A crew of animal-loving activists is answering the call of the wild — spending sleepless nights in the woods next to La Guardia Airport to protect a trio of orphaned coyotes that are being targeted as a menace.

The animal lovers have been shooing and chasing coyote pups since Thursday to keep them away from traps and cameras that belong to U.S. Department of Agriculture agents. The Port Authority, which operates the airport, called in the agents to exterminate the coyotes, officials said.

“Public safety comes first. There have been multiple reports this week of coyotes threatening airport and Port Authority workers at an airport parking lot,” said Port Authority spokeswoman Cheryl Albiez.

Parking lot attendant Emmanuel Effah, 60, said he was headed to his booth about two weeks ago when one of the pups started to follow him at the lot on Hazen Street in Queens on the edge of the airport.

“It chased me all the way to the corner over there,” said Effah. “So the guy in the booth saw I was in trouble. He came out and the animal jumped over the hill.”

The USDA killed nine of the coyotes living near the airport in the fall, agency officials said. That spurred activists to try to protect the animals.

“We are engaging in a lot of little battles to keep them alive,” said Frank Vincenti, who works as a barber on Long Island and has turned the plight of the coyotes into his pet project. “These coyotes are smart. They know the cars of the USDA agents. But we are trying to keep them from going out into the open where (agents) can track them.”

Rose Ortega, a La Guardia shuttle bus driver who has been helping with the coyote-protection efforts, said officials knew the coyotes were there when they built the lot and should relocate the animals.

“They knew these animals were here when they turned this mound into a parking lot,” said Ortega. “The animals shouldn’t have to suffer. Why can’t they just relocate them?”

The animals are just looking for food, said Ortega, who added that she has been picking up trash that the employees leave in the lot and telling them not to feed the pups.

She added that the animals would never threaten anyone.

“When I whistle to them, they come to the fence,” said Ortega. “All they want to do is play and eat.”

The activists are hoping to foil the USDA agents until they can get someone to take the animals to a sanctuary.

So far, a mother and father coyote and several of their pups have been killed, Vincenti said. There are only three pups – who Vincenti has named Dumbo, Tony, and Floppy – still alive.

PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien issued a statement calling the practice of killing coyotes “ineffective” and “cruel.”

“Curtailing food sources by enacting and enforcing a strict wildlife feeding prohibition, cutting back vegetation to reduce hiding places for coyotes and the rodents who are their preferred prey, and installing non-lethal deterrents will humanely encourage coyotes to move on naturally, and it’s the only long-term effective approach,” the statement said.