New Irvine neighborhood going on watch for coyotes

In response to an increase in coyote sightings and attacks on children and pets in Irvine’s newly developed Portola Springs area, residents are banding together to start a Neighborhood Watch-style program to try to keep the animals off their streets.

The initiative, known as Wildlife Watch, is intended to teach residents how to co-exist with wildlife, eliminate things that attract coyotes — such as trash, pet food and water — report sightings and haze, or scare away, the animals that have come down from the nearby hills, according to officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Irvine police, Fish and Wildlife officials and about 50 residents attended a community meeting Wednesday evening to learn more about Wildlife Watch, which is similar to the crime-prevention program Neighborhood Watch, in which neighbors agree to look out for each other and report suspicious activities.

Portola Springs would be the first community in Irvine to implement the wildlife training program, which has been tested in Fountain Valley, Yorba Linda, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach during the past six years with some success, according to Lt. Kent Smirl of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Coyote sightings and attacks on pets are common in many Orange County cities. In Newport Beach and Irvine, residents have armed themselves with bats, sticks and pepper spray when walking their dogs, while others refuse to go out past dark for fear that a coyote might snatch their pets. Residents have said that coyotes don’t seem to be as afraid of humans as they were in the past.

“These coyotes are pretty comfortable here,” Smirl said. “If we don’t change our behavior, they’re going to keep coming back.”

Portola Springs resident Hamed Zareei said he encountered a coyote during his first walk around the neighborhood with his fiancée’s two dogs after moving to the area in June.

Zareei was walking the Pomeranian and Chihuahua in the early evening when a coyote appeared, snarling, on the sidewalk next to them. Zareei pulled the Pomeranian up by his collar, but before he could grab the Chihuahua, the coyote snatched the small dog and ran.

Zareei handed the Pomeranian to a neighbor who was driving by and then he took off after the coyote, which jumped into a bush, seemingly intent on devouring his catch. Zareei said he jumped into the bush and kicked the coyote in the head hard enough to knock the dog out of its mouth.

“I wasn’t about to have to tell my fiancée that her dog was eaten by a coyote on a walk,” he said. “Not on my watch.”

The dog, named Yogi, suffered puncture wounds on his neck and body but survived.

Other pets have not fared as well. This month, a Chiweenie (a cross between a Chihuahua and a dachshund) named Beanie — the canine mascot of Studio Cycle, a business on East Coast Highway in Corona Del Mar — was killed by a coyote that grabbed the dog on Poinsettia Avenue, according to Corona Del Mar Today.

Portola Springs, with picturesque rolling hills as a backdrop to the master planned community, is one of Irvine’s newer housing developments. In addition to attacking pets, coyotes bit or scratched four children in the community between May 22 and July 5, according to Fish and Wildlife officials.

Though coyote sightings in Irvine usually number around 450 per year, the number of attacks on humans there has been low, authorities said. Three attacks were reported between 2000 and 2013, according to police statistics.

The close proximity of the Portola Springs homes to the undeveloped canyons probably accounts for some of the coyote activity, Smirl said. However, the coyotes’ fearlessness toward humans indicates that people have been feeding the animals, either by mistake or purposefully in an attempt to keep them from snatching their pets, he said.

Experts believe that society’s trend of projecting human-like qualities onto animals — known as anthropomorphism — could explain why people feel gratified after feeding wild animals and why they continue to do it. However, feeding the animals causes them to become comfortable and unafraid of humans, often resulting in attacks, Smirl said.

“It’s changed how we relate to wild animals,” Smirl said. “People tend to forget that wild animals are in fact wild. We pay the consequences because [the animals] continue to return.”

If you encounter a coyote …

• Step forward and become the aggressor.

• Throw sticks, rocks or other items at the coyote.

• Yell and make loud noises.

• Pick up your dog and back away from the coyote. Do not run.

• Call local animal-control officials.

• Do not attempt to haze a nursing or injured coyote.

Source: California Department of Fish and Wildlife