What do you think about coyotes in Laguna Beach?

There's a proposed plan before the City of Long Beach to increase trapping and killing of coyotes - blanket trapping in early spring to kill the pregnant females, and in fall to kill off the young of the year. 

Apparently, this plan was offered by Animal Pest Management - a pest control company that had been contracted with the city for its services but has since (a week or so ago) been terminated. The city replaced APM with Critter Busters. 

Long Beach Coyotes

By Rebecca Dmytryk

Image by Dru Bloomfield

Over the last few months, a group of Long Beach residents have become very vocal about the presence of coyotes in their neighborhoods, demanding coyotes be trapped and killed. It seems to be a relatively small group of individuals from two Facebook groups, Coyote Watch Long Beach and Coyote Watch Garden Grove, who have, since 2013, been leading a campaign to force state and local government to eradicate coyotes. 

Mother raccoon moves out during the day

Today, we went to work on a home in Pacific Grove, shoring up all the vents except for one so the mother raccoon inside could still come and go. The next step would be to apply a repellent barrier with a certain mix of essential oils to encourage her to move her babies to another location. Sometimes we install an electronic device in the crawlspace to add pressure.

Well, today, we didn't need to do any of that. The mother raccoon was so upset by us working around the exterior of her "den", that she decided to move one of her babies while we were on site.

Her intrusion point was above a window on the second floor, with very poor gripping points, so we placed two ladders to help her out, literally. Check out the footage:

Mother raccoon on the move

Abandoned Magpie ducks

This weekend we collected two domestic ducks that had been abandoned at Westlake Park in Santa Cruz. The ducks were not being maintained - fed a proper diet, and they were aggressive towards wild waterfowl. 

On our initial visit to assess the situation, we found the two black and white ducks together, foraging along the shoreline of the small lake. From their coloration and upright carriage, we believe they are Magpies - a fairly unusual breed of domestic duck.

The Magpie duck is believed to have originated in Wales in the early 1900s, and was first imported to the United States in 1963.

The two ducks were a bit skittish, as though they had been chased, or perhaps someone had tried to capture them unsuccessfully. It took a few days before we were able to collect them.

They were transported to the local animal shelter where they will be fed and cared for until they are adopted.

Magpies are a hardy variety of domestic duck, living approximately 9-12 years. They are good layers, producing over 220 eggs annually and they are active foragers, eagerly consuming slugs and snails and insects. A great addition to a home farm.

Quiet restored

This week, HWC was called to collect two un-owned Indian peafowl from a quiet residential area in the hills above Soquel, CA.

The Indian peafowl is found in the drier lowland areas of Sri Lanka on the Indian subcontinent. It has been introduced to many parts of the world by collectors and often, as in this case, they are allowed to roam freely, establishing feral populations.

The two males - one white and the other sporting the standard metallic blue-green colors, wandered into the rural subdivision a few weeks ago, and stayed. With their loud calls at dawn and a bad habit of hopping onto parked cars, their presence soon became a nuisance.

Just captured - Mary and Barbara hold on tight to
the peacock as it's carried to the transport vehicle.

On Monday, we successfully captured the larger peacock. The younger, white peafowl was more skittish and elusive.

Yesterday, however, we were able to bait the bird close enough to capture. 

The birds were transported to Santa Cruz County Shelter where they will be available for adoption.

Take the Coyote Challenge!

By the time we're contacted, a coyote has often become a problem - there's been a loss or there's fear of an imminent attack. The animal is a perceived threat that must be removed without delay.

When it comes to coyotes, we find people are usually set in their misbeliefs and are far less willing to change their habits than with other species - less willing to adapt to living with these animals as part of their environment, less willing to invest in making modifications to their property even if that is what will solve the problem, yet, they are often quite demanding that something be done, admonishing local officials for not taking action to protect their home, family and pets.

For these people, we offer the Coyote Challenge.

The Coyote Challenge is our pushback to those who believe nothing less than lethal control will work. The Coyote Challenge is also a way for us to help those who truly cannot afford to invest in non-lethal control measures. 

In return, participants agree to share their account of the process - and the results - which we expect will be that their coyote problem has been resolved, for good.

With each challenge being documented from beginning to end, we see this as a great opportunity to help people and coyotes while gathering conclusive evidence that non-lethal control methods do work.

The Coyote Challenge officially launched last month and we have 3 applications in the review process.

We will be donating our time but supplies, equipment and associated travel costs will be covered through a fund that has been set up through Wildlife Emergency Services.

To apply for help through the Coyote Challenge, email help@humanecontrol.com or call 855-548-6263. Click the Donate button below if you'd like to contribute toward the fund that offsets the cost of equipment and such.