Mammal Lab’s Ted Stankowich talks skunks, urban coyotes and training tomorrow’s wildlife expertsÂ
Since 2012, Professor Ted Stankowich has been a fixture in Áù¾ÅÉ«ÌÃ’s Department of Biological Sciences — equal parts researcher, mentor and wildlife detective. In his Mammal Lab, he decodes the high-stakes game of predator and prey, while helping to launch College of Natural Sciences and Math grads into careers in nonprofits, wildlife agencies, universities and beyond. Stankowich is one of the planet’s few bona fide skunk authorities, a go-to expert on the coyote next door and a man who can tell you exactly why zebras have stripes. His work blends evolutionary theory with street-level ecology, often pulling undergrads into projects that feel ripped from a National Geographic special. When you want to know what’s lurking in the brush — or why it’s there at all — Stankowich is the one to ask.
You’ve built a career exploring how mammals survive, often with students in tow. When did that fascination begin?
I have always been interested in predator-prey relationships and how prey defend themselves with specialized defenses — things like armor and spines and stinky sprays. A lot of the work we do looks at how prey defend themselves, how they perceive predators, how they perceive risk — and then how do predators learn about prey defenses and respond to them?
Why skunks and coyotes in particular?
Skunks are everywhere. It's got a really powerful defense, it's easy to find and everyone’s got a skunk story — so it's great to engage with people. On the flip side, I was looking for a skunk's potential predator to study how predators learn about defended prey, and coyotes are so abundant. They interact with skunks a lot — and, for better or worse, most people have a coyote story, as well.
Your students seem deeply involved in your work. What are they working on now?
We have a brand-new, six-year collaborative project in Orange County’s Weir Canyon, looking at how different cattle-grazing practices can be used to reduce fire risk, but also reduce non-native plant and animal species, while promoting native species. My students and I are surveying the small mammals in this area and looking at how they respond to high-impact grazing, low-impact grazing, and then control sites where there’s no grazing. We're seeing how those communities change in response over time.
Any other exciting projects?
Another major project we've had going for the last eight years or so is our involvement in the Urban Wildlife Information Network, which is an international collaboration of now 60-plus partners. We have 42 wildlife cameras from the densest urban area near Disneyland out into the Santa Ana Mountains where it’s totally rural. All partners follow the same protocols and share data to answer big questions about how urbanization impacts mammals. A lot of our undergrads are the ones who take the images from the field and tag and identify the animals in them.
You’ve looked at big-picture animal questions — like why pandas are black and white, and why zebras have stripes. How do those projects work?
We collect data about large groups of species from either museums or images or books, and we do complicated evolutionary analyses on those data to answer big questions about those traits. Undergrads are often involved with those projects, too.
You’ve also advised cities on coyote policies. It seems like coyotes are everywhere now, even strolling through urban neighborhoods in broad daylight. Is this the new normal?
It’s the old normal that people just didn’t talk about. I think it feels like we’re seeing more because we have more ways to share sightings — social media, Nextdoor, camera phones. It’s not necessarily that the behavior is brand new; it’s that more people are talking about it and recording it. The vast majority of the coyotes out there are just living their life doing coyote things, eating animals that are wandering around at night. That's just what coyotes do. The problem animals are the ones showing reduced fear of humans — and we are seeing more and more of those in urban areas. The lack of fear, a willingness to approach people, or a willingness to approach animals that are with people — those are the problem animals that we need to exterminate.
Is that a long-term solution, though?
Urban coyotes are naturally more bold — so if we can then take the most bold, the most aggressive animals off that end of the spectrum, we can push that average back toward what it looks like in the wild. That's why widespread extermination practices do not work, right? Because you're just reducing the numbers. But if you take out just the problem animals, you may be able to make the population behave more like their wild counterparts.
So, in the meantime, when an urban coyote shows up near kids or small pets, what should we do?
The first thing you can do is pick up your pet or protect your child. Then harass the animal — yell at it, spray it with a hose, throw a rock at it, use noisemakers. Anything to associate humans with danger. Hazing efforts are a big part of public coyote management. Just don’t do anything to harm the animal — like shooting or poisoning it. Injured animals can behave even more unpredictably.
Okay, a silly question: Which would you rather find outside your front door — a coyote or a skunk?
Because I don’t have pets, a coyote. Skunks don’t want to spray you — they just want to go about their business. But if you surprise it when you open your door, you might be sprayed.
Have you ever been sprayed?
Once. The first morning, the first day, the first year trapping skunks. Out of 150+ trappings ... that’s a pretty darn good record.
