NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

Huntington Beach residents in the Sea Aira Mobile Home Estates at Warner Avenue near Bolsa Chica are being hounded by coyotes.

While these wild animals don’t normally bother adult humans, they definitely kill cats and small dogs. Coyotes have been known to attack unattended small children, and there is even a report of a coyote having killed an unattended 3-year-old. Reports of coyote attacks on adult humans are also on the rise, so be cautious when you see one.

Coyotes have expanded their range to include suburban areas like Huntington Beach as well as highly urbanized Los Angeles. They den in flood control channel, and at the Bolsa Chica wetlands, Huntington Wetlands and Central Park. They’re highly adaptable, which is one reason why their population is expanding. Coyotes are basically scavengers, and they will eat small animals, insects, carrion, berries, fruit, food trash and pet food.

Coyotes communicate with other coyotes by howling. They yelp and yip, particularly when pups are playing or the female brings food back to a den. But if a coyote barks at you, watch out. That’s a coyote threat. They’re trying to back you off with a bark, which is often used to protect a den or a kill.

Vic and I hope people can learn to live with coyotes. These animals are smart. They have to be to survive in an urban environment. We’ve heard tales of coyotes looking one way for traffic, crossing Goldenwest Street to the center divider when it’s safe, then sitting down and waiting for traffic coming from the other direction to clear before proceeding to the other side of Central Park. Not many domestic dogs are that smart.

When I was restoration coordinator at Shipley Nature Center a few years ago, we were particularly bothered every spring by teething coyote pups. They seemed to take great delight in chewing through our hoses. They chewed on and pulled up flags that marked native plants. They even dug up and ate the irrigation gel that we used to water newly installed plants.

It was like having several puppies on the loose with no one around to say “bad dog.” Mama coyote brought many a dead cat into the nature center, as well as some of the domestic geese that swam at Huntington Lake. Their antics, performed at night and out of our sight, were at times amusing and at times severely frustrating. But we never felt threatened. Coyotes are generally afraid of humans, and they always ran from us.

However, we’re hearing more stories of coyotes standing their ground when people are present. They seem to be growing accustomed to people. And that’s bad. People who feed coyotes are major contributors to this problem, acclimating coyotes to the presence of people. Coyotes need to stay wild. If you see one and it isn’t avoiding you, the authorities say to yell at it. Make it run away. That’s the only way to keep them wild. If coyotes are out in the daytime in your neighborhood, carry a walking stick or even an air horn to scare them off.

Some of the ways in which people can help keep coyotes wild are to never feed them, keep pet food inside, keep small pets inside from dusk to dawn, and don’t leave children unattended, even in your own backyard, if there are coyotes in your neighborhood.

We’ve also heard a number of stories recently about people walking their dogs being attacked by other dogs off leash. That’s another good reason for carrying a weapon of some sort. Actually, the odds of being attacked by a domestic dog are far greater than being bitten by a coyote.

So enjoy the sightings of these wily survivors. They’re trying to make it in an ever-changing world of ever-shrinking wild habitat.

But if you or a pet are attacked by a coyote, be sure to call the senior volunteers office for the California Department of Fish and Game at (562) 596-3885 and report it.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.