Coyotes Invade The Venice Beach Canals!

Emergency Podcast: Coyotes Invade The Venice Beach Canals; Venice Pulse Episode 21 with Sandy & Chuck 

Does the now regular sighting of Coyotes on the Venice Beach Canals mean we have to keep our pets on a tighter leash – are the Coyotes here for good? Join Sandy & Chuck as they delve into the intriguing world of urban coyotes. Discover why these intelligent animals are venturing closer to city life, how they navigate urban landscapes, and what their presence means for the environment. Learn about recent sightings, the impact of urban expansion, and practical tips for co-existing with them and other wildlife. The podcast then concludes with the duo discussing the old Venice Lifeguard HQ, which is to be the main filming location for the upcoming /re-booted Baywatch series. 

Venice Pulse is a podcast focusing on Venice Beach and beyond. It is hosted by Venice residents Sandy Clark and Chuck Whobrey. Sandy has been on the cutting edge of both written and televised journalism for the last 30 years. Her credits include NHK, CBC, ABC, BBC, AMI (various publications), the Daily Mail and the Westside Current. 

Originally from the UK, Chuck was once on the BBC's Newsnight talking about "Ecstasy". Besides that, he has no qualifications whatsoever when it comes to hosting a current affairs type show! 

Intro Music: "Trip" by DJ Nick "Feesch" Wilson 

You can also watch "Venice Pulse" on YouTube

#venicebeach #venicepulse #coyotes #urbanwildlife #baywatch

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Sandy.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Chucky.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

What are you reading about?

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I'm reading about a woman who's apparently bathing in the canal.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Well, right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Yeah. So I went out and checked. I couldn't find anybody. But apparently it's in the other direction. So the police say, well, Citizen reported that the police have located the woman in the canal at Washington and Longs. She's wearing a gray shirt in her 50s, no pants. I have no idea where Long's is. Washington and Longs?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Hold on. So it's the problem that she has no pants on.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Is it Well, the problem is that she's bathing in the canal.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And we're officially not allowed to bathe in the canal. So I often wonder why we don't actually see people bathing in the canal.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Well, thank God we don't. I mean, it's public water, public No, you're not allowed to bathe in the ocean. So you shouldn't be allowed to bathe in the canal.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Uh you can bathe in the ocean. People uh people bring soap to the beach. Okay, so you're you're being very uh It's bait bathing.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

She's not swimming, she's bathing.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Yeah, I know, but people use the word bathing a lot more loosely these days.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Well, I don't think she's swimming in the canal. But I mean, maybe, maybe she's swimming in the canal.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

It is interesting though, because I you see signs over canals, don't ride bikes down here, don't go to skateboards, but I don't think they actually refer to actually people getting in the canal. I mean, people you go on boogie boards canal.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Not boogie boards, you know what I mean. Yeah. And paddle boards.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Well, I don't know what else is going on. All I know is that citizen God, they have so many of these reports. Last night, report of a man with a rifle threatening to shoot a woman on a sailboat.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Okay, well, that's maybe that's for another pod. This is actually um an emergency pod. It is. Um, what we saw. Horrific. What did we see a few days ago?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Coyotes.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, that's right. Two coyotes were in our driveway at about what time?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

From like five in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Near Grand Canal. And in the alley. Apparently they were on Grand Canal in front of there's a Thai restaurant on Washington, uh, right next to Baja Cantina. And they were seen there, which actually isn't surprising considering they've been spotted at the canals in the other direction. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

So to give some background to this, I guess when do we first start seeing possible sightings or hearing rumors of coyotes on the canal, sort of within the last year.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Yeah. I think it's all because of the fires.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Well, you know what? I've done some research, so it's could be for a lot of reasons. Um, but obviously it's getting I know I was out running near oh, just the other side of Bologna Creek.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

With Alexander, actually, which is kind of about a mile halfway, and we saw um, you saw coxes. No, we saw a coyote. Oh, yeah, you're thinking when we played golf. Oh anyway, what's happening, just to pull this back to here to the canals, it seems that um recently there's been more and more sightings of uh coyotes around here. And obviously, it really came home to us the other night when there were two of them in the driveway. They were caught on the security camera next door neighbor.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Right. Thank God. Uh you know, you just it it becomes so much more real when it's right in your backyard.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Okay, so I've been doing some research on this. Guess how many? I mean, it's quite a wide range, but guess how many coyotes they reckon live in urban Los Angeles, actually in the city?

