Spotted skunks are common locally in the coastal sage scrub association and lower chaparral association on the coastal face of the mountains, mainly between 1000 and 4000 feet elevation; but they have been reported from Icehouse Canyon at 5000 feet, and I took one above the mouth of this canyon at 5500 feet elevation. A few spotted skunks may inhabit the lower desert slope of the mountains; here feces thought to be those of spotted skunks have been found, and a bobcat trapped near the head of Grandview Canyon smelled strongly of skunk.
The spotted skunk usually was in rocky habitats. In the sage flats, sign (mostly feces and tracks) usually was near rock piles and around human developments such as rock walls, old outbuildings and houses. Specimens taken in the chaparral were trapped near granite outcroppings.
In the autumn of 1950, at my house near the mouth of Palmer Canyon, a family of spotted skunks lived under the floors. Night after night they scratched under the floor and chattered in high-pitched rasping notes, and on several evenings one walked complacently into the living room. It finally became necessary to trap and deport most of these skunks. In all, nine skunks were trapped; these probably represented more than the original residents. One male was descented and allowed to remain. It spent most of the daylight hours asleep in an old shower room where the many gaps between the rock work and the boards allowed him entrance. Through no special efforts on our part he became tame enough to climb over us in order to get food left on the kitchen sink, and he would eat calmly while we sat only inches away from him.
Feces from sage areas contained mostly remains of insects and small rodents whereas many samples of feces from chaparral areas contained, in addition, shells of snails. Feces examined represent all months of the year.
Specimens examined.—Los Angeles County: mouth of San Antonio Canyon, 2 (PC).
Family CANIDAE
Canis latrans ochropus Eschscholtz
Coyote
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.