Four Hours in the day of an Urban Coyote

09 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment

by yipps in coexisting with coyotes, coyotes and dogs, human behavior Tags: , , , , ,

What does a coyote do all day? It occurred to me that it would be enlightening to see how a coyote spends its day — the part of the day when people are in the park. So I decided to watch one for as long of a stretch as I could. I actually tried this several times, but the coyotes always vanished too soon to call it a day. But, finally I was able to get four hours of continual notes and photos on a coyote. I made a diary of this.The total territory covered by the coyote during these four hours was a mile, encompassing a peripheral trail that rejoins itself, which the coyote crossed back over several times.

Coyotes probably sleep from late morning until late afternoon, because I almost never see them during that time: so I am assuming that after the activity I recorded here, the coyote trotted off for a nap. In addition, there are the dawn, dusk and night hours which are more active for a coyote, with more social activity, hunting and probably playing.

My camera time-stamps my photos, so I was able to record everything solely with my camera! There is no “typical” day, I know. During other days, I have seen this coyote for shorter lengths of time during which there were long hunting sessions, lots of barking sessions, long resting sessions — 3 hours once in one location, following a walker, and so on. But I wanted to put one sequence together, and here it is:

6:00 am: I arrived in one of the city parks to find a coyote calmly resting on an incline. I walked up to a rare pre-dawn dog walker. We noticed two other coyotes close by, young ones, her grown offspring. These stayed together and did some digging. The dog stayed on the path with us. Then the dog moved off the path a bit, causing one of the youths to move further off, but the other one approached the dog, never coming right up to it — this coyote was cautiously interested in the dog. We could see we humans were keeping the coyote at bay: coyotes always keep their distance from people. The walker decided to walk on. Because of the movement, both young coyotes ran into the distance.

6:35 I returned to watch the coyote still resting on the hill. She sat up and seemed to focus attention towards the other side of the park: maybe more walkers could be heard arriving at the park — or maybe she was keeping tabs on another offspring? I suggest this, because later on I saw another offspring in the area this coyote was watching.

At 6:41 one of the youths took off into the brush. The first coyote then got up and stretched, and walked up to the path I was on, but further ahead. The coyote followed the trail right up to where the second youth was still hanging out. These two coyotes had a fabulous face-to-face greeting — the warmth they displayed was extremely charming: they looked right at each other and nuzzled one another. The mother stretched her nose over that of the younger one. The mother then sat down for a few moments next to the young one, then stood up again as the youth trotted off down a trail. Had the mother signaled this one to do so?

6:48 The mother remained. She lifted her forelegs onto a rock to give herself elevation, and she watched the young one trot off. Now alone, she walked over to the other side of the rocks, sat, and looked over the entire area — scoping out the place. There was no activity to be seen.

At 6:54 she decided to move on, stopping to scratch herself on her back in two ways:  with her hind leg and by bending her head over her back to scratch with her teeth. Then she continues on. She has purpose in her gait. At 6:59 she climbs up an outcropping of rocks. Here the intensity of her attention is increased — you can see this by the look in her eye and by the way she turns her head and holds it still. She appeared to be scoping out the area — listening for and looking for something, which could have been more dogs and walkers arriving at the park.

7:00 She scurried down from the high rock after a couple of minutes, and, again, with a quickness and definite purpose in her gait, headed to a favorite knoll of hers where I have seen her often, arriving there in about 4 minutes. Here she first sat, looking around, but then settled into lying down with her head up. She observed the walkers below. There were only about 3 dogs and walkers, but she knows some of them by sight. I notice that her attention was pulled up the hill, so I look up there, and for a few brief moments, at 7:27, saw one of her pups. He returned to hide in the brush almost immediately. Did she come over here to keep an eye on him? Her attention then returned to the walkers for the next little while. She was totally relaxed. During this time I was able to talk to some walkers. We talked about the prevailing issues: that there are several coyotes, that they are peaceful, that dogs should be kept away from them, that all incidents have involved dogs, that a small group has been throwing rocks at them, that someone might be feeding them, and about my photographing them. The coyote adjusted her position several times, but stayed right here.