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Uh a million. Not good with numbers.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

So you just crushed what the actual real 20,000. Well, they reckon it could be up to 5,000.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Okay. That's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

A living. And one of the reasons for this is obviously the urbanization of LA as it expands outwards. We're literally living um on their land.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Well, you know, this is a really actually important subject matter. So the Bologna wetlands, uh it's an area in playa vista. Yeah. Right. And it has been under it's it's been under scrutiny because apparently uh builders want to build on there. And it's really like the last uh wetlands area. And it's home to coyotes. Yeah. So that's why it's so important to not build over there. Yeah um and they have, you know, they've sparheaded some sort of movement to raise awareness and people to get to get involved because it affects everyone.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Um, so here's what's interesting, okay, talking of you've triggered a couple of points that resonate with me is that um, so the fact that we saw two of them is quite common because generally, even though coyotes hang out in families of two to seven, okay, it'd be the sort of mother and father with a sibling and you know, maybe some pups or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

But generally they hang out in pairs. So those pairs will either be two siblings, they'd either be a mother and father breed, or there'd be uh a couple of pups or something just about to uh leave the nest or the so um that's that's uh common. Okay, that they're doing but what's interesting is their travel habits. So they basically a coyote can travel on average, it will walk about five to ten miles a day a night between midnight and five a.m. looking for its food. Now they're actually really intelligent animals. They um they know how to they've been caught on film in urban places. Um they basically know how to cross a road. They will look left and right when they cross a road.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

They will.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

They will walk across crossings, because they know to, and they will also look at red lights and green lights. What? I read it on Google, it's gotta be true. It's gotta be true, because that's where I read it. But what's interesting though is they also have like trails, they know pathways, so they'd go down railway tracks, bike paths, they've followed rivers. Okay. They basically kind of kind of see straight lines. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

So maybe they're following the water in the canal.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Well, yeah, I mean that's we haven't They're straight and long, aren't they? You know?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

But why do they come out at those times?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Okay, so here's another thing. So the question is, well, where how how I mean are they if you say five to ten miles, then you could quite reasonably say, okay, well, they're coming down from the Santa Monica Hills or Belania Creek or somewhere. Right. Uh but also they reckon a lot of them are actually just living around here. So they're saying there could be one sleeping within a few hundred yards of us now. What? They were saying they kind of they find undergrowth, like really thick scrub and growth. They will sleep under there, they will sleep under um where is it? They'll sleep under decking, they'll sleep in disused buildings, and they're really good at basically disguising themselves. So they go in here, we've got like storm drains, abandoned burrows, hillsides, thick bushes and brushes, uh parks, golf courses. So the crazy thing is is that one literally could be I know, I was looking in the parking lot of the cantina. You know, they've got all that kind of stacked disused stuff. Maybe there's one in there. But I don't think there probably is. I think I think the smell I think there's too many people. What with the cats around?

SPEAKER_01 8:23

No, I think it's it's not that that would entice them. I think that's there's too many people. Uh I don't know where they are, but it makes sense that they would be towards the marina.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah. Well, they've also been seen in recent times on Venice Beach as well, literally on the sand.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

That seems in the ocean.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Going into the ocean. That seems well, I guess so. I was looking up bathing. Bathing. I was looking up um what they eat, and then they're scavengers. Okay, go on then. They eat avocado. They do.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

That's your favorite food to give the animals, isn't it? Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah, avocado. Um, they love avocado. Um, well, I don't know if they love avocado, but okay, so what they do eat, they eat a lot.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Another reason they come to the cities is because there's lots of uh basically trash garbage hitter. So they will get into the trash to eat the food there. A bit like foxes in England, really. Um now, what I didn't know is the biggest thing they eat in the cities, and it's actually doing us a favor, is they eat rodents, rats.

unknown 9:35

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

And they reckon one coyote could eat hundreds, if not thousands, of rats a year.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Really?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

You think that would be kind of even.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Isn't that bad for them? Well, you would think, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Even for like um Where'd you read that? Google. Actually, I've written on ChatGPT, my new best friend.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah, that is his new best friend. Yeah, but if you Why don't you give him a name? Chatty?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Uh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Give him a name. I can't remember ChatGPT. GPT? What is it? Chat what?

