Costa Mesa unveils coyote management plan aimed at preventing run-ins

Education, enforcement and reporting are the main pillars of Costa Mesa’s new strategy to address issues with local coyotes, Police Department officials said Tuesday.

During a town hall meeting to unveil the city’s coyote management plan, officials said a major focus will be teaching residents to remove things that might attract coyotes to their neighborhoods and how to defuse and report any run-ins with the predators.

The primary goal of the city’s plan — which is similar to those adopted recently in Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and elsewhere — is to condition local coyotes to fear and avoid humans.

“We don’t want them to lose their fear of us because, when they do, that’s when they can be a nuisance,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife Lt. Kent Smirl told about 15 people in the audience at Tuesday’s meeting in City Hall.

Coyotes aren’t uncommon in Costa Mesa. In recent years, local residents have complained that the wild canines sometimes attack or make off with pet cats and dogs.

The city’s management plan outlines a three-tiered response strategy for coyote encounters.

Though additional education and “hazing” — scaring the animals away by yelling or making loud noises — are the recommended remedies in many cases, attacks on humans or attended on-leash pets could lead animal-control officers to remove and euthanize a coyote.

Keeping a watchful eye on pets when they’re outside will lessen the chances of them being snatched, officials said.

The city’s plan also encourages residents to be diligent in removing food or water sources that could attract coyotes. Keeping trash bins secured, removing fallen fruit and not feeding pets outdoors are among those efforts.

Should you come across a coyote, Smirl said, you should not run away but instead should stand your ground, yell and make noise until it scampers away.

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Another part of Costa Mesa’s approach is encouraging residents to report coyote encounters so the city has more complete data about hot spots and how the animals are behaving.

Residents can report sightings using the Police Department’s non-emergency number, (714) 754-5255, the city’s coyote hotline, (714) 754-4899 or an online system called Coyote Cacher.

With that tool, found at ucanr.edu/sites/CoyoteCacher, residents can note the location and circumstances of a coyote sighting. The reports are displayed on an interactive map.

As of Wednesday morning, the map showed two reported sightings in Costa Mesa so far this month — one by Balearic Park and the other on Santa Catalina Drive near Merrimac Way.

While some residents who attended Tuesday’s meeting praised the plan, others said they think the city should take more forceful action.

Al Melone, a former City Council candidate who lives in the State Streets neighborhood, said he’d like coyotes to be captured and neutered to keep the local population in check.

He said the premise of the city’s plan — that “we’re supposed to live in harmony with wild animals that do not belong in an urban environment” — is false.

Others wondered why the city couldn’t simply relocate or euthanize the animals.

Eradication efforts wouldn’t be effective, said police Lt. Victor Bakkila, because other coyotes would move in to fill the void. Also, relocation is not allowed without permission from Fish and Wildlife.

“Coyotes are afraid of every human they see, and if you haze the coyotes enough … they’re going to go away,” Bakkila said. “They’ll always move where they’re not being hazed.”

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