The increasingly ubiquitous western coyote is a commensal species that thrives in human-constructed environments. As the human population in L. A. County increases, so too, will coyote density. Understanding how coyotes use scent-marking to communicate allows us to listen in on their private conversations. Knowing when their activities might lead to confrontation gives us an opportunity to take simple steps that will keep us all a little safer.
Based on scientific studies of free-ranging coyotes in rural grassland habitats, scientists know that odor from fecal scat is the molecular equivalent of the local coyote messaging network. Like digital communication, odor moves over great distances, remains in place long after the sender is gone, and stays around until others pick up the message. If you have something important to say, saying it with a tarry pile of odiferous poop is a handy way to do it.
Scat enables coyotes to communicate with each other by posting information about social interactions and personal relationships, especially during their seven-month breeding season—the alpha pair mate in January. Pups are born in March, nursed in April, weaned in May, trained in June and July, and go to finishing school in August. In September, the pack disperses, and the offspring seek out their own mates.
How it works
Reach, volume, and intensity of messaging increase during the summer months when pack members congregate in our neighborhoods with the goal of teaching pups how to be successful adults.
Sometimes scat is just eliminated poop, but research suggests that coyote scat that’s visible is usually deposited by the parents and, like a signpost, is meant to be instructive for other pack members. It provides particulars about self and group identity, emotions, reproductive status, territorial boundaries, and food availability. In general, females mark den sites and food sources. Males mark territory and communicate the defining mood of a particular pack, from well-being to anxiety, stress, aggression, and fear.
Furthermore, odor can establish a story told in the past tense. Because canines can detect and differentiate new and old odors, they perceive events and substances across intervals of time. They can pick up a scent as far as ten miles away and smell odors from decades ago.
Canine species, including our dogs, live in a universe of chemical scent signaling that’s estimated to be 100 to 100,000 times more accurate than our own. Specialized glands located on the end of the tail, toes, eyes, sexual organs, and skin secrete scent pheromones. About one billion olfactory receptor cells in their nasal cavity pick up molecular odor, and more than 35% of their brain is dedicated to analyzing its meaning.
Reading Scat
Unlike dog droppings that look like soft digested commercial food, a coyote’s feces are typically filled with partly digested remnants of whatever was on the menu that day – usually hair, tiny bones, and seeds held together like a rope, from green to black in color, with a very distinct musty smell.
A single scat on the street or sidewalk is likely a mapping post to indicate to the pack, “I was here, and this is what time it was.” It might also be telling transient coyotes that are passing through, to stay out. Individual scat deposited during non-breeding months is usually put there by a singleton looking for a romantic partner.
An accumulation of fresh coyote scat in January in a vacant lot or near an overgrown yard attached to an empty house might broadcast a future den site.
During summer months, the closer scat is to your personal property, the more likely it’s marking a food source. Produce from your ornamental fruit trees, like avocados, your vegetable garden, your domestic livestock, or an unattended pet, like your elderly cat that lounges on the porch, are all potential meals. The more piles of scat marking your property, the more concerned you should be.
What you can do
Clean up scat. But take precautions. Wear gloves and a mask. Secure droppings in a plastic bag and dispose of them properly.
Coyotes are known to relax in a garden under a shady bush all day long, getting up only to snack on overripe figs as they drop off the tree. Get rid of appealing brushy overgrowth and pick up produce that litters your property. And, of course, monitor your pet when she’s outside.
It’s easier to make sure there’s no reason for coyotes to enter your yard than it is to find a way to keep them out.
The Los Angeles Zoo shares its Griffith Park location with many wild predators, from raptors to large cats to coyotes. In 1987, coyotes broke in and killed more than 50 flamingos. They continued to intermittently breach reinforced fencing until 1995 when the zoo finally installed a six-and-a-half-mile perimeter fence surrounding the facility.
Professional fence installers say even residential fences meant to keep out coyotes should have a solid, smooth surface with no toe-holds and stand at least 6-8 feet tall. Extenders can be added to the fence top that leans outward at 45 degrees. It’s increasingly popular to install coyote rollers – a spinning bar that runs along the top of the fence that prevents the animal from gripping, then sends it backward. Because a coyote’s first choice is to enter a yard by digging under fence lines, the fence needs to be extended at the bottom by at least 2 feet.
However, as Warner Bros. classic animation characters Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner thematically made clear to comical effect, when it comes to stopping a coyote, no perimeter fencing or barrier is truly infallible. If they want something bad enough, they will likely find a way to get in.
My friends in Pasadena’s Historic Highlands found a coyote habitually sleeping in a comfy chair on their front porch. No amount of noise, bright lights, and hazing would keep her from returning.
To de-escalate a potentially confrontational situation like this calls for reminding coyotes that people are the apex predators. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Some wildlife researchers maintain that using human urine is the most effective way to keep coyotes away from personal belongings. Distribute the liquid a few feet away from the article you’re claiming. Do this for about ten days, and they’ll move elsewhere.
It worked. Their snoozing coyote got the p-mail message and hasn’t been back.