SPEAKER_00 10:08

GPT.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

GPT, so name him Chatty.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

But anyway, so get this right. So they will eat rabbits, squirrels, birds, insects, fruit, rodents. They will eat all those things. They will only eat small pets. So we don't have to worry about our cat. Because our cat weighs about 17 pounds. So uh as much as you worry and panic every time the door's lifted and the cat goes out of your sight for more than 10 seconds.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

I don't think that that's what about kids? There was a a coyote that was like stalking a kid.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

You're thinking of the dingo in Australia, right? No, I'm thinking of the dingo went running off with some No. Yeah, there was a famous story. 19 The older our older fans watching this will know. Right. There was the back in the 1900s. Famous story in Australia. I think it's 1970s, but it might be 1980s. But a girl, a young girl went missing.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

And they don't know if she was kind of murdered or abducted, but the or when Australia. No, I don't think so. What's a dingo? It's it's like, okay, so here's another interesting thing. It's some kind of dog. Some kind of wolf. So here's another thing, get this right. Uh so the reason coyotes um I guess their population grew was because of the decline of the wolf. So there used to be the coyotes were originally on the Great Plains.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Then the wolf population dwindled.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Why? Because they were hunted. Probably because they were hunted. It always is man's fault. No, it doesn't always say man's fault.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

But there's actually a hybrid called a chi wolf, where a coyote is actually bred with a wolf.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

So and these are in the northeastern states.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

So this just happened by chance.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, I think I think so. So but yeah, they're native to North America. They're in every state.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Coyotes are native to North America.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

I mean, that's they're everywhere except for Hawaii. Okay. You know, which kind of uh makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Are there are they in other parts of the world?

SPEAKER_00 12:21

I don't think so. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

So Canada.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

They're in Vancouver.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

They've the major cities they're in have got here LA, New York, Chicago. New York. Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Not New York City.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

New York City. Well, what would the other New York be?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Like upstate New York.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Could be New Yorkshire or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

You mean they're living in Central Park, maybe?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Yeah. So anyway, so there we go. So I guess everyone signed. So basically these coyotes uh appeared here on the canal. And yeah, there were so kind of signs were put up. I don't who said for us?

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah, for people with dogs. People with dogs, people with cats, people with little kids, just to be aware. And the great thing about where we live is our next door community is very strong and very active and watches out for each other. So if you do see a coyote, what do you not do?

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Well, firstly, the coyote's gonna be more scared of us than we're gonna be scared of it.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Not necessarily. I think so. Well, okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Well, why not? Why not?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Because they're used to people now.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

But if you do see a coyote, what do you not do?

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Uh pet it? Give it a milk bone?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

You don't run.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Oh, okay. And do you know why you don't run? Guess how fast a coyote can run.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

How fast?

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Go on, guess. Give me a ridiculous number.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

I don't know, 40 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yes. Really?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Wow. They have a burst of pace where they can run as fast as a racehorse for a short space.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Well, I don't think that's why you don't run. You don't run because they'll probably think you're prey, right? And if you just stand there, then they're not gonna do anything.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Okay, how high do you think a coyote can jump?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Twelve feet.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Six. That's big enough to get over the fence, though. People just sitting in the back. So we've got to be careful about that. Um, okay, how, here you go, here's a question for you. How long do coyotes normally live for in the wild? An average coyote. Seven years. Good guess. Six to ten is not written here. So um, but yeah, there you go. So coyotes. We've just got to uh you know, keep be vigilant. Yeah, well, I mean whether who knows?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

I wonder if they eat ducks.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Because there's a lot of ducks in the canals.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Yeah. Yeah, it'll be interesting actually just to see what happens over the next, you know, months and years if it just becomes just a thing, you know, that you just see them around. You know?

