Although it has now been completed, the Audubon Center at Debs Park was happy to host a number of Coyote Scat Parties for this important community science project! Check out the full report here! More info on the completed project can be found here.

 

The LA Urban Coyote Project was started by National Park Service researchers at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to gain a better understanding of coyotes living in urban areas and provide valuable information to partner agencies and the public. The project combined traditional research methods with community science to get a fuller picture of how coyotes are making a living in Los Angeles.

 

To better understand coyotes, scientists analyzed their diet in two different ways: one was with help from local community scientists who collected and analyzed scats and the second method was collecting stable isotope samples in traditional methods to look at human-based food use. In order to document coyote presence over a larger area, school groups and community scientists set up and run wildlife cameras at predetermined locations and times in residential yards and green spaces in LA. To understand how they move through the urban environment and what habitats they are using, researchers also radio-collared coyotes. This provided location information on the animal and the opportunity to follow them with radio equipment to get behavioral information. Through this project NPS hopes to provide valuable information to the public and instill a greater appreciation and understanding of ecology and wildlife in the greater LA community. 

 

For more information on the Urban Coyote Project, or how you can become a community scientist, contact Justin Brown at: justin_l_brown@nps.gov