Information and stories about San Francisco coyotes: behavior & personality, coexistence & outreach, by Janet Kessler: Unveiling first-hand just how savvy, social, sentient and singular coyotes really are!
2) A VIDEO ON COYOTE BEHAVIORS, GUIDELINES & DOGS: a one-stop video, by me, on urban coyote behavior and how to coexist with them, how to handle encounters, and why culling doesn’t solve issues:
*A protocol clarification for when walking a dog (not addressed in the video): Your safest option always is flat-out, absolute AVOIDANCE: Whether you see a coyote in the distance, approaching you, or at close range, leash your dog and walk away from it, thus minimizing any potential dog/coyote confrontation or engagement. If you choose to shoo it away, follow the guidelines in the videos, but know that what’s safest is proactive, preventative unmitigated avoidance: i.e., walk away.
2) MORE LINKS TO COYOTE BEHAVIOR & DOGS:
Press on image above for another crash course on coyotes
For more information on dogs and coyotes, type DOG or DOGS (plural) into the “search” box at the top right of the blog to bring up many dog/coyote related postings with a lot of information to increase understanding of dogs and coyotes. I don’t know why using plural brings up different articles, but it does!
“If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys.” Chief Dan George
Charles Wood, a frequent contributor to Coyote Yipps, adds: “I want to try and express Chief Dan George’s words a little differently, though I believe the meaning is the same: ‘If you talk to the animals they will talk to you and you will come to know them. When you come to know them, you will love them, with respect, without fear. What one fears one destroys. What one loves one defends.'”
Collage showing coyotes feeling at home in San Francisco. Cities have become natural habitats for them, along with mountains, beaches, deserts, ranches, farms, riparian corridors.
Many people assume “coyotes in their natural environment” means anywhere far from humans. But when not persecuted, coyotes have long lived near people — and benefited from it. As anthropologist Malcolm Margolin notes in The Ohlone Way, Indigenous peoples coexisted with coyotes well before Westerners arrived in America.
Coyotes are extraordinary opportunists. They’ve adapted to nearly every habitat and climate — from scorching deserts to frozen tundra, from ranches and farms to beaches, mountains, riparian corridors and cities. All of these are natural habitats for them.
Their troubles began with Western expansion and the cattle industry, when humans started slaughtering both wolves and coyotes. Wolves were wiped out, and coyotes expanded their range — but were branded as vermin and hunted relentlessly. Even today, they’re often shot on sight or killed in contests. Ironically, hunters blame coyotes for deer loss, though humans take far more deer, including the healthiest bucks, while coyotes mostly target the weak or sick (among others, see Coyote America by Dan Flores).
As ecological awareness and humane thinking have grown, people began questioning this persecution. In cities — where guns are now banned — coyotes have found relative safety. Food prey is abundant in the form of rodents of all types, particularly gophers, birds, opossums, skunks, raccoons, vegetation of all types, bugs and lizards, and about half their diet here in San Francisco comes from human refuse (see Tali Caspi). For coyotes, as for us, city life is about convenience.
Some argue coyotes don’t belong in cities, citing car strikes, mange, or dog conflicts. Yet outside cities, life can be harsher, with predators like mountain lions and humans adding to the risks. There’s no law — or scientific reason — saying coyotes don’t belong here: that’s simply wishful thinking on their part. In truth, they’ve always belonged wherever they can survive.
A mated pair cuddle, horse around, and tease each other
[Note: This is a highly shortened version of the more detailed posting with photos that can be found here: WHO are they?https://coyoteyipps.com/who-are-they/]
In a nutshell, WHO are the coyotes? Well, it’s a little like asking, WHO are we as people: there is tremendous variety manifested in our/their individuality, situations, histories, and locations, because we’re each nurtured slightly differently by the culture, environment, happenings, opportunities and individuals immediately around us. But within that variety, there also are unifying generalities.
Coyotes are highly social, highly communicative and highly interactive animals that live in nuclear family units headed by the alpha-parent pair, several yearlings born the previous year, and new pups born this year. They live on their exclusive, claimed territories that are about 2 to 2.5 square miles in size, and they keep other coyotes out: this results in a natural population control. We have 20 such territories covering all of SF. Size of territories are smaller in cities because of the abundance of food: 50% of their diet comes from human refuse (Tali Caspi), and in fact this might be why they’ve moved into urban areas.
