Lamorinda Residents Howl for Advice On Coyotes

 The wild animals are trotting down the hills to forage in the overgrown back yards of the humans — .

At the same time, the humans are pounding down stakes up the draws closer to the ridgelines, intruding on the domain of the wild critters.

And there you have the ingredients. The recipe for close encounters of the human-critter kind in this delightful place where the city meets the wilderness called Lamorinda.

Or as Susan Heckly, the wildlife rehabilitation director for the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek, puts it: “Their (coyotes’) numbers have increased … as we move closer into open spaces, they kind of lope alongside of us and take advantage of us. We have landscapes that invite them in with ground cover such as as ivy that attracts rodents. Rodents are food for coyotes. And we leave pet food out and that attracts coyotes.”

Orinda resident Deb Hearey saw the coyote pictured here as he was walking past her driveway.

"And I walk outside with our baby every morning," Hearey wrote Patch. "...Perhaps this is a safety issue that needs some attention ... anyone with ideas as to who to contact?"

Heckly said the museum doesn’t keep statistics on coyotes, but it’s clear there are more around than a decade ago.

“They are generally not a threat to people but can be a threat to small animals,” she said. “We need to respect their space. We’re living in a great area for wildlife. We as people have to learn how to live peacefully with all these guys who are living in this area.”

A few weeks back, when Patch posted the accompanying picture of a coyote trotting alongside Overhill Road in Orinda, the image twanged a nerve. Patch Irregulars wrote in that maybe it was the same coyote that had scored some chickens from their back yard or was the one gnawing on a deer carcass.

The museum is a great local resource at which visitors (including field trips full of wide-eyed kids) can watch a bald eagle have lunch or look at the fur of a gray fox. You can see more than 50 species of native California animals that can't be released because of injury or for other reasons.

Lindsay also has a Wildlife Exclusion Service that will advise home owners on how to handle, in some cases evict, wild guests.

The service gets more calls about hawks, raccoons and, seasonally, skunks than about coyotes, Heckly said. Skunk mating season is now. They're climbing under houses, maybe through a broken vent, and finding dark and quiet spaces ideal for building a nest.

The initial call will normally run a home owner $80 to $100 to evaluate the critter problem and suggest a course of action. Oftentimes, that’s the end of the Wildlife Exclusion Service’s program and the home owner takes care of the eviction and animal-proof sealing. But the service will, for an additional charge, do home repairs to keep the unwanted visitors out, Heckly said.

Lindsay staffers advise on hawks circling back yards, where owners fear for their small dogs. “Hawks don’t prefer small dogs,” she said. “They don’t prefer to hunt in small back yards. They prefer big, open spaces.”

I share some advice from the Lindsay museum’s Web site, which offers critter-by-critter “wildlife solutions” for others, too, including rats, mountain lions, opossums, beavers  — even snakes in the garage (but no advice for snakes on a plane!).

From the museum’s solutions for coyotes:

They adapt to whatever food is available, including the carcasses of dead animals and “handouts” from people such as table scraps or trash. Coyotes like water sources, so don’t leave Fido’s water bowl out overnight.

They will go after cats in residential areas. Don’t allow pets to run loose. Make sure pets are vaccinated for rabies.

You can see coyotes during the day. They are most active at dawn and dusk.

“Even though there is no record of a coyote attack on people in Contra Costa County, never leave small children unattended in areas known to be frequented by coyotes.”

If a coyote is being aggressive, contact the California Department of Fish and Game.