Drought and Development Push Coyotes Near Homes

Last month, Mandeville Canyon homeowner Randy Jacobs followed the morning ritual of sending his three Yorkshire terriers through a kitchen doggy door into the back yard. But awaiting their arrival was one wily coyote, who snapped one of the dogs up in its jaws and disappeared over a six-foot chain-link fence as Jacobs looked on helplessly.

Neighbor Maureen Gratten watched the coyote scamper through her yard, where she plays with her month-old twins and two older children. After several other coyote sightings, she says, the older children are afraid to play outside and she and her husband fear for their safety.

“I don’t like to see dogs get killed, but my biggest concern is the children,” said Gratten’s husband, Claude Dorais. “To a coyote, a little baby and a little dog are the same. They’re food.”

Over the years, Los Angeles hillside homeowners and coyotes have generally maintained a separateness despite their overlapping habitat. Lingering at the edge of the burgeoning city, coyotes remained invisible in the day, waiting until night to retake the brush-covered canyons.

But that peace has been broken recently, as drought and development have forced coyotes away from their normal foraging patterns. And not just in Brentwood’s Mandeville Canyon.

Miles away, in Laurel Canyon, residents have reported similar sightings. A coyote killed a macaw on the front porch of a hillside home.

Animal control officers say they are not surprised by the surge. The coyote has long been considered among the smartest and most adaptable creatures on earth. Wildlife officials say the animals are just adjusting to the scarcity of food because of the drought and new developments that encroach on their natural habitat.

In addition, animal experts say the urban coyote has become so accustomed to humans that it has lost its fear of its two-legged neighbor.

“It’s not that there are more coyotes, but that there is just less room for them and less natural game,” said Louis P. Dedeaux, wildlife specialist with the city Department of Animal Regulation. “When you have a drought condition, the litters of their natural prey dwindle and the coyotes become more active in the urban environment.

“But they are definitely getting more brazen,” he said. “They’re probably the smartest animal in North America and they know what they can get away with.”

Dorais said that since he moved to Mandeville Canyon five years ago, he has rarely seen a coyote, though he can hear them outside the window at night. But so far this year, he said, he has spotted at least four coyotes in the daytime, including one that attacked his poodle before he was able to run it off.

Dorais’ concern prompted Dedeaux to put a coyote trap in the family’s back yard, which can be done when there are repeated sightings in a single area. However, wildlife specialists say the best defense against coyotes is to remove food, water and garbage from areas accessible to the animals and to keep small pets inside, especially from dusk to dawn. Dedeaux said coyotes rarely attack humans and almost never attack anything larger than themselves.