Wild Neighbors : Coyotes, Bobcats Can Drop by for a Bite Where Suburban Meets Rural

Residents of new suburban homes in some parts of south Orange County are occasionally startled by flyers they receive on their doorsteps.

The flyers, entitled Coyote Alert, warn that the cute-looking, doglike animals people may be seeing around their neighborhood are actually wild and potentially dangerous. The flyers--distributed by Orange County animal control as recently as two weeks ago after coyotes attacked a horseback rider in San Juan Capistrano--are not meant to alarm residents, officials stress.

“It’s just something we routinely do,” explained Sgt. Marie Hulett-Curtner of the Orange County animal control department. “We distribute these flyers in many neighborhoods. We try to tell people who have homes in areas where coyotes also live that everybody--animals and people--can coexist. There are just some common-sense rules people need to follow.”

The incident with the coyotes is symbolic of a growing phenomenon in Southern California: Suburbanites and wild animals are increasingly becoming close neighbors.

“I think two things have occurred which are increasing people’s encounters with wild animals” in Southern California, said Bob Ballenger, executive assistant in the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control. “One thing is that more houses are being built in areas where wild animals live. And the second thing is that the drought these past five years is forcing more wild animals from their natural habitat in search of food and water.”

In Ventura County, encounters with wild animals are very common. Kathy Jenks said she get many calls about “strange animals,” and some involve bears in the neighborhoods.

Jenks is the Camarillo-based director of Ventura County’s Department of Animal Regulation. She said that although she’s received hundreds of phone calls from Ventura County residents about wild animals, one stands out in her memory.

“It was from my 75-year-old mother, who lives in Ojai,” said Jenks. “She called and asked where my gun was. I asked her why, and she said that a bear was up the street on a neighbor’s tennis court. She said she was going to help capture it.”

As it turned out, the county animal control officers handled the bear problem nicely, without the help of neighborhood vigilantes. In this case, Jenks said, the bear was suffering from an earlier bullet wound and had to be euthanized.

But in other cases--and there are many in Ventura County, Jenks said--the wandering bears are simply tranquilized, hauled off and later released back into the wild.

“We’ve had an increase in wild animals coming into populated areas in recent years,” Jenks noted. “It’s the drought.”

It’s the drought and a lot of other factors, animal experts say: The spurt of new subdivisions has encroached onto once-rural land and the wildlife that depends on it.

Earlier this month, a juvenile bobcat was captured by animal control officers at an Orange County shopping center after it had scampered into a Mission Viejo gift shop. It apparently was flushed from a field by workers at a construction site on Olympiad Road, where the city is expanding eastward. The 10-plus-pound female spotted and striped cat was returned to the wild.

“They usually keep to themselves off in the woods somewhere,” Mark McDorman, chief of animal control field services for the county, said after the Jan. 15 incident. “We really don’t run across them. This one was probably disturbed by the work there.”

The capture was the second encounter between a bobcat and people in Orange County this month. On Jan. 10, a San Juan Capistrano man was treated at a local hospital after being scratched on a hillside near his home by a bobcat that he mistook for a stray cat. The animal clawed his hands as he attempted to pick it up, McDorman said.

Capt. Bill Powell, a San Diego County-based employee of the state Department of Fish and Game, said suburban development is increasingly shoving out wildlife in regions that even five years ago were mostly the domain of animals.

Moreover, he added, the people who move into suburbia “put out a ready-made grocery store for the wild animals: succulent lawns, garbage cans, and cats and other little animals running around.”

So what seems to be an animal influx is actually more encounters as humans and animals occupy the same space.

“We’re seeing coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks, mountain lions and bears” even in built-up areas, Ballenger said. “Coyotes are becoming very adept with living in urban areas. Some coyotes are even living near the San Diego Freeway. They’re speedy and crafty and very skilled hunters. Coyotes go after targets of opportunity: garbage, if it’s available, otherwise live animals, such as cats. To a coyote, a cat can look an awful lot like a raccoon.”

