As coyotes find their way into more urban areas of Orange County, cities are coping with how to address residents concerns and prevent attacks.

In a public workshop Tuesday evening, April 25, Costa Mesa unveiled its coyote management plan, which is broken into three parts: public education, following laws that prohibit feeding wildlife and a balanced response to human and coyote interactions.

“We’re right by the back bay and the Santa Ana River,” said Costa Mesa police Lt. Victor Bakkila, who heads the department’s animal control division, adding that Talbert Park and the city’s open space is going to attract the animals.

No hard data exists to determine if the number of coyotes in the city has increased, Bakkila said, although a California Department of Fish and Game representative told Anaheim residents at a similar workshop last week that sightings across the county are up.

To monitor the coyote population within its borders, the city has created a hotline to report sightings and encounters, and partnered with the University of California education system, which created the Coyote Cacher, a website that tracks coyote encounters based on reports from residents throughout the state.

The site has around 400 reports of coyote sightings since it began tracking them in February, said Niamh Quinn, a human-wildlife interactions advisor with the UC Cooperative Extension in Irvine. The purpose is to document hotspots area where coyotes frequent.

“It’s not unusual for them to be found in urban areas,” Quinn said. “You have to try and make these areas not attractive to coyotes.”

Quinn said leaving pets unattended and food and water out is an invitation for coyotes, who are constantly on the hunt.

Boxed in by more real estate developments and other factors, coyotes can no longer hunt in their natural habitat so they venture into neighborhoods to look for food. It is not uncommon for them to dig through trash, look for outdoor pet food and in some cases eat small pets or animals.

Orange County residents have complained in recent years of coyotes encroaching onto their property and hostile interactions.

Anaheim residents asked the city to address the issue last week after reports of sightings on the city’s west side, far from Anaheim Hills where the animals have always had a presence.

To prevent aggressive behavior, the Costa Mesa Police Department recommends that residents employ hazing, a series of scare tactics such as standing your ground, making unpleasant or frightening noises or approaching coyotes in an aggressive manner to instill fear.

“Some coyotes have become too comfortable living in close proximity of humans,” the management plan states. “For coyotes to safely coexist with people, they need to fear and avoid contact with humans.”

“We want the coyote to look at a human and not feel anything but fear,” Bakkila said.

To offer the proper response when a sighting is reported, the city created a colored threat level system to classify the types of human-coyotes interactions.

Level green behavior means a coyote has been seen or heard passing through an area. Hazing may be needed depending on the circumstance.

Yellow indicates a coyote is frequently seen in an area and possibly moving toward or following people or pets. In that case, aggressive hazing would be needed and the public would be notified.

The most serious of the tired system, red, means a coyote has attacked a human or pet. That animal would be trapped and euthanized.

If a coyote is thought to be a habitually aggressive, the city will contract with a certified trapper to catch the animal so it can be euthanized, Bakkila said.

Most sightings occur between May, when they give birth to several pups, and October, when some those pups are separate from the pack and wonder elsewhere, he said.

If you encounter a coyote, contact the city’s animal control coyote hotline at 714-754-4899.

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