As a child, Camilla Fox displayed a keen interest in wildlife. But while others her age wanted to help kittens, puppies and butterflies, Fox leaned toward apex predators, animals often as feared as they are misunderstood.
Influenced both by her mother, who taught her to care about nature on a local level, and her father, a veterinary university professor who studied large canines and had a more global view, Fox has made it her mission to speak in the defense of coyotes as well as other predators.
For the past 15 years, Fox — and no, she didn’t change her name — has been executive director of Project Coyote, a national organization she founded and based in Marin County. The organization’s mission is to dispel the myths about coyotes and other wild animals and to educate people on peaceful coexistence with them.
“I think for a lot of people, seeing a coyote is their first experience with a wild predator, especially those that live in urban areas,” Fox says. “Often there is a knee-jerk fear response. Coyotes are the most misunderstood and maligned wild carnivores in the country.”
We talked with Fox about Project Coyote and why we shouldn’t be so afraid.
Q. Why do people get so freaked out when they see a coyote in a developed area?
A. Humans have a natural fear of predators. After all, we were once prey on the savanna. It’s natural and normal for people to fear a wild predator. Part of our job is to inform people about these wild carnivores, what is their normal behavior and what we can do to better understand them.
We try to acknowledge their fears, recognize them and educate people about normal and natural behaviors. Once we understand their life cycles and what’s normal and what’s not normal, then we can feel more comfortable when we see a coyote and recognize aberrant behavior that might necessitate calling authorities.
Q. Coyotes have this historical reputation as wanton killers of livestock and a threat to humans, and we have had some scary coyote attacks in recent years. How do you make people feel comfortable around coyotes?
A. Whenever there is an encounter, it gets blown up in the media. We work all year, not just after an encounter, to assist communities with programs and plans educating urban dwellers on how to live with coyotes peacefully and reduce encounters. We also have a ranchers’ program that teaches nonlethal and humane ways to reduce conflicts between cattle and wild carnivores.
When we see an uptick in calls and conflicts with coyotes, it’s usually when coyote parents are raising their young. Off-leash dogs may come too close to a den site, and the coyotes are protecting their pups. We teach people to be aware and do things such as keeping their dogs on leashes during pupping season.
We also stress that people should not intentionally provide a food source to coyotes, which increases the chance of encounters. All you need is one bad actor feeding animals and habituating them to humans. That usually leads to trouble, which leads to the death of the animal.
Part of our messaging is keeping wild animals wild and wary, appreciating them from a distance.
Q. Why is it important to have coyotes?
A. Coyotes are a native species that play an important role in providing a healthy environment. For one thing, coyotes are great rodent controllers. An adult coyote can consume up to 1,800 rodents in a year.
Q. Can coyotes and people co-exist in developed areas?
A. Absolutely. More often than not, we are already coexisting with coyotes and other animals, as well. What we hear in the media is the rare time when a conflict occurs, not all the other times. Your chances of being bitten by a neighborhood dog or having a negative encounter with a deer on the roadway, or even being injured from a flying champagne cork is much greater than you being injured by a coyote or other wild animal.
Q. We often talk about coyotes being a threat to us, but are we as much of a threat to them?
A. Our mission is to work hard to understand and protect coyotes, bears, wolves, bobcats and mountain lions. Many have no state or federal protections and can be killed year round — and killed by what many consider indiscriminate and inhumane methods.
One of our campaigns is to end wildlife killing contests, where a species is targeted, and participants are awarded prizes for killing the most or the largest of that targeted species. We started in California, and were able to convince the California Fish and Game Commission to end those contests in 2014. We have 60 organizations working together and have banned the practice in eight states and are working to end it in all 50.
Q. If you could look ahead 20 years, what do you hope will have been accomplished with Project Coyote?
A. Since I started, I feel the overall tenor of communities has really shifted for the positive. We are now partnering with Fish and Wildlife and other organizations to provide presentations and workshops on how to live with and reduce conflicts and are hitting a larger audience.
Right now, we have a Keeping it Wild youth education program that fosters respect and appreciation for animals, and we work with educators across the nation to teach about apex predators. We also are working to pressure the federal government to restore gray wolves to their original lands and restore them to the protected species list.
I would hope in 20 years that that ethos has increased and spread.
Camilla H. Fox
Position: Founder and executive director of Project Coyote
Age: 53
Education: Boston University, undergraduate degree in English literature and women’s studies; Prescott College, post-graduate degree in environmental studies with a focus on wildlife ecology and conservation.
Past work: Leadership positions with Animal Protection Institute, Fur-Bearer Defenders and Rainforest Action Network
Family: Longtime partner, Philip, and rescue dog, Mokie
Residence: Larkspur
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT CAMILLA FOX
- She played the flute with the Boston University Orchestra and has collected flutes from all over the world.
- She’s an avid yogini.
- Her greatest joy is to escape into the wild and be rejuvenated.
- She loves to write, including poetry, and enjoys wildlife photography.
- The biggest influences in her life are friend and mentor David Parson, who led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s efforts in 1990-1999 to reintroduce the endangered Mexican gray wolf to portions of its former range in the Southwest; her father, Dr. Michael W. Fox, and her mother, Bonnie Fox; and anthropologist Jane Goodall
