own right about now,” Stankowich said.
“Then they start to leave their parents and go off on their own at six to nine months,” Stankowich said.
He said pairs stay together for years.
According to Stankowich, urban coyotes eat small mammals, garbage, pet food, domestic pets, dead animals, fruits, vegetation, and insects.
Stankowich said coyote take thousands of rodents out of back yards every year.
He said there has never been a formal study of coyotes in Seal Beach. “My best guess is 30 to 40 animals in the area,” Stankowich said. This was based on typical urban coyote density of 0.5 to 2.5 coyotes per square miles. “But remember, coyotes don’t follow boundaries,” Stankowich said.
According to Stankowich, the vast majority of wild coyotes are going to have a natural fear of humans.
Referring to the bell-shaped curve with more aggressive coyotes on one end of the curve, Stankowich said urban coyotes would be on the bolder side of the curve.
He said the coyotes that move into urban areas are the ones that are bold enough to go into an unfamiliar habitat to make their homes.
He said urban coyotes may show a reduced fear of humans.
“If they are not harassed they can become more aggressive; be more willing to take more pets more often,” Stankowich said.
“The most aggressive, problem animals may even stalk or attack children or attack pets being walked on a leash,” Stankowich said.
(As previously reported, the only fatal attack on a human by a coyote in California took place in 1981. The victim was 3 years old.)
“Those are the ones that need to be removed,” Stankowich said.
He said he only knew of one coyote attack on an adult human being in the last 50 years and that was in Canada. He said there were more mountain lion attacks on humans than coyote attacks. He said there were higher rates of attacks in Southern California than other areas.
He said older studies found that 75% of coyotes need to be “taken out” annually to control their numbers. According to Stankowich, elimination would take decades.
He said poisons and toxins are restricted. They can kill other animals.
He said relocation is not legal in California without a special permit. He said he’d never heard of it happening. “For the most part everything is just capture and kill,” Stankowich said.
According to Stankowich, killing the dominant pair of coyotes could lead to “transient animals” coming into the area and having more pups. “Taking away one animal can lead to more animals,” Stankowich said.
He said you would never eliminate coyotes from the area because they’re coming in from outside the borders.
What can people do?
He said fences are expensive. According to Stankowich, sounds and strobe lights can be effective in the short term, but coyotes will adjust. He said removing problem animals can re-instill fear in the remaining coyote population.
Stankowich said the best practice is an active public program urging the public to re-instill fear in coyotes. He recommended hazing (harassment) of coyotes. “Make every one afraid of humans,” Stankowich said.
Best practices include remove garbage, dense yard vegetation, pet food, and fallen fruits. He advised keeping small pets inside or in enclosed outdoor kennels. He also said people who intentionally feed coyotes should be cited.
District Four Councilwoman Patty Senecal asked how tall do fences have to be.
Stankowich said he had heard from 6 feet to 8 feet tall, with roller bars on top of the fence. “That is important because they can jump over fences really easily, but having a roller bar on top makes it hard for them to sort of scamper over it,” Stankowich said.
Senecal asked him to describe hazing.
“Anything you can do to be as aggressive and loud and scary as you possibly can,” Stankowich said.
He said to haze the coyote even when the coyote is far down the street.
“Give people noise makers to take out with them or when they walk their dogs,” Stankowich said.
Senecal asked how to tell if a coyote is hyper aggressive.
According to Stankowich, if the coyote is willing to approach a human, the coyote is aggressive.
He recommended picking up your dog if a coyote continues to approach you.
“They should not be approaching a human at any time. Even if you have a dog, most coyotes won’t do that,” Stankowich said.
“Those that are still interested in that dog and are willing to approach you at the same time, that’s the problem animal,” Stankowich said.
Stankowich said that it isn’t always aggressive behavior that makes coyotes follow people. He said if you’re near their den, coyotes will “escort” you out of the area, walking along with you to escort you out of the area near their pups.
Senecal said the city has an app for reporting coyotes, as well as the new coyote portal. According to Senecal, people are posting about coyotes on Nextdoor“By the time you post it, they’ve already moved,” Senecal said.
He said coyotes in the daytime is not abnormal.
Stankowich said he was not on Nextdoor and had been able to avoid it.
“The problem animals are the ones that need to be reported,” Stankowich said.
“If you’re in doubt, report it,” Stankowich said.
District Five Councilman Nathan Steele, he said he lived in Leisure World where the standard dog is a small white dog. He said he felt like he was trolling for coyotes when he walks his dog around his neighborhood.
Someone in the Council Chambers laughed.
“We see a lot of coyotes there,” Steele said.
He asked if there was any correlation between bird feeders and the coyote population.
Stankowich said bird feeders are probably not a major cause of the problem.
Capt. Nicholas had his own presentation.
He covered some of the same information that Dr. Stankowich brought up. Nicholas said residents can request a yard audit to identify coyote attractants.
“We’ve done press releases and updated our website,” he said.
According to Nicholas, the city’s coyote portal has received 38 reports. Based on that, the SBPD is not seeing any significant trends.
District Two Councilman Ben Wong asked how effective has the message been to keep small dogs and cats indoors.
“It’s hard to gauge,” Nicholas said.
“I grew up in Malibu and about once a year one of our cats got killed by a coyote, so I’m definitely sympathetic to the individuals, but it’s super important to keep your animals inside especially at night,” Nicholas said.
District One Council Member Joe Kalmick asked who makes the decision to call the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to seek permission to remove an aggressive coyote.
Nicholas said the animal control officer, working with the watch commander and Capt. Nicholas (who is in charge of the animal control program) will make that decision with the help of experts like Dr. Stankowich.
