Someone recently asked me to post something about San Francisco as habitat and place — it was suggested that “context” would be of interest to people not living here. What a great idea! I’ve basically done this with a few telling photos which I’ve divided up into the subdivisions below, beginning with the Google map which you can zoom in on, then aerial photos, then downtown and then the neighborhoods, parks and coyotes.
In a nutshell, San Francisco is a 49-square-mile peninsula connected to land only in the south. It is known for its hills and for its flat dune areas. Human population officially is only about 800,000, but San Francisco serves a much wider area of about eight million people. Take a look! Because of being on the coast and having fog, the weather in San Francisco is very mild, with temperatures averaging in the 50-60-70s. However, we’ve had snow a couple of times that I remember, and I remember the day it got to 104 degrees — these extremes are RARE!
We have wonderful wildlife, as can be seen in the link here: http://urbanwildness.com
GOOGLE MAP shows the city with its green spaces and grid system as a whole
AERIAL VIEWS OF THE CITY below include, first, a view SE from the Presidio, near the Golden Gate Bride, and second, a look east and slightly north from the middle of Golden Gate Park. These show a high-rise downtown area in the NE corner of San Francisco, a very hilly central part of the city, and flat dunes in the western section, which includes Golden Gate Park and access to the ocean beaches.
Most folks think of the tall buildings of DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO, seen below, when they think of San Francisco
Most of SAN FRANCISCO NEIGHBORHOODS, such as the following, are interlaced with greenways and trees
SAN FRANCISCO PARKS, like those shown below, offer excellent habitat for coyotes. The nativists of the city are bent on removing this growth in favor of desert scrub, but the vast majority of San Franciscans love the existing growth that has become naturalized in the city, including the fabulous Eucalyptus, and they are battling to preserve it.
COYOTES are out and about — usually when humans are not or when humans are sparse. We have several dozen in the city. Although they shy away from people, they’ll give territorial messages to dogs, and small pets may look like any other prey to them: it’s best to keep your pets leashed when out walking them!
Coyote Yipps 