Family life is very similar to human family life which should make it easy to relate to them: parents have the ultimate say. They interact and communicate constantly, either visually, through odor, or through vocalizations. They hunt, play, cuddle, explore (often in pairs) have disputes, have besties and sibling rivalry. There is usually a *rendezvous* of all family members at dusk which begins their more active part of their day. Nonetheless, they are diurnal and can be active at any time. The yearlings usually disperse some during their second year of life.
Coyotes’ main source of nutrition comes from rodents, especially gophers. Their diet is supplemented opportunistically with what is available around them and what they as individuals have become good at catching: such as skunks, raccoons, cats, ducks, ravens, opossums, snakes. Seasonally they fill up on all types of vegetation, including blackberries, kumquats, apples, pears, persimmon. They have all sorts of hunting techniques, including coming out in the rain when gophers are more likely to be driven higher in their underground tunnels, and waiting for squirrels to enter trash bins and bring out refuse left by humans, which the coyotes then grab!
Their visibility has increased in recent years due to a number of factors, including the growth of social media postings and the COVID shutdown which sent more people to the parks or kept them at home where they were more likely to see coyotes (than in downtown office buildings). In addition, coyotes over time have indeed become more habituated to human presence. Constant benign human presence has made them more comfortable being seen and in closer proximity to humans. In addition, coyote parents who have become blazé about the presence of humans pass this on to their youngsters: you can actually see when this happens. A youngsters sees a human and immediately looks to Mom to see what her reaction is for guidance. She doesn’t react, so the pup relaxes.
The primary issue with coyotes is dogs. Dogs and coyotes do not like each other: this is a given. Coyotes keep non-family coyotes away, and by the same token they try keeping dogs away, especially during pupping season — so they’ll message dogs with scary postures or charging at them, and might even nip to get the message across. It’s easy to abide by their needs: stay vigilant when you walk your dog and always walk away from them. For more on dogs see: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLqI5dKhlKh/. And if you are worried about “danger” from a coyote, please remember that dogs are much more likely to bite you or maul your dog than is a coyote: per year we have 17 coyote bites and scratches to humans for all of North America, whereas dog bites send 1000 people a day to emergency rooms.
I’m proud to have my work included in a new textbook! “Animal Welfare Science: An Interdisciplinary Guide”, by Emily Patterson-Kane and Tina Rich. Until this book, there has been no generalist textbook bridging traditional animal science and advocacy. Here you can find foundational knowledge and fresh perspectives, written in very accessible language. [This posting is extracted and quoted from an interview, the whole of which can be found here: https://www.routledge.com/rsc/downloads/CRC_Press_AW_2025_Rights_Guide.pdf]
The book examines the field’s complexity, weaving together not just the supposed objectivity of science, but also philosophy, ethology, economics, policy, evidence and stories. It refuses to be engulfed by the often suffocating orthodoxies of science and embraces the uneasy space where passion meets that science, and the political realities that shape research and practice.
It states that you don’t need to be a specialist to think critically—and curiosity and honesty matter more than rigid orthodoxy or dogma. If we try to stuff our understanding of animal welfare into a “my way or the highway” model of learning, we strangle its potential. Animal welfare is pluralistic, surprising, and constantly evolving.
At its core lies the question of consciousness: Opinions are divided. If animals don’t have consciousness and subjective experiences (i.e., they don’t feel good or bad) welfare is irrelevant; if they do, then “everything we do to them and for them becomes ethically weighty”. An exploration of some of the theories of consciousness reveals an extraordinary schism in the scientific world as classical approaches fail to reveal what the mind “is”. Instead, a few scientists are beginning to ask whether the scientific method can even provide an answer. Does mind really come from matter? Can the weird quantum world provide an answer?
Looking ahead, the authors stress that the real challenges are cultural and political—food systems, research ethics, inequality, and the post-truth era. Meeting them will depend on a new generation of scientists who are confident, creative, and unshackled from “thought” silos.
My work is described as [quoted from the book] a “motherlode of coyote behaviors, life stories, and most precious of all, [my] stunning photo-reportage. This is where animal watching turns into narrative ethology, storytelling across the human-animal divide. One of the key differences between Janet and others with self-taught expertise is her outreach.” The authors challenge the view of whose knowledge is authoritative. What follows is a four page spread with photos of what I’ve been doing in the coyote world and how I’ve been doing it. It’s an honor to be included in this first-in-its-field animal welfare science book. The book can be found on Amazon or on the publisher’s website.
