Predators Turned Into Prey : Coyotes, Bobcats, Foxes Trapped Outside Cheeseboro Preserve

A commercial trapper working with area ranchers recently killed dozens of coyotes, bobcats and gray foxes on private land surrounding the Cheeseboro Canyon tract of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, park officials say.

The trapper reported taking 112 coyotes, 60 bobcats and 80 gray foxes between Thanksgiving and the end of January, according to Bob Plantrich, a forester with the National Park Service.

Plantrich said some traps were set virtually on the boundary of the 2,100-acre Cheeseboro Canyon preserve in Agoura. “Of course, I feel bad about the wildlife, which obviously frequented the national park land,” Plantrich said. “But what the guy did was completely legal.”

Trapping is illegal except when permission is given by landowners or their agents.

Bob Wayne, a research associate at UCLA who is studying coyotes in the area, said it was “obscene that they did it so close to the national park.”

Cattle, Sheep Attacked

Repeated efforts to reach the trapper, Steve Clark of Bangor, Calif., were unsuccessful. But Hank Heeber III, an Agoura rancher who invited Clark to trap on thousands of acres he leases or manages, said that coyotes prey on his cattle and sheep, and that bobcats kill newborn lambs.

“Some people don’t understand why we have to trap,” Heeber said. “They think we do it out of the cruelty of our heart.”

Park officials said coyote sightings by visitors who hike and ride in Cheeseboro Canyon have dropped dramatically.

Wildlife experts said it is uncertain if the trapping will have a long-term effect on the population of the creatures, who are known for their resilience. Gordon Gould, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game, said dwindling numbers of coyotes and gray foxes tend to respond by bearing larger litters. And the percentage of bobcats, foxes and coyotes that breed goes up when their numbers go down, Gould said.

There is some confusion about the extent of the territory in which the animals were killed. Plantrich said the trapper described to him an area of roughly 10,000 to 12,000 acres, including Jordan Ranch and the China Flat area, both owned by Bob Hope; areas of the Simi Hills north of Cheeseboro, and the Las Virgenes Canyon, Laskey Mesa and Bell Canyon areas to the east of the preserve.

However, Heeber said Clark had trapped in a vast area of at least 30,000 acres, including land far northeast and northwest of the area Plantrich described.

Either way, some park officials and ranchers said they were startled by the reported number of trappings. The area “seems to be an even richer ecosystem than we first thought it to be,” Plantrich said.

The size of the kill seemed all the more surprising because other trappers are active in the area, officials said. According to Plantrich, Clark said he trapped south of the Ventura Freeway, but caught only six coyotes and three bobcats in two weeks. According to Plantrich, one of the coyotes was missing a foot and three were missing toes--fresh wounds indicating that other trappers were busy in the area.

Gould said the coastal chaparral of the Santa Monicas is the best in California and “among the best in the nation for supporting bobcat and gray fox.”

Recreation area officials first got wind of the trapping through their work with the UCLA researchers, who are studying the wildlife migration corridor believed to exist in the area around Cheeseboro Canyon. Large game, such as deer and coyotes, are believed to use this corridor to migrate between the Santa Monicas and the Santa Susana and San Gabriel mountains.

Track Movements

The migration theory could have implications on the density of major developments planned on the Jordan and Ahmanson ranches, west and east of Cheeseboro, respectively. To test the migratory patterns, UCLA researchers and park rangers had planned to capture several of the animals and fit them with radio collars to track their movements.

At first, this looked like it would be a cinch. In October and November, said Plantrich, it was common to see coyotes in Cheeseboro Canyon during the pre-dawn hours, and fresh coyote droppings were abundant. Using leg-hold traps with rubber padding, the researchers captured three coyotes, putting ear tags on two and a radio collar on a third. They apparently were not among those caught by trappers.

But in January, said Plantrich, when they tried to capture more, the coyotes seemed to have vanished. It was then that a nearby rancher reported that scores of coyotes had been trapped by Clark.

Trappers receive their income from the sale of pelts. Lately, said Gould, a coyote pelt fetches about $15, a gray fox $28 and a bobcat $130.

The extent of livestock losses to coyotes and bobcats--which mainly eat rodents--is a matter of dispute. Foxes do not attack cattle or sheep.

According to several area ranchers, coyotes like to attack cows when they lay on the ground in labor. It’s not uncommon to see cows “with their rear ends tore off from coyotes when they’re trying to have calves,” rancher Al McLaurin said.

Never Hear ‘Our Side’

“Nobody ever hears our side,” said Heeber, contending that the predatory habits of coyotes and bobcats cost him an average $7,000 per year. “We’re not out there to destroy wildlife,” said Heeber, who told of watering oak trees and feeding deer after a huge brush-fire a few years ago.

But some wildlife authorities say damage losses attributed to coyotes often are exaggerated. Wayne, the UCLA researcher, said coyotes that devour livestock that may have died from disease or natural causes, for example, sometimes are assumed to have killed them.

“Coyotes happen upon a dead animal . . . and it’s a free lunch for them. You really can’t blame them for eating them.”

Complaints about cattle and coyotes have caused special headaches for rangers at Cheeseboro Canyon. The lush, oak-dotted preserve was closed briefly to visitors last summer after one visitor complained of being bitten and others of being chased by coyotes. The park was reopened a few days later after a unsuccessful search for aggressive coyotes.

In January, 1987, an equestrian reported she was injured in a fall when her horse was spooked by cattle that wandered into the park from the Jordan Ranch to the west. According to park officials, there had been about a dozen such incursions in the prior three months. The following day, rangers impounded more than 40 head of cattle, according to district ranger Phil Young. He said ranchers and park officials since have worked together to repair fences.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a 150,000-acre patchwork of publicly owned mountain parks and beaches and private holdings stretching from Griffith Park in Los Angeles to Point Mugu State Park on the Ventura County coast.