When 72 cat deaths in a Southern California community were attributed to coyotes within 18 months, it left biologists befuddled.
“Domestic cats are harmful to the environment,” she said. Instead, the answer may lie in informing pet owners about keeping their cats indoors, and maybe more city restrictions, Davenport said. What surprised them was the behavior of the cats. It may be the cats. Ignoring lots of images of quizzical onlookers and curious children, they turned to occupancy models and activity analyses to figure out where the two species overlapped. If problem coyotes were the issue, they could come up with a plan to remove them.
Belvedere will hold off on a pilot program to use paintball guns to identify and combat aggressive coyotes. The City Council discussed launching a pilot ...
He said the paintballs were designed to identify specific aggressive coyotes that could have a “record” built against them. Michelle Lute, carnivore conservation director at Project Coyote, a national nonprofit that promotes compassionate coexistence with wildlife, said paintball marking was an uncommon strategy for dealing with coyotes in urban areas. Coyotes weigh about 40 pounds, the size of a medium dog. It is illegal to trap and relocate a wild animal in California. The city distributed hazing kits, or audible deterrents, to residents to scare away coyotes during sightings. Experts from Marin Humane and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will discuss best practices specific to Belvedere’s geography, he said.