Updated 2025 map of coyote territories in San Francisco
Introduction: It might be fun to get to know something about your very own neighborhood coyotes! My documentation has always been on this very basic, primary building-block level, starting with the individual coyotes. And my information has also been conveyed, individually, to folks in the neighborhoods where I have been documenting the coyotes — after all, these were THEIR coyotes. Mine is very much a grass-roots endeavor. As you can see from the map, coyotes cover the entirety of the city of San Francisco, so you DO have them in your neighborhood.
I begin this posting by describing my approach — a *from-the-ground-up* approach. I then summarize some generalities and quirks about the different territories. Finally I list and sum up what the coyote situation is on each of the territories. And for a some, I even provide histories and links for further reading. Getting to know the whole picture will help you understand your own neighborhood coyotes better. I ask that you act as stewards for them: they are your neighbors and need support in the face of continued misinformation, sensationalism, and fear spread about them. Thanks!!
MY BACKGROUND AND APPROACH: How I came to know our SF coyotes. This is a question I have been asked, so here, I’m diving into it for you!
My friend Audrey saw this map when it fell to the floor and asked what it was. I told her it was my map of coyote territories in San Francisco. She enthusiastically responded that she maps her bird territories: that it began by her simply noticing the same scrub jay in various places and then seeing another scrub jay and where he went. One never appeared where the other appeared, and the two never appeared together. It’s from this that she began mapping some territories of the birds she watches. This is exactly how my studies began in 2007.
I’ve come to know the coyotes of San Francisco one at a time as unique individuals. Not anonymously, not as numbers, not just as a whole species. I give them names based on characteristics or events that will help me remember them — it’s easier than numbers, and it confirms their individuality. This is the cornerstone on which all my information is built.
I am able to distinguish and identify each coyote by its facial features, and sometimes by the way one carries itself or their behaviors. As I’ve stated so often before, each coyote is unique and distinguishable — as much as each human is — however, like in human families, there are family resemblances for which sometimes detective work is needed to tease out the differences! I am a self-taught naturalist and not an academic which gives me the freedom to follow leads I come up with without having to write them out in a proposal, or wait for peer review.
Academics rely on metrics. For many of them, if it can’t be measured by a human-made device or formula, it doesn’t exist. So, interestingly, my information doesn’t exist for some of them. Rather than lab work, statistics and numbers — which is their MO — my information comes from watching coyotes out-of-doors in real time and reveals what coyotes are like: it’s accessible, hands off and non-intrusive, not rarefied, real, and accurate, and can be verified with DNA from scat or photos — few academics know coyotes well enough to actually distinguish individuals, much less all the individuals and families in the city.
By watching and documenting them every single day (through a 650 mm equivalent lens), I’ve developed a very good understanding of them: their behavior, family life, individualized relationships (with its ups and downs), family structure (in its variations), along with their disaffinity for dogs, and their aversion to humans (though not necessarily *fear* of us). I’ve also developed easy guidelines for coexistence, based on real-encounters and seeing what works.
In turn, and by the same token, having the ability to identify individuals, and knowing their families and family dynamics, has allowed me to map their family territories and to follow their histories on those territories. What follows is a summary of their current territories and situations as of summer 2025 here in San Francisco. I’ve brought up to date a couple of their histories, and supplied links to their past stories (for two of the families).
Interestingly, years ago, the City brought in an *expert* who proclaimed that the city of San Francisco could only support 5 to at most 7 coyote families. Yet I’ve documented three times that many. This year, in 2025, I know 18 different nuclear families and the territories they exclusively claim, and I’ve seen the pups on 15 of those 18 territories — and there could be several more territories that I’ve missed.
Obviously, I’m not present 24-7 in any of the territories. In fact, most of the families I now see only glancingly every couple of weeks or even months. But others I’m more in-touch with, sometimes even seeing them daily for long stretches of time and then less frequently for equally long stretches of time.
When I see them, I might see them for as long as a couple of hours, morning and/or evening, OR I might simply cross paths briefly with a couple of them which gives me only a few minutes of catch-up observation time. The point is that none of these histories is complete. I’m presenting them as I have seen them through limited time frames. But it’s over 18 years of everyday observations that I’ve accumulated what I know about the nature and structure of family situations and their territories.
