Citizen Scientists Wanted For Coyote Scat Collection Project
THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA.com) — The National Park Service is recruiting for people willing to collect coyote droppings.
In order to answer questions about the diets of urban coyotes – which deal with concrete, traffic, people and little to no open space – researchers are looking for volunteers for its Coyote Scat Team.
These citizen scientists, who must attend training on June 4 to learn proper scat collection procedures, will perform walking surveys on a monthly basis and possibly work with the analysis team to help examine scat contents – a one-to-three day commitment per month.
The Coyote Scat Team is a six-month commitment, but the project is expected to last a minimum of two years.
"We hear plenty of anecdotal evidence about what coyotes eat, but it's actually never been studied in L.A. before," biologist Justin Brown, who leads coyote field research for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement. "This study should yield basic ecology information about the urban coyote, which we hope will assist residents and policymakers in making informed decisions on coyote management."
Scientists hope to study scat from about 30 locations, so volunteers are wanted from communities such as Beverly Hills, Los Feliz, Mount Washington, the Westlake District, Hollywood, El Sereno, Echo Park and East Los Angeles. Those samples will be compared with scat collected throughout the Conejo Valley suburbs and adjacent natural habitat to determine the differences in diet.
Training and analysis workshops for citizen scientists will be held at the Audobon Center at Debs Park.
For more details or to apply, email samo_superintendent@nps.gov.