Expect to see more coyotes in your neighborhood. Here's why

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If you’ve noticed more coyotes than usual in your neighborhood, it’s because it is the animal’s mating season, which usually runs from January to March.Authorities, including the Huntington Beach Police Department, say coyote mating season is a time to be more cautious about the wily canines that live among us.“The peak of their mating activity happens around February, so it’s kind of romantic and coincides with the month of Valentine’s Day,” said Maximiliano Regis, chief deputy of the Los Angeles County Department of Agricultural Commissioner.During this time adult coyotes are moving around and in some cases traveling long distances in search of mates and food sources.

“In order for them to have genetic diversity they move somewhere else, because if they stayed in the same area, they would be mating possibly with their siblings,” Regis said.You might see a coyote looking for their life partner or a couple of the animals patrolling and protecting their den.

The coyote pups won’t emerge from the den with their mother until April or May.Here’s what you need to know about your four-legged neighbors and what to do if you encounter them.

Coyotes are native to Southern California, so much so that they’re the third-most abundant animal found at the La Brea Tar Pits, with skeletons dating back more than 40,000 years to the Pleistocene Era, long before humans showed up, according to the museum.“They’re so successful that they have made it all the way from the West Coast to the East Coast and all the way down to the Panama Canal,” Regis said.

In the last 50 years coyotes increased their numbers and geographical range especially in suburban environments where an ample food supply is available, according to the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.Suburban areas of Southern California have some of the highest coyote population dens...