Comments & Curiosities -- Peter Buffa

They’re here. Nope. Not space men. Coyotes. Isn’t that strange? Most

of us associate coyotes with some desolate stretch of nothing in the

middle of nowhere. But here, in Newport Beach?

And yet, they are here, skulking around the Back Bay and doing that

spooky howling thing. Newport Beach Animal Control has issued a general

coyote bulletin.

I’m not sure what a general coyote bulletin is, but it doesn’t sound

good. According to Newport Beach Animal Control Officer Jamye Rogers, We

do have several coyotes in the Back Bay area, but these animals are urban

and can travel four, six or even 10 miles.

I don’t get the urban part. Are there urban coyotes and country

coyotes? How come the urban coyotes can travel up to 10 miles? Do they

drive? Do they disguise themselves and ride buses? I think the general

coyote bulletin needs some clarification here.

Between February and May, says Officer Rogers, coyotes are usually

mating, hunting and teaching their young ones to hunt. It’s a very active

time. Great.

I appreciate the commitment to education, but it’s the hunting that

concerns me. I wish coyotes well, just well away from me.

Let me tell you about my first experience with coyotes. 1966. I had

just moved from the village of New York to Tucson, Ariz. to become an

educated person at the University of Arizona. Obviously, it didn’t work,

but that’s another story. I instantly fell in love with the Sonoran

desert, which is amagical place, and spent as much time exploring it as I

could. So there I am one day, in the middle of nowhere and it’s getting

late. I’m walking back to my car on a narrow dirt road when I hear

something behind me. I turn around and see a nice, tan-colored dog about

30 feet back. Two other dogs step out of the brush onto the road, then a

fourth dog, about 10 feet behind the other three.

Being an idiot and a new arrival, what struck me was that the four

dogs were almost mirror images of each other. How odd, I thought. What

are the chances of that? The chances are nil, of course, which I realized

when my brain finally kicked in. I walked backward to my car and slipped

inside without taking my eyes off them. I’d learn later that had I just

flailed my arms and shouted at them, they would have run for the brush

like the underhanded, untrustworthy cowards they are.

So what is the connection between our local urban coyotes and those

country coyotes in the wilds of Arizona? It’s the tension between people

in an urban environment (that’s us) and the little beasts that were here

first (that’s them.) Those of you who are old enough to remember 1990

might recall the saga of the Santa Ana Freeway and the little red foxes.

While they were transforming the Big Ditch on Newport Boulevard to the

extension of the Santa Ana Freeway, a family of red foxes was found

living in and around the aforementioned ditch. Construction was stopped

dead, and what began as a cute item in the local news soon became a

national story driven mostly by a shot of a red fox cowering in what was

left of his burrow on one wall of the ditch.

In the news biz, words are nice, but a good pic rules. Within days,

people from Seattle to Selma were talking about the little red foxes, the

freeway, and a place called Costa Mesa. Fortunately, then-Senator Marian

Bergeson got involved and made everyone calm down and go back to their

seats. The California Department of Fish & Game was called in and put its

traps and trappers to work and outfoxed the foxes, which is not easy. The

foxes were transported to more appropriate surroundings, tagged and

released. Most of them stayed clean and led exemplary lives, although two

of them started hanging out with the wrong crowd and had to be recaptured

and re-released. Doesn’t matter how cute you are, no one likes a

recidivist fox.

And if foxes and coyotes aren’t enough for you, what about skunks and

possums? In Mesa Verde, also known as myneighborhood, we have learned to

peacefully coexist with the skunk and the possum. If you are on Mesa

Verde Drive or Placentia in the late night hours, the sight of a skunk or

possum chugging across the road is a thoroughly common sight. I always

slow down and let them do their thing, waving at the possums but trying

not to make eye contact with the skunks.

Bottom line, be careful with coyotes and give animal control a call as

soon as you see or hear any sign of them. It’s (949) 644-3717 in Newport

Beach, (714) 754--5311 in Costa Mesa.

Coyotes are scavengers and they know what to scavenge when they’re in

town: open trash cans, pet food that’s been leftoutside and the pets that

eat it. They will attack small dogs, but much prefer cats, and they will

attack small children, including one fatal attack on a toddler in the Los

Angeles area in 1980. If you encounter a coyote in the open, just make

the biggest, noisiest commotion you can. Don’t try to outrunit. They can

run over 30 miles per hour. You can’t. Most important, don’t ever, ever

feed coyotes or leave food out for them. A coyote that has lost his fear

of humans just enough to approach them is the most dangerous of all.

That old saw about not biting the hand that feeds you is totally lost

on coyotes. They are smart and devious and do not have good values. Be

careful. It’s a jungle out there. I gotta go.

* PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays.

He may be reached via e-mail at [email protected].