At 7:42, after about 40 minutes here, the coyote decided to move on. First, she stretched and yawned — she does this often after a rest. Then she wandered, rather casually and slowly, down, around and back to the area where she had shown affection to the other pup. She continued her meandering beyond this point, stopping occasionally to study movement in the ground — there are lots of gopher and vole holes in the area, but no real hunting took place. At 8:09 she heard and saw one of the dog walkers — a woman who throws rocks at the coyote. The coyote knows all walkers and dogs individually, and knows how to avoid being seen. So the coyote carefully slithered into the brush area where she remained fairly still until the woman passed, and then continued her slow easy walk up an incline. At this point, at 8:12, a man appeared on the trail which is off to one side, with a small unleashed dog. I let the man know that the coyote was out in case he might want to leash his dog. He thanked me, leashed up and continued his walk. He never even saw the coyote. The coyote had been absolutely still during my communication with the man, but then slowly continued her meanderings.

Between 8:16 to 8:21 the coyote stopesd to hunt: she saw movement on the ground which probably appeared more promising than before — either of a vole or gopher. She stoped and remained till and kept her attention on this place for a full 5 minutes. Occasionally she looked up and moved a little bit and cocked her head, but she remained poised to catch something. Nothing came of it this time. One morning I saw her catch three gophers, eat two of them and carry the 3rd one off — but not this day.

At 8:25 she reached the street, where a woman and her dog decided to avoid the coyote by going in another direction. A little boy and his dad noticed the coyote — no big deal for them — they told me they wanted to give the coyote plenty of space, so they make a wide circle and head into the park.

At this point I lost the coyote for a few minutes, but not for long. Within less than a minute, the coyote was dashing through the wooded area right by the street in pursuit of a dog. This coyote only chases dogs who have come after her. All became quiet at this point, in fact, it was always quiet except for the rustle of the shrubbery as the animals sped by. As far as I could tell, the dog returned to its owner, because shortly thereafter, at 8:36, I found the coyote headed in a different direction.

The coyote was on some steps, “scooting” — I speculate that she might have worms since I’ve seen her do this several times. A woman was walking her dogs on the path below. She noticed the coyote and walked on. The coyote took the woman’s same path but was not  pursuing, and their directions soon diverged. The coyote then suddenly acquired purpose and direction in her gait.

From 8:42 – 9:27 she arrived and remained at a place several hundred feet away from her favorite knoll. She sat and watched for a few moments, and then circled around to lie down. Everything was quiet at first. But then a man way in the distance below began throwing a ball up the hill for his dog, and the dog retrieved it. He finally was amazed to see the coyote and stopped his activity. The coyote remained totally at rest and relaxed, eyes half-closed. Another dog walker passed on a path way above, she told me her dog does not chase coyotes and it didn’t. Another woman walked her dog on the path below: when I let her know about the coyote right there, she thanks me and leashed up. Everything was very calm that morning.

By 9:28 the coyote was on the move again, this time again slowly meandering, up to a high area in the park through a thicket area. She ended up at the crest of some high cliffs where she found a puddle of water which she lapped up at 9:36. She stood up high here, taking in what was below, scoping out the area for about 4 minutes. She finally stretched and yawned, ever so slowly, before quickening her pace and heading through the thicket below again. She meandered casually in this area, probably looking for any movement that would suggest prey. This area is right next to a trail. At 9:43, as some hikers walked by, she sat still, absolutely quiet, and watched them. They did not see her at all. When they were gone, she got up, pooped, and continued her slow wandering. Then two more walkers and their dog went by as had the previous walkers. This time the coyote took their same path — they are headed in the same direction as the coyote had been going. Since their dog was not leashed, I let them know that the coyote was right in back of them. When they turned around, the coyote headed down a hill, but remained within our sight. It was a nice time to talk about how much we all like this peaceful coyote — peaceful unless chased. They departed.

By 9:46 the coyote was back at her favorite knoll, not totally resting, but sitting up this time. About 8 walkers with their dogs passed by below — about 100 feet from the coyote, few of whom saw the coyote.

