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One group heads to Rio de Los Angeles State Park. And that’s also what’s killing off our owls, our bobcats, our hawks, our mountain lions,” Feilich says.Īfter the classroom part of the training, the volunteers split off to find coyote scat in parks, cemeteries and golf courses. You know, if they’re not killed by inhumane trapping or illegal hunting or being hit by cars, they’re being poisoned regularly by anticoagulant rodenticides, you know, rat poison. “They’re probably the most persecuted predator. Randi Feilich’s group, Project Coyote, lobbies for more humane measures. Justin Brown, a National Park Service ecologist, locates coyote scat in Rio de Los Angeles State Park. Some cities have approved measures to trap and kill coyotes roaming our streets.

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The hope of the Park Service study is to inform residents and elected officials about coyote behavior - dietary and otherwise - when it comes time to make decisions about how to keep them out of urban areas. “If you want to help wild animals, it’s a good idea to just respect them from a distance, and definitely don’t feed them or leave anything out in your yard that could be a food source for wild animals.” “If people do get bitten by coyotes, it's often because those coyotes had been fed before,” says Wold. Wold is concerned this behavior could lead to coyotes that aren’t shy about approaching people in the hopes of finding food.

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But then also people are putting plates of dog food out as well.”Īctively feeding wildlife is illegal, and animal control is trying to crack down on it. “You see possums, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, all eating from these piles. “I’ve seen several different occasions where they’re putting either food from their lunch out in an area and you can see the coyotes keep coming back,” Brown says. Justin Brown, a National Park Service ecologist, says he’s seen people actively feeding wildlife. And then occasionally also especially in urban environments there’ll be anthropogenic materials, so things like paper towels, food wrappers, barbecue chicken, we saw once, so a great diversity of different foods,” Wold says. They’re omnivores so they eat a lot of fruits and berries and things like that. “If you have a scat that you think is coyote, it’ll probably have bones or fur or seeds. Binta Wold, a National Park Service intern working on the Urban Coyote Project, helps volunteers distinguish coyote scat from bobcat scat. The contents can also help determine the animal who left the scat behind.

They’re a little bit smaller than dog scat usually,” Wold said. “Often coyote scat has a characteristic twisted appearance. Bobcat poop, for example, is shaped like a ball-and-socket joint. She says one way to tell the different kinds of scat apart is by the shape. They're huddled around a table, looking at bowls of dried poop: bobcat and coyote.īinta Wold helps run the Urban Coyote Project for the National Park Service. When the National Park Service started recruiting people like her for a study on the diet of coyotes, she jumped at the chance to start collecting coyote droppings - also known as coyote scat.Ībout 30 volunteers gather at the Audubon Center in Debs Park. Symonds has spent 18 years as docent at Pasadena’s Eaton Canyon Nature Center. “People don’t like to have certain vermin around, rats and mice, and actually do a tremendous job to keep the numbers of rodents in check,” she says. In fact, Symonds believes we should be grateful. Still, when the occasional hen is lost to a predator, she doesn’t hold it against them.

Symonds closes up her chicken coop at night and keeps a close watch on the flock.

Coyote skat