NEWPORT BEACH : Officials Assess Threat by Coyotes

Officials from Newport Beach, the county and the state gathered Wednesday morning to decide what to do about a coyote--or group of coyotes--that has been encroaching on a residential area on the edge of the Upper Newport Bay.

The meeting Wednesday was called in response to an incident this month in which a coyote jumped a fence and walked through a back yard in Santa Ana Heights. The animal brazenly approached within a few feet of 2-year-old Christopher Horning. When the child’s mother appeared, the coyote held its ground a moment or two before scampering away, leaving the child unharmed.

“We have had problems with coyotes forever,” said Michelle Jones, who lives with the Hornings and helps care for their children. “What concerns us is that they are not afraid anymore.”

Officials say that coyotes approaching--much less attacking--people is extremely rare, but in the case of the Hornings, their house is separated from grassy, wild land by only a short wooden fence. Inside the fence, the Hornings raise livestock, chickens and rabbits, which are favorites of coyotes.

“It is not the coyote’s fault,” said Dick Zembal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “People have to be aware of hazards of living at the edge of a wild area.”

Nevertheless, coyotes have put wildlife officials in a tight spot.

If people are threatened, officials say, then the offending animal should be trapped and killed or relocated. But, on the other hand, the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Preserve depends on the nocturnal predators to keep the food chain in balance.

Officials decided Wednesday that the best thing to do now is to distribute flyers to people who live in the area frequented by coyotes, telling them how to protect themselves. Last week, the Newport Beach Police Department issued a coyote advisory to residents.

The key to solving the problem, said Troy Kelly of the state Department of Fish and Game, is for people to be aware of the coyote hazard and not to leave food for pets outside. Another precaution is to keep an eye on children while they are playing outdoors.

“Coyotes have a natural fear, dodging cars, kids throwing rocks,” Zembal said. “That fear breaks down when they get close to people--and there is an (edible) reward.”

In recent days, animal control officers armed with tranquilizer guns have hidden in a children’s playhouse at the Horning residence to wait for a coyote to walk up. They had even tethered a live chicken inside a long wire cage, hoping to bait the coyote to enter the cage to get to the chicken.

So far, no luck.

As a result, these trapping efforts will be abandoned for the time being.

If coyotes were to be removed from the bay, Zembal said, then the carnivorous fox population would explode, causing “misery and devastation for endangered species (of birds) who live in the ecological preserve.

“We need the coyote,” Zembal said. “If we were to remove them, then there would be hundreds of skunks, possums, foxes and cats,” which would cause an even bigger problem and would threaten the well-being of the California least tern and light-footed clapper railbirds.

Zembal said there are maybe only half a dozen coyotes in the area, and probably only one bold enough to enter someone’s back yard.