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Well, all I know is that the Bologna wetlands needs to be protected. And that's one thing that we can do.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Um Okay, so anyway, this was our emergency podcast. Um, but also in other news, whilst we got you here, Baywatch.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

What's the theme song to Baywatch?

SPEAKER_00 15:29

I don't know. But you know what? I've I've got I'm really going off on the tangent now. Do you want to hear an interesting but completely useless piece of information?

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Uh Star Trek, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Used to have, okay, we all know the uh, you know, the music for Star Trek.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Nah, nah, nah nah nah nah nah.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

No, that's Star Wars. Anyway, Star Trek used to actually have lyrics and words. It used to be a song. Oh, really? I know. But get this. They heard it once, the producers or the creators, and were like, nah, get rid of those lyrics straight away. But to this day, well, I think he's dead now, but to this day, the guy who wrote the lyrics that were never used gets 50% of the royalties for every time awesome Star Trek theme song is played. But anyway, you know, Baywatch, I have no idea what the uh theme is. They've been the Lifeguard Tower, the old lifeguard.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Yeah, we're gonna have lots of action here in Venice Beach because they're gonna be filming Baywatch.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

At the Lifeguard Tower. Basically, basically uh the well, not the Lifeguard Tower, because we've got loads of those, but the Lifeguard headquarters, which is quite an iconic um building here on the beach. You'll know it if you see it.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

And it needed a facelift.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, I think I went there years ago. It was a voting booth. I remember going there once.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

But anyway, there's been um I actually saw it the other day. There was lots of sort of construction going on. So they're kind of taking it apart and adding bits to it and uh getting it ready to start filming.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Getting it ready to start filming because it used to be in Will Rogers, and Will Rogers Beach is uh past uh Santa Monica, north of Santa Monica, and that burned down.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

That burned down. And so, and I also just think uh for the storyline, Venice is more pip.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

I mean Well, wasn't it always set in Venice? Even though it was it wasn't filmed there.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I thought it was set like in Malibu.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Was it?

unknown 17:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Do you know what? I just can't remember now. To me, I remember I remember watching it in England and it was just like, oh, Los Angeles and you know, paradise. Yeah. And then you come here and you think, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah, it'll just it'll be interesting because the actors are gonna be in the water all the time.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Bathing.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Bathing. And the water's really dirty. Maybe not maybe it's not so bad in Venice. But in Will Rogers, it's not great.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Yeah. So So there we have it.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Oh pie eating contest. I mean, pie, pie not pie eating, but pie contest.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

When is this?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

This weekend, downtown. Has nothing to do with Venice.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

No.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

So that's uh and we'll and Will Farrell's one of the judges. Oh, is he?

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

This weekend. Yeah. I mean, what could be better? Pie and Will Farrell.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Hold on, pie eating. Was it like one of these people who eat hot dogs?

SPEAKER_01 18:35

You've got to eat No, no, no. It's the taste of the pie, which is so much better. I mean, really, I don't want to watch anybody cramming food down their mouth, especially hot dogs.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah. What about that um cupcake competition? Oh, that was great.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

That was like That was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Was that tasting as well, or just purely decorative?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

I think that was, I don't know, but that was really fun.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

We went to this um cupcake convention.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, at the LA conventions. Oh my god. Um They gave us so many cupcakes.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Well it's because you were with the press, wasn't it? Right. But I remember walking out with like you know, you get those big pizza sort of 18-inch things. We had like two or three of them. It's just full of cupcakes.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

And we were dri when we were driving back home, we were giving them out to people on the street.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

I I don't think I've eaten a cupcake since, basically. And we're probably talking about 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

But you know what? If we had a load now, we could leave them out in the back alley for the coyotes. Yeah. You know, or the not or the chie wolf.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Uh the chie wolf. Um so I'm really looking forward to the pie event. I think Venice should have a pie event. Anything else happening in Venice? Oh, I do have to report that um a kitten from the Cat Cafe was adopted out. Uh, I don't have all the details, but it's the first kitten that's been adopted out. Oh, well, there you go. Yeah. So I'm really hoping that they accept three kittens that uh I'm helping someone find a home for. Okay. So anyway, stay alert and and be happy.