At 9:58 a fairly large dog came up in the direction of the coyote, but not after her. She prepared for the dog — just in case — but the dog went on after its owner. For some reason she decided to check this dog out, so she followed them. However, she stopped the minute she saw several other people on the narrow path ahead. She turned back and then headed for an area which is not frequented by people, but then she stopped short. I noticed a large poodle in her path. So I let the owner know that the coyote was right here, could he please leash up to avoid trouble? He defiantly ignored me. So his dog wemt after the coyote, way up the hill, barking at her, as he yelled ineffectively at his dog. The coyote ran off, but then turned around with her defensive stance. She did not pursue the dog but stood her ground. The owner was finally able to grab his dog by the collar and drag it down to the main path. As he got down on this path he released his dog. One of the responsible walkers below yelled at him that he was an idiot for not leashing his dog after that incident.

At 10:00 The coyote disappeared into the direction she was headed and that was the last I saw of her this day.

In Summary, during these four hours, she spent about:

  • 50 minutes: watching her pups as she relaxed
  • 2 minutes: trotting towards her pup
  • 3 minutes:  warmly greeting her pup
  • 6 minutes: surveying the territory from a rise in the ground
  • 6 minutes: purposeful walking – seems like she had a destination in mind
  • one minute:  keenly surveying and scoping out the area from up high
  • 4 minutes:  purposeful walking – again, she seemed to have a location in mind
  • 40 minutes: relaxing on a knoll watching people and noticed another of her pups in the distance
  • 35 minutes: meandering, seemingly less purposeful than before  - included 2 instances of avoiding dogs by ducking into the brush at 8:09 & 8:12
  • 5 minutes:  hunting at one spot
  • 2 minutes: on the street sidewalk or right next to it
  • 1 minute: chasing a dog and I lost track of her, but I found her again
  • 6 minutes: purposeful walking
  • 46 minutes: basking in the sun on a knoll, although a few people saw her, most did not
  • 8 minutes: meanderings up to rocks;
  • 4 minutes: scoping and surveying from high above  - she lapped up water at 9:36 from a puddle
  • 3 minutes: meandering – at 9:43 hikers passed by and then she pooped
  • 12 minutes: at her favorite knoll, sitting up & watching more people who didn’t see her.
  • 1 minute: purposeful walking
  • 1 minute: chased by dog
  • By 10:00 she had left — that was the end of my notes for the day.

She was relaxing 40+40+46+12 minutes=2.3 hours; surveying 6+1+4=10 min; purposeful walking 4+6+4+6+1= 21 min; meandering 35+8+3=46 min; other activities — greeting her pup, drinking water, being chased by dogs, chasing a dog, scratching  3+5+2+1+1=12 min

Photography aids observation: some thoughts

05 Nov 2009 3 Comments

by yipps in Janet Kessler, photography Tags: ,

I get requests from people and groups asking me to take them with me while I photograph. I am truly honored at these requests — highly honored that they like the photos I have taken well enough to want to come along. However, I have to tell them that this “led safari” type of situation is not what I do. I take walks by myself or with my husband, and I have a camera. What I have come across I find by being outside and exploring. You have to love to be out in nature and be part of it, and you have to spend many hours in the settings where animals live. Ultimately, it is the wildlife that is so thrilling — the camera is a tool which enhances my participation in nature. Photography enhances my ability to see wildlife. It focuses my concentration and awareness. I bring it home where I study the details. It serves as my notebook. When I’m done, I post some of my “stuff” so others might enjoy what I have been able to observe. Right now I’m engaged in a study of coyote behavior, less for its usefulness than for my own curiosity and understanding. Practically, though, I might find something that could ease the coexistence issue. There are aspects of this issue, including dog and human issues, that have not been looked at thoroughly enough to reveal much understanding.

I do my photographing alone, because I try to become part of the space I am working with, actually studying situations and behavior, and I can’t do so with others next to me. Also, with fewer people around you become less intrusive for the animal. It is very important not to intrude on an animal you decide to photograph — you have intruded if you have caused it to change its behavior, flinch or flee. Also, to protect the animals, I never give the locations of any of the animals I photograph.  My ultimate goal is to try to photograph beyond what could become a “pretty picture” and grab the behavior, personality or character of what I find — it takes plenty of time and lots of awareness. I try to capture what the animals reveal to me about themselves, and I’m not always successful. This is not something one can teach someone else. One learns by being interested.

