Mammals of the San Gabriel Mountains of CaliforniaVaughan, Terry A.
Science
Mammals of the San Gabriel Mountains of California
Vaughan, Terry A.
Mammals -- California, Southern
Coyotes inhabit the sagebrush flats and foothills up to at least 4000
feet all along the Pacific base of the San Gabriels. This species seems
most common at the foot of the range where large dry washes prevent
man from occupying the land immediately adjacent to the foothills, and
are the dominant carnivores of the coastal sage belt. Repeated
observations have indicated that although many individuals range into
the higher foothills they seldom are found deep in the major canyons or
chaparral slopes. Coyotes rarely occur at 3000 or 4000 feet in San
Antonio Canyon where it cuts into the realm of heavy chaparral; yet on
steep foothill slopes and ridges, which are adjacent to the flat land,
these animals range up to at least 4000 feet. Being hunters primarily of
rather open land many coyotes go into the foothills only to find daytime
refuge, traveling down dirt roads, ridges, and firebreaks, to forage at
night in the sage flats. Coyote feces from the foothills, at about 3500
feet, contained predominantly the remains of such food items as
cottontails, chickens, and jack rabbits. These animals could have been
found only in the flats. This is additional evidence that coyotes do the
major part of their hunting at the base of the range.
Observations of coyote tracks and trapping records have shown that these
animals hunt mostly in the more open parts of the sage flats. Coyotes
frequent areas of scattered brush, sandy areas, wash channels, and old
roads, and seemingly shun dense brush. Many coyotes actually hunt for
rabbits in the citrus groves near the foothills. On several evenings I
traced their howling to orange groves, and Mr. Kenneth Hill of Upland
told me of often seeing coyotes in his orange groves at night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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