There were 15 coyote sightings in Seal Beach in January, according to data recently released by Long Beach Animal Care Services. The data is based on reports made to Animal Care Services. Three of the January sightings were reported on First Street. Three others were reported on College Park Drive, near Edison Park. The agency recently provided data for reported coyote activity in November and December of last year. There were 21 coyote sightings reported in Seal Beach in November; 25 in December.
Nine of the November sightings were reported in Leisure World. In all of 2017, there were four suspected coyote attacks on pets in Seal Beach, but zero confirmed pet killings, according to ACS Manager Ted Stevens.
There was also one documented incident of a coyote stalking a person in Seal Beach last year. Stalking is defined in the city’s “Coyote Management Plan” as a coyote following or approaching a person either with or without a pet.
There were no coyote attacks on human beings in 2017. “Not in Seal Beach or any part of our jurisdiction,” Stevens said.
As of Sunday, Feb. 4, the Animal Care Services online “Coyote Reporting App viewer” has not yet been updated.
According to Randy Ankeny, executive director of the Golden Rain Foundation, those sightings may have been multiple reports of just one coyote.
The Animal Care Services data included the day and location of the sightings as well as the time of day the information was entered into the database.
The time of day the sightings actually took place was not included as, according to Stevens, the agency doesn’t have the ability to accurately track that level of data.
The response time for the only Priority 1 coyote-related call to Seal Beach last year was three minutes. A Priority 1 call is when a human being is in physical danger. The ACS goal for such calls is a response time of 0.33 hours.
There were two Priority 2 coyote-related calls to Seal Beach last year. A Priorty 2 call is whan an animal is in physical danger. The average response time was 23 minutes for the two calls. The ACS goal for a Priority 2 call is 0.50 minutes.
There were eight Priority 1 animal control service calls to Seal Beach last year. Average response time: 19 minutes. Maximum response time: 50 minutes. Slightly less than 63 percent of these responses met the agency’s response-time goals. There were 98 Priority 2 animal control calls here in 2017. Average response time: 24 minutes. Maximum response time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Slightly less than 76 percent of those responses met ACS respone-time goals.