My suggestion to everyone who wants to photograph wildlife is to simply take walks and find your own mode that works for you. This way you will be growing into something that is exclusively yours. Start with any wild animal you see — even common starlings. Work with one animal, never interfering with its behavior, and try to learn its ways and capture this on film. I never took any photography courses — I just plunged into doing what I wanted to do and saved what I liked. Except for a good zoom lens, you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment, you just need to love what you do.

I like to crop my photos considerably — because I like framing them as “portraits”. The photos have to be really sharply focused if you want to crop. However, sharp focus can only be achieved when you have plenty of light. The left-hand images are versions of the same photo taken in fairly low light — notice that there is not a lot of detail. The photo on the right was taken in very good light, and the cropped version shows lots of detail and is sharp. Photography is about light. A lot of animal activity occurs during twilight hours, when the light is not good. When there is a distance involved, a flash does not work, and anyway it would be intrusive to the animals. Anything that interferes with the light, such as fog and haze and twilight, makes it harder to achieve a sharp photo.

Some Reactions to Dogs: Coyote behavior

04 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment

by yipps in coexisting with coyotes, coyotes and dogs, coyotes defending themselves Tags: , , , , ,

I have been able to observe many coyote/dog interactions. Most coyotes are pretty shy and will keep their distance and then flee from dogs. Some coyotes, cautiously and prepared to flee, will allow a calm dog to get a little closer. The coyote reactions to dogs I am delineating in this posting involve a certain alpha female. This coyote is more visible and bolder than others I have seen. She can be seen at times on elevated areas, where she lifts her head as some of the dogs and owners pass at a distance, and she sits up when she feels there might be a need to escape.

This coyote knows every single dog individually that comes regularly to the park and has assessed their potential threat to her. She does this by “reading” their body language and their type of energy as they walk, and she sees where their concentration is. She is also very aware of communicating through eye contact with dogs. Not all dogs are as keenly in tune to communication through eye contact in this manner — but a few are keenly aware of it.

Different dogs have different awarenesses of her. Some hardly notice her, some notice her and think she is an animal to be chased, some know she is “different” and to be respected. One very sensitive sheep dog can spot her from way across the park — this dog is the keenest observer I have noticed: he and the coyote will “lock” into an eye contact, which means they are interacting at a certain level, during which time the sheep-dog exhibits a lot of uneasiness. The owner calls his dog and they move on.

Most dogs that this female coyote observes fall into the category of being yawned at. She observes them through half-opened eyes. These are not a threat to her. Calm dogs on-leashes and calm dogs off-leashes are in this group. They are seldom cause for concern to her. Runners with their dogs whose full attention is with the runner are also in this category and ignored. Actually, almost all dogs are in this category.

There are very few dogs who are not in the above category. The few who are not, are given quite a display.

These dogs, on the opposite extreme of the spectrum from the calm dogs, are the dogs off-leash, who are more alert, aware of their surroundings, wild-acting, fearless and out to explore. Most of them are medium size to large. These are the ones she keeps her eye out for, the dogs of most concern, especially if they have the reputation of having chased the coyote in the past.

This coyote reacts to seeing these dogs by “becoming ready” to defend herself. She begins by standing up, and sometimes running off for a few seconds. This is not a submissive coyote, so she always comes back to stand up for herself, even though she may have to run off again. She has an elaborate defensive display: bouncing up and down, her hackles up, her ears out to the sides and back. Her back is hunched so that she can “spring” up and down for easier and quick movements — it is like a dance. She paws the ground, scratching with her front paws, and makes short darts back and forth and sideways. Her head is sometimes lowered and her lips are pulled back with her nose wrinkled. These behaviors constitute her basic stance and movements. She may grunt a little, which sometimes leads to an intense barking session — but just as likely, the barking session never even begins. This, then, is a visual reaction — a display.