Here, I have updated my territorial map from when it was first posted in 2021 (and then updated in 2024). See: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/07/14/territories-and-population-in-san-francisco/. There are 18 exclusive coyote-owned territories in San Francisco that I know of. Allowing for my missing some, I’ve rounded this out to 20. There could be a few more that I’ve missed, but there are not fewer. These territories cover the entirety of the city of San Francisco.
THE MAP I’ve created.
I’ve circled most territories in red, a couple in blue and an undefined couple in black. Some of these territories have remained fairly stable over the years — in terms of location and extent — however, they’ve all endured some form — minor or major — of disruption since I started studying them in 2007, so that in some cases, new families have taken over, or in other cases boundaries have been somewhat reconfigured, or territories have actually been divided. And I’ve even seen *shared* territories.
The 18 territories circled in red are confirmed territories. All 18 (except Territory #9) are claimed by an alpha mated pair. Most, but not all, have one to four yearlings, and so far, I’ve seen the pups in 15 of those territories, with litters ranging from 3 to 7 pups.
Before listing the territories and their current situations, here are some individual territorial generalizations and quirks I’ve noted.
Unusually, one of those territories overlaps slightly with another (Territories #10 and #11) — I haven’t figured out the dynamics here yet, but two different, adjacent families travel some of the same corridors regularly. In another, two adjacent families (Territories #4 and #5) appear to be on high alert at their shared border, apparently to maintain where it is.
The *boundary* between the families in Territory #13 and #14 has shifted since 2018 from substantially west of Crossover Drive, to substantially east of the same roadway, and now stands right at that point. Each family has pushed its boundaries — as do all coyote families — but then been pushed back by the adjacent family. It’s a continual process and I think is determined by the stronger physical strength or willpower of a family at any one time. I’ve heard the distressed vocalizations between adjacent families as they’ve worked out their boundaries, which makes me think that the sparring and boundary disputes or confirmations are mostly vocal and not physical. This of course isn’t always true: I’ve seen a number of blood-drawing battles, and an in-between approach where hostility was used to drive a newcomer away. See: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/22/recent-territorial-shift-in-golden-gate-park/.
This year and last year, two of the territories, Territories #1 and #2, and Territories #3 and #4, were expanded, divided, reconfigured, and branched off by sibling-offspring of the original territory. In both cases, those sibling-offspring are now parents on what has become their own defined territory. Yes, inbreeding occurs routinely in coyote families with no visible adverse effects so far, unless weakened immune systems and mange can be linked to it. Each of the reconfigurations was caused by different circumstances and situations.
In the larger circled family, Territory #9, the alpha parents themselves disappeared at the beginning of this year, so there are no new pups there this year that I have seen. The parents’ disappearance appears to be due to mange: two coyotes with severe mange were seen sporadically in the territory for a while, but it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to identify a mangy coyote who I at one time knew when it was healthy, especially when I didn’t see the condition progress. I never did identify them in this condition first-hand. People sent me photos, but there were never enough pixels for me to actually identify them. As do many injured or sick coyotes, they avoided being out in the daytime during this vulnerable time. So, blatantly missing in 2025 from this territory are those parents who for six years had been the ever-present and very visible alphas, while the four yearlings born last year along with one two-year-old remain as the territorial owners, holding down the fort. This fivesome of siblings continues to patrol and mark the length of their territory to keep it safe for themselves. If another mated pair moved into a remote corner of the territory, they may have had pups, but I have not seen this.
Some of the territories involve sagas of long lasting family dynasties which are passed down over five generations (as in Territory #1 and Territory #3). Others are more short-lived, changing hands every couple of years, either peacefully ending their generational ownership of the land (as in Territory #9 in 2019), or forced out by a decisive territorial battle (as in Territory #3). In some cases, as in territory #14, the female has remained the alpha, while she has shuffled through a new male sometimes every year, sometimes every other year: death is often the cause, but so is *divorce*. The divorced male has frequently remained with the family and behaved like any other yearling. And one family, after years of occupying a territory, suddenly up and moved — BOTH alphas and a yearling — to a territory 5 miles away (from Territory #12 to Territories #6 and #13). This last one ended in divorce of the alphas with one moving back to the original territory, and the other remaining there, each with a new mate. I’ve seen a divorced and replaced male stay with the family as if he were a yearling.
