COYOTE Canis latrans

A man named William Wirtz from Pomona College, studies coyotes in Glendale and Claremont. He found out that there was a difference between the two groups of coyotes. Seventy-eight percent of the coyotes in Glendale ate garbage as part of their diet. Only 25% of the Claremont coyotes ate garbage at all. This shows that coyotes will take advantage of any opportunity or chance to find a free and easy meal.

In Claremont, the coyotes depend on wild animals and nearby plants for most of their food. They find their food in vacant lots or land that no one has built on yet. Coyotes eat wild things like rabbits, wild rats, cats, birds, insects such as potato bugs, and fruit that they may find like peaches, apricots and grapes. The Glendale coyotes are a lot different! They run down the alleys and dig around in the garbage cans that they can open easily. In Claremont, the coyotes have a hard time getting into the garbage cans because Claremont passed a law that people must use cans that cannot be opened easily.

Coyotes are very smart and hard to catch. They also run quickly and can travel a very long way. They can walk 10 to 15 miles in one night. This medium-sized wild dog spends most of its time walking around in the dry brush called chaparral. At night, the coyote comes into the neighborhoods. Wirtz placed radio collars on 6 of the coyotes to study them. He found out that one of these animals, a female, lived in the city of Claremont and not in the wild. She also had babies (a litter) in a vacant lot.

People think that coyotes are just dogs. Most people like dogs, so they just learn to live with the coyotes. Some people even set out food for them. This is not a good idea! A biologist named Bruce Cahill says that feeding coyotes will cause problems, or clashes, between these wild dogs and people. In 1980, the death of a Glendale girl was blamed on a coyote.This is the first time something like this has ever happened in this county. Here, in Southern California, there are 12 to 15 cases of coyote bites reported each year. Cahill says that he gets telephone calls every week about coyotes acting as if they will bite.

Cahill says that not all coyotes are a problem. "A true wild coyote a human cannot get close to at all." He thinks that feeding these wild dogs will make them lose their fear of people. The coyotes who bite people are called "the bad guys." These bad guys are trapped and put to sleep. After the Glendale girl was killed, the Department of Animal Control removed 57 wild coyotes from the area surrounding her neighborhood. This is a lot of coyotes for a one square-mile area. These coyotes came because someone was setting out food for them.

Wirtz and Cahill think that if people would not feed these wild dogs, many coyotes will not stay around human habitats. It is now against the law to feed coyotes or any other wild animal in Los Angeles County. Because Claremont was careful with their garbage, not many coyotes stayed around. In Glendale, there are many coyotes. Can you guess why?

Wirtz thought that these coyotes stayed around in Glendale because they could easily get into the garbage cans for an easy meal. These coyotes can easily become "the bad guys".