If the owner can grab his dog, the episode will stop there. If the dog chases her, she may initially run off  – she is much, much faster and more lithe than any dog and can always get away, but she usually comes back. She seems to know which dogs she must run from — she can easily exhaust these dogs with her speed and distance, and she knows which ones she can hold at bay or move away from herself. I have seen her run off to an unreachable ledge and begin a barking episode. If she comes back she might begin a barking episode coupled with the above display. Or she could add a short charge-and-retreat sequence directed at the dog, and, if the dog’s owner is not close by, there have been a few instances where the coyote has tried to nip the haunches of the perpetrator, the same as a cattle-dog nips at a cow’s heels, to herd it away from herself. AND sometimes, twice that I have seen, she has gone even further, “escorting” the dog and owner right out of the park — following them fairly closely to the park entrance.

These are the two extreme reactions to dogs, with the calm reaction occurring most of the time, and the reactive one occurring less often. It appears to me that the coyote knows when walkers leash their dogs — it would be so easy to prevent incidents by doing so. I’ve seen her intensified alertness calm down when she sees this.

The same alert, wild-acting, fearless dogs on-leash may elicit a shorter and milder version of the response to the unleashed dogs: the coyote starts “getting ready just in case”, but then lets it pass after only a few seconds when she sees that the dog is restrained. As far as I know, she has never gone after a leashed dog, no matter how threatening to her, though she has “escorted” a couple of them out of the park following an incident of them having chased her while still off-leash.

I once saw a tiny little dog run wildly, off leash towards its owner — it had been lagging behind and decided to catch up. It raced over the path like a little bullet. But I could see that the coyote became very excited and agitated with the seeming hyperactive, fast running little dog. Even though we humans might think that a coyote would see this tiny dog as harmless, the instincts of the coyote might have been primed due to the dog’s hyperactivity.  In this case, the coyote stood up, hunched over and began running back and forth on the crest of the hill it was on. The dog reached its owner, and slowly the coyote calmed down. One must remember that several breeds of dogs, especially cocker-spaniels, often bite children because they cannot handle the unpredictable hyperactivity that is innate in small children. Dogs like predictability, and I suppose that coyotes do, too.

Another time, I saw a coyote resting on a bluff as a walker with three medium-sized dogs walked casually, but energetically by, at fairly close range. The dogs did not see the coyote, since it was hidden from them by the crest of the hill. The coyote rose to its feet, hunched its back, pulled back its gums and began pawing the ground and bouncing. I think the appearance of these dogs had surprised the coyote during an unguarded moment — they suddenly were in its visual field, having been hidden from it, too, by the crest of the hill. But after only a few bounces, seeing that the dogs did not even look up, it stopped and lay down again.

Another time, a coyote was close to the path while a couple of us were observing it. A man with a medium size dog came by. I suggested he leash his dog, which he did, but he would not walk around to give the coyote space. Even though this dog was leashed and close to its owner, it pulled on the leash, towards the coyote, barking — and this is what the coyote reacted to. The coyote stayed back, but immediately went into a “hunched back, gums pulled back, pawing the ground, rearing up on its hind feet, wrinkling its nose, dart-and-retreat sequence”. However, as the owner pulled his dog away along the path, the coyote calmed down. Then, after the dog and owner were 100 feet ahead, the coyote followed at a quick pace, but changed its mind when it noticed more humans up ahead. This may have been one of those times when the coyote felt like “escorting” the dog out of the park, but the appearance of more people prevented it.

In some parks, certain coyotes appear to have become accustomed to some of the dogs, even liking some of them — at a distance — if they adhere to the path. One of these is an unleashed large unfixed male labrador who acknowledges a coyote it sees occasionally, but leaves it alone. There seems to be a kind of mutual “animal respect” here.  This coyote has, several times trotted closer towards the dog, all the while retaining a readiness to flee. The coyote seems to be observing the dog — assessing him.  This coyote has followed this dog and owner a number of times, at about 50 feet, all the way out of the park — all in a very calm manner. Once, before dawn, two coyotes followed this dog, one of them circling around in front of the dog and and the other ultimately running up to him from behind and mouthing its tail before racing away — almost as a dare!  The owner was amused. This dog normally does not like it when there is more than one coyote to deal with. To show how each situation is different, I want to point out that this same coyote gave this same dog a different greeting once. Maybe the dog was behaving differently — he often runs in an ungainly, waddling manner off the path to grab a stick and chew on it: this kind of unpredictable behavior may have made the coyote wary and nervous. The coyote assumed its protective stance: crouching low, baring its teeth and scratching the ground. The owner called his dog back to the path. The coyote repeated this “challenging” stance three times, and finally ran off to engage in a barking session. I put this incident in here to show that although a lot of dog/coyote encounters are predictable, this isn’t always the case.