A couple of the territories I’ve kept pace with solely through field cameras (Territory #6): it’s enough to capture some behaviors, including the arrival of pups, and shows turnover when it occurs.
In two instances — within one, and next to another territory — I’ve circled areas in blue. These have been claimed by loners who haven’t seemed to interact almost at all with members of the larger territory — at least for extended periods of time. For example, at the very western end of Territory #14, there has been one loner individual with mange who has hung out there for 2 years. He actually was (is?) part of the larger family but seems to have split off a couple of years ago to that farthest outpost within the territory. A younger brother of his would visit him sporadically, but otherwise there was no real interacting between him and that family that I saw. Having said this, beginning in mid-July, 2025, for the first time in two years, I saw that family’s alpha female — Mom — in this outpost area and now I’m seeing the rest of her family there, so temporary situations seem to exist in these territories, and I wonder if the loner has been a sentinel holding the territory for the family? Also, I’m wondering if the family moved back to that area because of the huge concerts going on in Golden Gate Park in August: there is tall cyclone fencing throughout the park and the noise and crowds are tremendous during the weekends. In the other blue circled territory, Fort Funston, there is one individual that has hung out alone regularly — no other coyotes ever appear there, just him. The same situation may exist here — I don’t know the *why* of these situations, just that they exist.
The thin black circles are where I have not kept up — so these are unconfirmed territories, and there may be several more. There are never enough hours in a day for me, one person, to keep up, though I’ve generously been sent sightings and sometimes facial photos from some of my very loyal supporters which has helped me immensely! I don’t know the situations for the thin black circles except that coyotes have been seen sometimes regularly and sometimes sporadically in these areas. I have not zeroed in on them enough to identify them or their relationships, though I know they are there.
🐾 Interlopers and Floaters. We also have had a few interlopers over the last few years — these are, unusually, loners without territories, living on the edges of others’ owned territories.. One was lame and old and possibly this is why he was allowed to stay; he did quite a bit of roaming. Also, I’ve seen mangy individuals and pairs hanging around the periphery of claimed territories, sometimes for several months before finally moving on. And occasionally an unknown coyote — unknown to me — turns up in someone’s backyard which I can’t identify: I assume these are dispersing youngsters who haven’t found homes within the city and will probably have to move south and out of the city. I often don’t identify pups until I see some kind of permanence in their situation, which should explain why some of the coyotes are unknown to me.
In summary, some of the territories have been geographically stable for years, and some have been slightly — but never drastically — reconfigured. However, some of the famlies on them have changed — in some, there has been a turnover. Most are claimed by mated pairs and most of these had pups this year.
As for population size, please remember that population numbers fluctuate over a year’s time and indeed have increased somewhat over the years incrementally. Like a breathing bellows: population grows during the pupping season, and then shrinks back down based on low pup survival rate, those killed by cars in the city (this comes to about 25 to 30 per year) and dispersals of the older youngsters. The adult population hovers under 100. Rounding this out, the ballpark numbers come to just about 20 breeding pairs or 40 individual breeding adults, plus an average of two yearlings on each territory (some of course have none, and some more) — these yearlings have remained to help raise the next litter and will soon disperse. In addition, there are just about that same number of pups born this year as there are adults — the pups who surmounted their low survival rate and being hit by cars, also will disperse sometime during their second year, and — as far as I have seen — they will most likely head south and out of the city because, most territories are already taken in the city itself.
BTW, I read a Chronicle article stating that sightings reported to our Animal Control Department had increased to 600. I mean, really, what does this mean? It doesn’t at all reflect anything about the population size, family structure, territories, or even “encounters” with dogs. Sightings are reported randomly by some people and not others — in fact most people don’t report their sightings. If reported sightings have increased, it would be due to many factors, including easier ways to report these, and being recently prompted to do so on social sites such as NextDoor. Starting with the COVID shutdown in 2019, many more people acquired dogs and started using the parks: more eyes out there translates into more sightings and possibly more reported encounters because of that increase in dog numbers. Let’s see, to put this in perspective: there are 365 days in a year, so even if the number of sightings were double what was reported, it would mean 3 sightings a day throughout the entire city. I myself — one person — see more than this every single day. But that number: *600* makes it falsely appear that there are many more coyotes or encounters, and that we’re being overrun by them. Not so.
