One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Coyote Shot Dead On The Mean Streets Of Silver Lake
Where you from? via Shutterstock
Last month, an unknown assailant shot and killed a coyote on Fernwood Avenue in Silver Lake. As the L.A. Times reports, a Silver Laker named Mike Parson discovered the coyote in street just in front of his parked truck early on a gloomy June morning.
This particular incident is just one of increasingly common encounters between coyotes and people in urbanized Los Angeles. Where coyotes were once intimidated by living in the built-up city, and stuck instead to the hills, the animals have grown so comfortable living alongside humans that they are now reproducing successfully in the urban biome.
The Silver Lake shooting is being investigated by the LAPD, the Animal Cruelty Task Force, as well as the L.A. Department of Animal Services, though none of the three agencies seem to have much information on what may have prompted the shooting.
But in May, employees of the L.A. County Department of Agriculture were forced to shoot and kill five "aggressive" coyotes on the Palos Verdes peninsula, according to the Daily Breeze. As a spokesperson for the government agency said at the time, "all five animals posed a threat to humans."
As far as actually studying the urban coyote phenomena, the research is all very present tense. In early May, the National Parks Service made a request for folks who would be willing to get their hands dirty and collect coyote scat found throughout the urban areas. Though the diet of the city-dwelling 'yotes is presumed to differ from that of their more rural cousins, the diets of the urban 'yotes has never been significantly studied.
Coyote attacks on humans are also relatively rare. Per the L.A. County Department of Public Health, there were 15 coyote attacks on humans increased in 2015. A rumored attack on Kim Gordon at the Silver Lake Whole Foods (365, whatever) turned out to be false, the mere digital runoff of one of L.A.'s finest Instagram accounts, @wholefoodssilverlake.
“The coyote is going to try to expend the least amount of energy to get the maximum amount of food,” said Niamh Quinn, a specialist in human-wildlife conflict for the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “Why would you stay in a more rural area where you have to go catch a rabbit when you can stick your head in a garbage can and get the same nourishment?”
Sponsored message
I ask myself the same question every day.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
