Likely because of Southern California's persistent, years-long drought, coyotes have been showing up closer to civilization more and more. In Irvine, city officials are using paintballs to "haze" bold coyotes, and in Los Angeles, though they've mostly avoided human encounters, there is definitely an increased coyote presence. The number of calls to Los Angeles Animal Services about "coyote concerns" back up the anecdotal evidence, and to show the coyote hotbeds, KCET's mapped them all.
The plot points correspond to the location where the report of the sighting was made. The color of the points matches up to the year that a coyote call was made, and also includes any information that the Animal Services staff noted at the time. The data shows that in 2013 there were five times as many calls as there were in 2010. Though the last two years have seen a decline since the 2013 peak (above 500), the totals are still more than double the 2010 number, which was around 100. Where are all these coyotes hanging out?
· Coyotes: Kill Them or Coexist? [KCET]
· Biologists Have Discovered Los Angeles's Urban Coyotes Are Neighborhood Stereotypes [Curbed LA]