Coyotes that have adapted to living in urban areas is a huge concern. Coyotes thrive in urban areas because food, water, and shelter are abundant. Coyotes feed on household garbage and pet food. Some even prey on house cats and small dogs. Because of this close association with people, coyotes in some areas have become increasingly aggressive towards humans. Better and improved strategies for measuring and managing coyote-human conflicts is needed.

Human-Wildlife Interactions Advisor Niamh Quinn developed the Coyote Cacher, a web application that enables people to report encounters with coyotes. Users can submit when and where the encounter occurred and the type of encounter. “We really need the people to tell us what they’re seeing and what’s happening. We can’t be outside all the time to try and see what’s happening, so we’re relying on the people of California to help us find out what’s really going on,” says Quinn.

UC Vice President Glenda Humiston used the Coyote Cacher as an example of ANR community outreach and impact at a recent UC Regents meeting. “Urban coyote numbers are on the rise. This is a big issue in our urban areas. Police are increasingly reporting coyotes attacking pets and people … [The Coyote Cacher reports] can facilitate greater management.”

People can sign up for alerts to learn about encounters in their zip code, including the type of encounter they’d like to be alerted about. Encounter types range from sightings, to attacked pets, to people being bit. If you see a coyote in California, please use the Coyote Cacher to report your encounter. “We need the information to better manage coyotes. This will help you get the information out there that we need to help us make management decisions,” requests Quinn. The Coyote Cacher has about 3000 visitors per month, 3149 reports currently, and 2989 people signed up to receive alerts.

Increased use of the Coyote Cacher by Californians provides necessary information about coyote-human encounters. The data gathered by the Coyote Cacher informs Quinn and other researchers about how coyotes are interacting with humans in urban environments and will enable them to develop best management practices for coyotes. Cities are using it to track where conflict hotspots are occurring and to better deploy limited resources such as educational materials or hazing teams (trained personnel using deterrents to modify coyote behavior or to move them out of an area). It is anticipated that management of people (how they may be encouraging coyote presence) and the coyotes themselves will lead to fewer negative coyote-human interactions.