In another instance a coyote was sitting peacefully in a field, lower than the trail as a dog and owner walked by. The dog was leashed-up when I mentioned that a coyote was right there. The coyote crouched low, remained sitting, and kept an eye glued on the dog as it passed — this was not an instance of yawning as the dog went by.

Ears are a very important “tool” for inter-coyote communication. I have not looked at what difference the positioning and movement of the ears in dogs makes on the coyote’s behavior. It might be something to investigate.

Please see posting of December 12: “Dog Reactions to Seeing a Coyote”, November 17th: “ANOTHER reaction to dogs”, and December 1st: “Significance of a Seemingly Unprovoked challenge.” Also, please see the entry on “Coyote Safety” of 11/3, and “Blatant Visual Message for Newcomer Dog” of 2/8/10. “A short back-and-forth chase: coyote interaction with a large dog” of 2/4/10.

Safety Around Coyotes; PLUS Behaviors To Be Aware Of If You Have A Dog

03 Nov 2009 9 Comments

by yipps in coexisting with coyotes, coyote safety, coyotes and dogs, coyotes defending themselves Tags: , , , , ,

This information was distributed at a health & safety fair here in the city:

PLEASE DO YOUR PART IN PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT WHICH INCLUDES OUR WILD COYOTES!

~ coyotes are a natural part of this environment ~

~ seldom are they aggressive, but they will protect themselves ~

~ an ounce of prevention works! Protect both your dog and coyotes ~

1) Prevent close coyote encounters in the first place:

  • never feed a coyote or try to tame it
  • never walk towards a coyote – give them space
  • never let your dog chase or play with a coyote
  • leash your dog whenever you see or hear a coyote or know one is in the area

2) Behaviors coyotes use to protect themselves when chased by a dog

  • charge-and-retreat sequence
  • a long barking episode, often rearing up on their hind legs
  • a nipping at the haunches, same as a cattle dog herding, to move the dog away
  • “escorting” or following you out of the park (rarely)

3) If this should happen, you need to scare the coyote off:

  • flail your arms to shoo it off, making yourself big
  • yell and clap your hands making a very loud racket, or try carrying a shake can
  • throw stones around the coyote, not at it to harm it, but near it to scare it
  • grab your dog when you can and leave the area, but don’t run which a coyote might read as an invitation to chase you

4) Two coyote behaviors to be aware of — usually between a coyote and a dog who know each other:

  • “Chase-Chase” Behavior: the coyote will be traveling in the same direction as a walker and his/her unleashed dog, and will come in close with a little “darting in”  and “retreat”. The dog will return the behavior. It is almost a “dare” or “oneupmanship” with no other intention than just this — it verges on play. Some dogs can handle this, some need to be leashed.
  • A mother coyote may come to the aid of one of her full-grown pups and the two will work as a team to vex a dog to get it to leave: one coyote will distract the dog, the other will come around to dart in from the other side.
  • In both cases, leashing the dog creates a barrier of sorts: it calms down the dog — and this can be seen by the coyote. But also it keeps the dog next to the owner which serves to deter the coyote from coming in. Coyotes do not care to tangle with humans.

Please read postings on December 12th: “Dog Reactions to Seeing a Coyote”, November 4th: “Some Reactions to Dogs”, November 17th: “ANOTHER Reaction to Dogs”, and December 1: “Significance of a Seemingly Unprovoked Challenge”. “Blatant Visual Message for Newcomer Dog” on 2/8/10. “A short back-and-forth chase: oneupmanship verging on play” 2/4/10.

Four!

03 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment

by yipps in identifying individual coyotes Tags: , , ,

Today I was met by a surprise — surprises are always thrilling. Early in the morning I noticed that at this park there were two coyotes on the horizon — this is not a very common place to see more than one coyote. One of the coyotes ran down to investigate from a distance, and the other remained up on the horizon. I adjusted my camera to an ISO of 3200 because there was so little light at this hour of the day before dawn. I do not like using this setting because of the graininess, but a grainy photo is better than none at all. With the camera I am able to record and magnify what I see, and therefore examine features that might distinguish one animal from another.  I was able to identify one of the coyotes! Shortly thereafter, it disappeared into the underbrush. Coyotes are not often seen by most people. Only a few of us have noticed that there even has been a second one in this area, not to mention a third one I’ve become aware of.