And given the mix of density, wildlife and drought, the increase in encounters is not surprising.

In Los Angeles County, officials report a 33% increase in wildlife calls during the past five years. Orange County officials say wild animals of all types are increasingly seen in new subdivisions.

Although recent rains eased the water situation for wildlife, earlier dry periods have cut back the amount of grazing and natural food--both plant and animal. That means more animals and reptiles than ever before are attracted to streets and yards.

“The drought has made it worse on the animals, and they’re searching for food and water in areas they normally wouldn’t,” said Curt Taucher, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.

Even rattlesnakes have migrated in recent years in search of food and water. Los Angeles County officials reported that rattlers last year became far more visible in developed areas fringing Malibu and Agoura Hills. And the number of skunks rose markedly last year in the Palos Verdes Peninsula for the same reasons, officials said.

Most wild animals still remain leery of humans and are easily scared off, animal control experts said. But coyotes are becoming something of an exception, experts added. They are beginning to thrive in heavily developed areas and seem to have little fear of humans.

In Orange County, animal control officials distribute the “Coyote Alert” flyers to give residents some simple rules on how to coexist with the wild animals, Hulett-Curtner said. Last spring, a coyote attacked a toddler in the posh rural Coto de Caza area of Orange County, biting the child before being scared off by the parents.

In the incident between coyotes and a horseback rider in San Juan Capistrano two weeks ago, Barbara Martiens, 22, of Mission Viejo was uninjured, but her horse received minor wounds after being bitten in the rear right leg, authorities said.

The attack occurred on an equestrian trail used by riders who board their horses at stables alongside Trabuco Creek. Animal Control Sgt. Brian Frick patrolled out of the stables for five days to monitor the coyotes, firing his shotgun a few times to scare away the coyotes that had come too close to his horse. Frick also handed out flyers to other riders and encouraged them to carry sticks and rocks to throw at the coyotes if the animals came too close.

Frick also advised the equestrians to ride in pairs and avoid riding between dusk and dawn.

“We’ve determined that the attack was an isolated incident,” said McDorman of county animal control. “It’s not a real common occurrence for a coyote to attack a larger animal like a horse. They are not aggressive, but curious . . . and chicken enough to run if you scare them away.”

Other common-sense rules to apply in areas that coyotes frequent include: not leaving small pets outside at night in semirural areas, never leaving toddlers and young children outside unattended and never feeding coyotes.

“Some people will leave food out for coyotes because they feel sorry for them, but that doesn’t help the coyote learn to take care of itself,” Hulett-Curtner said.

Mountain lions are another animal that has occasionally been spotted in suburban yards in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The sightings usually produce panic, all the more so since the well-publicized separate attacks of mountain lions on two children in Orange County in 1986.

The two attacks took place in a sprawling, rural park--not a developed suburban one. Nonetheless, the incidents heightened public awareness of the fact that mountain lions still live in now heavily populated counties.

Mountain lions sometimes venture from the wilds to forage in people’s back yards. In March, 1988, police in Yorba Linda shot to death a 120-pound female mountain lion as it crouched near a hedge where children had been leaving school.

State and local animal control employees try to save most wild animals that stray into civilization. “Everything gets returned to the wild,” said Ventura County’s Jenks. She and other animal officials said they usually try to trap or tranquilize stray wildlife. The animals and reptiles are killed only as a last resort.

“They were here first,” Jenks pointed out. And one reason people move out of cities is to enjoy rural life, including its wildlife.

Times staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.

Coyote Cautions

State and local animal-control officials warn city and suburban residents to be cautious about coyotes in urban areas.

Officials suggest the following:

* Do not leave pet food outside in dishes.

* Put garbage in strong containers with tight lids.

* Clear brush and dense weeds from around the home.

* Keep cats and small dogs inside or in well-fenced places.

* Do not leave small children unattended outside.

* Never try to capture, feed or pet a coyote.

Source: Orange County animal control