Sightings of coyotes on campus have been reported, including in the parking lot areas. This information was collected by the Citrus College Campus security and it was reported on Oct. 6.
As winter nears, coyotes begin to make their way down the foothills with the intent of hunting for food.
The Citrus Community College District forwarded information from wildlife experts, such as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“Normally coyotes are elusive animals and avoid any contact with humans. They are more active after dusk and before daylight.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said, “people should make themselves as large as possible and stand up straight and wave their arms over their heads. People need to stay animated and speak forcefully at a coyote directly if it poses a threat. Other measures people should take if needed is to make loud noises and throw rocks at the coyote if followed, and to always look directly at it and never run away or turn your back from it.”
The Citrus Community College district also came out with a statement which said, “feeding, harming, harassing, or medicating wild animals on campus is strongly discouraged. Please do not leave food for any animals on campus since this may attract coyotes.”
Stephanie Aldaco, specialist with Glendora Animal Control said, “Coyotes at this time mostly come down the foothills for many reasons,” Stephanie Aldaco, specialist with Glendora Animal Control said. “A lot of it has to do with searching for food sources, but it also plays in with humans taking up their land, the weather, and wildfires that occur.”
Aldaco said coyotes that come down from the mountains “are very smart and see patterns with their prey. They’ve realized the easy sources of prey in residential areas and will jump into a yard and take a dog or cat if they can.”
Despite many cases occurring of animals being attacked or killed by coyotes.“There aren’t any high cases of human deaths or attacks. The last recorded case of a coyote attacking a human was in Long Beach. Coyotes see humans as a food source and they won’t hesitate to attack a baby or a small kid if left unattended,” Adlaco said.
“If coyotes enter campus, it will generally be common early in the morning from around 5 to 6 o’ clock,” Adalco said.
She gave a safety precaution to everyone who owns a pet and said, “leave your pet inside early in the morning and late at night if possible, since that’s when the coyotes are most active in residential areas.”
Elizabeth Cook, a librarian at Hayden Memorial Library, said “I have seen coyotes mostly out in the parking lot in front of the library by LI 120. I haven’t seen packs. There are usually one or two coyotes lurking around the area sometimes.”
“They were here first. They’re something we should learn to coexist with. Yeah, they could follow people and we should be concerned to a degree, but we shouldn’t take drastic action, like killing them or anything,” Cook said.