I decided to leave the park after this short glimpse of activity. As I left, I noticed that the one coyote up on the horizon was still there. As I came around a bend in the path, around some bushes, I was super surprised to see three more coyotes — this included the one which had disappeared in the underbrush a moment earlier! I looked back up on the horizon, and that one was still there. This is the first time I have seen four coyotes all at once in any of the parks. I was able to distinguish each coyote once I got home and looked at the photos. The “newcomer” was very similar in appearance to another coyote that I was able to identify recently. Of course, this is probably not a newcomer at all, these coyotes have been here all along. But this is the first time I have seen a fourth, and it is the first time I have seen four coyotes all at once.

The new coyote was more ill-at-ease than the others, and stayed out only a moment before hiding in the brush. Meanwhile, the other two continued to stare at me, very cautiously. After a few more moments, the one up on the horizon came running down to these two and the three trotted off together. This, too, was unusual for me to see: normally the coyotes disappear on their own into the brush area which is closest to them, but this time the one on the horizon seemed to need to move the rest of them on. I tried speculating as to why its behavior might have been different this time: of course, there may have been no reason at all; or it may have wanted the others out of the way because of all the aggression that has recently been aimed at the coyotes by a group of people in the park; or it may have seen a dog coming, or it may not have liked me looking at them for so long. My husband later warned me that I had inadvertently been between the coyotes. If you are aware of it, this kind of situation should be avoided, for safety sake. Also, a lone coyote or two might be different from a pack. Packs always consist of family members: pups, some yearlings, the parents. We might need to consider the possibilities of having a larger coyote population in our parks for a while. The likelihood is that a couple of them will disperse and move on because of territorial constraints — a territory will only support so many coyotes. I’ll try to find out when dispersal takes place.

Anyway, it is very exciting to discover everything that comes to light about coyotes, and seeing this foursome was, for me, a particularly spectacular discovery!

Coyote Ailments and Injuries in the City

03 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment

by yipps in urban coyote ailments Tags: , , ,

What diseases and injuries do coyotes in cities have to deal with? There probably are many, but the ones I’ve been able to see in this city include, first and foremost, being hit and killed by a car. A number of people have noticed coyotes crossing busy streets, very often during prime-traffic time. Three people told me that they “just missed” hitting a coyote in the early morning.

The second gravest injury I have encountered is a knee or leg injury. One of the coyotes here injured its leg so badly that it almost could not get up from a lying down position — its entire back twisted as it made the attempt. It did succeed and was able to get around by holding this leg up all the time, and later on just holding it up as it ran. It was not able to put full weight on this leg for an entire month.

Fleas are an important issue for coyotes — this is one of the reasons they move from den to den: so as to move out of a flea infested one. Once they leave, the fleas actually die, and they can move back after a while.

Mosquitos affect all of us, including the coyotes. On one hot morning after a rainstorm, when I myself was being devoured by these insects, I saw a coyote with a swarm of mosquitos buzzing around it. The coyote was attempting to bat them away from its face with its front paws.

Today I became very aware that worms are something coyotes have to deal with: a coyote was “scooting” on the ground and then mouthing its rear area in an attempt to alleviate this kind of parasite. I’m wondering if this condition just continues to worsen once the coyote has been infested, or if it is a temporary condition?

Another affliction must involve foreign objects in the ears, because I’ve seen one coyote shake its head considerably from side to side. Eye injuries occur: I’ve noticed a swollen eye. Also foot ailments: I’ve notice a coyote mouthing a paw and lifting it, as if trying to dislodge something.

Dysentery is something I have seen a number of times. Ticks and mange I’ve recently become aware of. These are important to know about since San Francisco itself has been known as an area not having ticks — this is obviously not so.

And then there are “nose injuries” that could have been caused in self-defense or in a fight for food.