THE TERRITORIES and SOME HISTORIES that I’ve documented, with photos of the reigning alphas.
Chert had been our long-time alpha here since 2014. In the vacuum left by her death last year (2024), her offspring Chevy and Bibs — sibling littermates — now three years old — paired up and claimed part of the land. This spring, they had their first litter. Meanwhile, Scowl (Chert’s son-turned-mate for 2 years before he left her) returned with his new mate, Bonus, to reclaim the other portion of Chert’s territory. The once-unified territory now has two households:
ScowlBonus
Scowl & Bonus hold the larger Territory #2.
Chevy & Bibs command Territory #1.
BibsChevy
Through all the upheaval, the land has remained in the same family line for nearly two decades:
Myca (2007) → Maeve (2009–2013) → Silver (2009–2021) → Chert (2013–2024) → Scowl (2019–present) → Chevy & Bibs (2022–present) — with new pups born in 2025 to both branches.
I’ve followed and photographed all of them across these 18 years.
One last note: I continue to see Scowl regularly interacting with other coyotes whom I suspect are his dispersed offspring. I catch these interactions on infrared cameras. Although I can’t identify them individually, the presence of more than just the one family suggests that some family bonds endure, even after dispersal.
The Long Reign of Scout, in short. Scout’s story spans nearly a decade. Born in Territory #1, she dispersed at just nine months to vacant Territory #3, holding it as a solitary queen for three years before being seen with a male companion. Challenges came — most notably a half-year battle with a stronger female who tried to take her land in 2019 — but Scout persisted and regained control of her territory. Over the years, she raised litters with two different mates, shifting den sites and even expanding temporarily into nearby ground in 2022 (to Territory #4). Through all of it, she kept her grip on Territory #3 for nine straight years.
A Daughter’s Coup in 2025. This year, at age ten, Scout met the challenger she could not drive out: her own two-year-old daughter, Lapis, born in 2023. Lapis refused to disperse, standing her ground even under her mother’s repeated attempts to intimidate her. Eventually, the standoff ended with Scout’s departure — her own daughter had taken over the territory — poetic, in a way, after what Scout herself had endured.
Scout has moved back to Territory #4, where she had pupped in 2022, and has been steadily expanding that range. Her push has forced the current resident family there — the mange stricken Clip, Dude, and their two yearlings — to shrink back to a reduced Territory #5. They, too, had pups this year, but the mange has weakened them, and may be the cause for them giving up the expanded area they used to occupy.
Clip (with mange and a bee sting)Dude (with a super heavy case of mange)
Back in Territory #3, Lapis now rules alongside her littermate-turned-mate Bold. The pair became parents this spring, marking the fifth generation of the Territory #1 line — the same lineage that produced Bibs and Chevy in Territory #1. And, as with Scowl in Territory #2, there is regular visiting between some of the individuals in Territory #3 and Territory #2.
BoldLapis
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In territory #6, change has been constant. [For their earlier history, see: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/01/10/family-interrupted-update]. Since I first began observing this territory in 2014, one family after another has taken over. In 2024, Clipped and Tubetail and their yearlings all showed up with mange. Nevertheless, Clipped was lactating heavily this spring, showing that she had given birth to pups this year. However, in June of this year, 2025, when their pups would have been only 2 months old — a new family of coyotes suddenly moved in and this family is no longer there. I wonder if the pups got mange and might not have survived? This is a family I keep track of with only a field camera at a hole in the fence which has been frequented daily by all family members, allowing me to see the changes and growth of families without being there.
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BlondiePipa
Territory #7 has been far more stable. Alpha parents Pipa and Blondie have been in place here since 2019, raising litters every year. I watched Pipa grow up in Territory #8 where she was born in 2017, and I watched Blondie grow up in Territory #9 where he also was born in 2017. This year, in 2025, four of their yearlings have stuck around to help raise the newest litter of three pups. It’s one of the larger families.
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WiredSparks (with two of their seven pups born this year)
In territory #8, Wired and Sparks have ruled since 2021, after Wired’s first mate, Puff disappeared. Less than two years before this, when Puff was Wired’s mate, Puff and Wired battled the old, widowed previous owner of the territory, Petra, driving her out and replacing her. This year the family consists of Wired, her mate Sparks of 4 years, one yearling, Cricket, and Wired had SEVEN pups this year! Cricket’s brother, Spider, is the coyote who was tragically shot in Crissy Field in September 2024 for grabbing three small unleashed dogs. An earlier write-up of this territory can be found here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2023/07/08/sparks-update/, and an update to that can be found here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/01/catching-up-on-sparks/.
