Behind dire wolves and saber-toothed cats, coyotes rank as the third most commonly found mammal in the La Brea Tar Pits proving they have been residents of Los Angeles County for thousands of years. There has probably always been some degree of human-coyote conflict, but to many current residents, the situation seems to be getting worse. The Los Angeles County Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures is one of the last public agencies in the County attempting to manage coyotes in certain situations, which is proving to be challenging, given the changing nature of public opinion on coyote control issues and the public’s general knowledge of wildlife. I discuss how the Los Angeles County, Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures attempts to meet the expectations of the public in the light of these changing attitudes.

In many cities across the United States, incidences of coyote encounters (Canis latrans) and human-coyote conflicts are rising. This is especially true for cities in Southern California, where conflicts including pet attacks have been recorded since the 1960s. The only coyote-related human fatality in the United States occurred in Southern California in 1981 and, although no fatal attacks have occurred since, coyote bites to humans are still occurring. Coyote attacks on pets appear to be common in Southern California; however, data are lacking in this area of human-coyote conflicts. This paper examines data from multiple sources that record human-coyote conflicts in Southern California. Coyote reports have been more frequently received by the entities involved in this analysis as their recording time progresses, with data from 243 cities and unincorporated areas suggesting that the majority of reports (68%) are related to non-conflict events. Conflicts were significantly higher in the pup-rearing season compared to the breeding season. There appears to be spatial clustering of coyote reports from Los Angeles County; however, complex analysis is needed to determine the relationship between frequency of complaints and land use in all of the counties to help determine what is driving human-coyote conflicts in Southern California.