Dog Behavior – a story about winning

03 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment

by yipps in coexisting with coyotes, coyotes and dogs Tags: , ,

Jesse is neither an aggressive dog, nor a dominant/alpha dog. He’s a medium sized, short haired happy-go-lucky dog that comes to one of the parks early each morning with his owner. He socializes with the other dogs, is happy to greet other owners, runs all over the place, and for the most part, comes when his owner calls him. But several times he has seen the coyote before his owner could leash him, and off he went. Yesterday, Jesse chased two coyotes into the bushes. Often, one of the coyotes, after being chased, will come back and stand up for itself by barking and nipping. Fortunately, no incident occurred this time, but it has in the past. Jesse once ended up with a nip on his haunches and didn’t like it — letting his owner know about it all day long. Maybe because of this previous incident, Jesse needed to show the coyotes who really was boss — I’ve been calling this “oneupmanship.” So this time, after the coyotes were well out of reach and quiet within the bushes, Jesse trotted back to their entry point into the bushes, paced back and forth, and finally pooped right there on their “doorstep”. That’ll show them!!

I discourage all dog owners from letting their dogs chase the coyote — we need to protect both the dogs and the coyotes — but it does happen sometimes. Both the coyotes and dogs reveal, by their behaviors, what they are actually thinking and how they feel.

Ugly Human Activity Recently

03 Nov 2009 Leave a Comment

by yipps in coexisting with coyotes, coyotes and dogs, human behavior Tags: , , ,

Upsettingly, there has been ugly human activity in one of our parks which is affecting the coyote’s behavior: I saw this very clearly today.  It is the first time I have ever seen one of the coyotes so extremely nervous, edgy and jumpy. The coyote was agitated. It was looking around, particularly in back of itself, and it was flinching and jerking constantly, seemingly at imagined noises. This is so contrary to this one’s normal calm and relaxed self. I’ve become worried about it.

The new treatment that is being directed at coyotes is unnecessary and mean since the coyotes in this park are so peaceful — all of it is perpetrated by a small self righteous “clique” of about three people with a mission to make the coyotes afraid of people. This treatment includes throwing rocks in the direction of coyotes wherever they might be. I have heard about throwing stones to move a coyote away from yourself or from the path you are on. But this group of individuals is actually pursuing the coyotes anywhere they are, far from where the individual might be. One of these people, a man, ran off of his path about 50 feet up to where I was, on an entirely different trail, and started viciously heaving rocks towards a coyote which was 40 or so feet in front of me. The coyote had not been in his path or in his way. When I questioned him, he told me that the coyote had “looked at him”. I was absolutely bewildered.

Then, two days ago, I saw a large woman with a large stick, yelling at a coyote to “shoo, git, out-of-here”. This was nowhere near any of the paths. It was in an area where the coyotes should be allowed to be safe, where people seldom if ever go, towards the middle of a field by a thicket area — the woman had pursued the coyote into this area. This incident occurred as this coyote was barking after it had been chased by an unleashed dog. This “clique” thinks it needs to create fear in the coyote — they think the coyotes are becoming too fearless. They are trying to “manage” the coyotes and “manage” the park visitors without any authority to do so. If they want to prevent incidents with the coyotes, all they need to do is leash their dogs since all coyote incidents have been caused by dogs intruding on them.

The whole picture needs to be examined more thoroughly. Our coyotes are not aggressive, but might they become so as a result of the aggression that is being perpetrated against them?  Or, might they just leave the park? Our parks are one of the safest places for them in our city. Of course, if they go elsewhere they might be treated better — the problem is that coyotes who move into new territories risk being run off by coyotes which already reside there. Finding a new territory would be difficult, and in the meantime, their vacated spots in our park would be taken up by newcomer coyotes — this is how it works.

I have been asked “why don’t they just leave the coyotes alone?” We have been told that coyotes are a natural part of this environment: they belong here as much as we do. Most of us  just want to see the coyotes thrive and give sparkle to our urban parks. The only “incidents” we have ever had have involved unleashed dogs chasing the coyotes. If we need to “manage” the situation it would be to enforce the leash-law when the coyotes are visible. Please read postings on November 11th about “habituation” and on November 13th about “feeding”.

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