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A couple of the male yearlingsDaughter Galileo (bottom coyote)
Territory #9 saw an abrupt change in 2025 when long-time alphas Cai2 and Stumpf disappeared early in the year, leaving four yearlings and one two-year old behind. These five youngsters are holding down the fort well without any alphas over them. Galileo, the yearling female, very well might become the next alpha female there unless the territory is invaded and taken over by a stronger pair. The story is a continuing one, as are they all.
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HeartMango
Territories #10 and #11 share an arrangement: two families whose borders actually overlap. Mango & Heart had pups this year as revealed by Heart’s swollen mammary glands in the spring, while Scrub & Cactus along with their yearling, Sand, own the territory right next to AND overlapping theirs. For now, they manage to coexist and share some of their corridors.
CactusScrub
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Monte was killed in 2021, his grand-offspring are still on Territory #12, but not as alpha parents, and Territory #13.
The once wide-ranging “gypsy” bloodline that anchored territory #12 is gone. Its most notable member, Monte (aka Carl), is gone (see photo), but the lineage continues elsewhere through their offspring, in Territory #13, and in Territory #12. You can read their story and see photos here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/05/15/till-death-do-us-part/. Monte was shot by the City in 2021 for bearing his teeth to a child in his denning area. His and Ma’am’s son, Cape, remained there with his young mate Vida (born in Territory #1), but both parents were killed by cars within a few months of each other in 2022, leaving 7 month old pups behind who indeed remained there for a while. The daughter, Bonus, in fact paired up with Scowl (after he divorced Chert) and raised one litter of pups on this territory in 2024. The territory has been vacant since Bonus and Scowl returned to Territory #1 in 2025. But we are beginning again to see occupants here this summer!
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FlickFille (she survived the bullet she received)
Territory #13. Fille and Flick are the alpha parents here, with two yearlings. They had four pups this year. Last year, three members of this family were tragically shot by the City in the Botanical Garden when a young day-camper was nipped by one of them. For years this had been a denning area, yet there were no signs, education, or precautions in place. Denning areas are notoriously protected by all members of a coyote family. In this case, a child in a butterfly costume went into the bushes where a coyote was resting, as she hurried away upon seeing the coyote, she tripped and fell, and that’s when she was nipped “on the bum” as her mother said. Three coyotes were shot for this, including a three month old pup. Fille was shot, but managed to survive the ordeal. Both Fille and Flick were born on this territory from a line that extends back in time through Tarn & Monte, and Pink & OM, so this territory is another one encompassing a family saga. https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/10/30/catastrophic-handling-of-the-botanical-garden-coyote-incident-is-examined-by-dan-noyes-of-abc-news-october-29-2024-with-sound/
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AmberPoloArcher
Territory #14. The alpha parents Amber and Scarf controlled the territory as of April, along with their two yearlings, Splash and Dew. In fact, Amber has held the territory for many years, shuffling through males fairly regularly. Amber’s two-year-old son, Archer, has kept to himself at the very western end of the park over the last two years — could this be because he and only he became afflicted with mange? I don’t know. Amber and Scarf had four pups this year, however, sometime in April Scarf seems to have disappeared. Am I just not seeing him, or is he really gone? I don’t know. New fellow, Polo, is hardly ever seen, but he was at the densite guarding, so he seems to have taken over the alpha male role. Also, one pup was found dead in July and I’m hoping the loud and crowded summer concerts are not behind his death.
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PoppyBrick
Territory #15. Brick who has been the alpha dad for a number of years (along with him previous mate, Eyes), has a new mate this year, Poppy; both have been afflicted with mange and Poppy is encumbered with a continuing limp. I don’t know what happened to Eyes or to her offspring who are no longer around. And I’ve not seen any pups this year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I will update as I find out more.
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Mak and Mari
Territory #16. Alphas Mak & Mari own this territory alone, without any yearlings. Both of them have different degrees of mange, with HER case being the worst of the two. I assume there are pups, but I have not seen them. Mari continues with her long-time limp.
