Living With Coyotes

Living in an urban/wildland interface, as we do here in the Lake Tahoe Basin, comes with a responsibility to do our best to coexist with native wildlife. Human/wildlife conflict issues can at times become flashpoints for local debate between community members, especially on social media. It's very important in these situations that the issue ultimately should be approached with common sense that will have an equitable outcome for both the human and the wildlife populations within our community. Sometimes those outcomes become difficult to achieve because they require adjustments to behavior by the only part of the equation that can do so, we humans.

As we have seen in pretty much every local neighborhood at one time or another, human/coyote conflict issues flare up. Recently in the Bijou Meadow area, there have been several reports of aggressive coyote behavior, one dog even ended up with a visit to a local veterinary clinic. In some of these cases, dogs were off-lead, and in others the dogs were on-lead. I personally walk the Bijou Meadow with my girl Miss Daisy, always on lead, seven days a week. We see coyotes three out of seven days a week and have had about a dozen very close encounters with one or multiple coyotes this year. Usually, these are situations where our paths are transecting, without ever experiencing any aggressiveness from this family.

Having stated that, I'm not questioning those who have said they are experiencing this coyote behavior as I'm sure they have. And for the record, in the mid 80's I had a dog and a cat that were attacked by coyotes and survived. I harbor no ill will to those respective coyotes in those events because I was an irresponsible pet owner who would let my dog and cat out unattended in an unfenced yard. My bad!

Coyotes are opportunistic feeders, generally not known for "pack" hunting. When I hear someone tell a story of their off-lead dog being "lured" into a pack of coyotes I would argue that what is more likely happening is that the off-lead dog sees a coyote moving through the environment, gives chase, and sometimes ends up with the chased coyote running to its family members for safety. I think it's also important to remember that along with bobcats and raptors, coyotes are one of our best rodent control engineers. As a person who makes a living by mitigating vector-borne disease transmission risk from rodents to humans (Plague, Hantavirus, and Tularemia) I like to remind folks that coyotes do that work for free! On average a single coyote will consume 1,000 rodents a year.

I want to stress that I am not diminishing the accounts of folks who have witnessed and relayed narratives about aggressive coyote behavior, it most definitely does happen on occasion. Generally, the cause of aggressive behavior by coyotes in the presence of humans can be boiled down to the fact that they have become human habituated due to we humans inadvertently, or even on purpose, feeding them.

As I pointed out at the beginning of my piece, only we humans can change our behaviors to mitigate human/wildlife conflict issues. First and foremost we must do our best to ensure that wildlife does not have access to our human food, pet food, bird feeders, and trash. El Dorado County does have a leash law for all dogs, and unless you have 100 percent recall with your dog in any given situation, I would strongly suggest that your dog is on lead. My idea of an acceptable lead is no longer than 5'-6', and not one of those extend-a-lead gadgets. In the presence of coyotes, it is always important to keep your dog close to you. Some people like to carry a sturdy stick of some kind that can be used as a defensive weapon, or maybe even carrying bear spray could be useful. I've seen some folks with smaller dogs that put a protective spiked vest on the dog. Sans any defensive devices, I suggest using the "get big and loud" advice often associated with averting bears and other larger wildlife.

We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful place that has an abundance of native wildlife species. As blessed as we are, that blessing comes with a large responsibility to be cognizant that our actions can have a negative, or a positive impact on our local environment and everyone and everything that lives in it!