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Territory #17. Pico, the alpha female on this territory was nursing pups through May, but no pups or yearlings have been sighted and I’ve not seen (or even been able to identify) Dad — he appears not to be around any longer. I’ll update as I find out more.
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Territory #18 A thriving family with pups continues to claim this territory, but my observations have been minimal at this location. I will update with photos soon.
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?? Unnumbered question marks: Coyotes are seen here pretty regularly, but I haven’t had time to confirm who those coyotes are or their relationships.
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Taken together, these territories each have elements of stability and change, with the two weighted differently for each territory — some families appear to be deeply rooted and entrenched on their territories while others may last only a couple of seasons before changes are seen — all are part of the quiet, ongoing family life of the city’s wild residents of which few people are aware beyond the encounters they report.
These are the alpha parents in the city this year (2025) — a summary of images seen throughout this posting. NOT depicted are about the same number of yearlings who will soon disperse. The new crop of pups born this year number close to the total number of adults (yearlings and alphas).
I want to add to information presented in this news piece by Itay Hod about WHO the coyotes are, in a nutshell:
Summarizing WHO the coyotes are is a huge topic — no different from summarizing concisely who humans are! But right off the bat, they are highly intelligent (I just wrote and posted this about their intelligence: https://coyoteyipps.com/2025/06/25/coyote-intelligence/) and highly social animals who are always interacting, always communicating with each other through eye to eye contact, body language, and vocalizations. They live in organized families which always start with an alpha male and female. The rest of the family includes their offspring which include a couple of yearlings born in previous years who have not dispersed, and then pups born in the current year who will disperse sometime during their second year.
They live on their own exclusive territories and keep other coyotes out, which is one way they limit the population. Territories here in San Francisco run about 2 to 2.5 square miles, and we have about 20 of them which I’ve mapped — and updated: I’ll post this soon. These territories cover the entirety of San Francisco, so you have an opportunity to encounter them anywhere!
As animals, they interact with each other constantly: they play, horse around, tease, care for each other through mutual grooming. The core of their existence is their family life, which, in it’s own way, is similar to ours. Watching them is joyous and often presents soap-opera scenarios. Most coyotes famously mate for life, but true to the individuals they are, some of them indeed *divorce*!
I think probably the most fun thing about them is how their lives are so parallel to our own when it comes to their families: it’s so easy to relate to them! Their families are the most important thing to them and this might help people understand their protective behavior, especially during the denning season which is right now.
Alison Lufkin wants “something, anything, done about the coyotes”. She in fact posits the answer about what needs to be done in her own statements: she learned through a heartbreaking experience, that you must keep dogs leashed in all coyote areas, and it’s best to avoid areas where there has been an increase in coyote activity because this probably means it’s a denning area. Alison learned the hard way through a harrowing experience. But why wait until after the fact? You can avert all encounters by knowing what is going on and knowing what to do the minute you see a coyote through EDUCATION and LEARNING pro-actively about coyote behavior, what to expect if you see one, how to handle encounters. I gave a blitz of about 12 educational slide-talks during the last few months in libraries throughout the city and will continue, including putting out signage in hot spots when needed. I give lots of first-hand information on my Instagram and here on my blog (both go by the same name: coyoteyipps.com), and you are welcome to contact me for help through this blog. But at the same time, I hope everyone else can help spread the word about what to do at coyote encounters. Please read the two articles below and spread the word. Mainly: walk away from a coyote the minute you see one, especially if you have a dog.
This is a mother coyote, intensely pacing and intensely eyeing dogs which are about 200 feet away: it’s a dead giveaway that she’s anxious and worried, and that her family is around.
The guidelines are simple: keep away and walk away from a coyote the minute you see one, especially if you have a dog: respect their need for space.
Most of the time a coyote will simply scurry away from you and your dog, but you have to be prepared for the few instances when this does not happen. In fact, it might be safer to *expect* to run into a coyote if you have a dog and try to understand the situation and know what to do if this happens.
This is pupping season which actualy goes on thru the fall. Coyotes are especially pro-actively protective of themselves and their spaces around densites. They protect a good 1/4th mile radius — it is this entire area that the pups will soon be exploring.
Please keep dogs leashed anywhere there might be coyotes — this is mostly to keep dogs from chasing coyotes, or from running off to where they might attract a coyote’s ire, but please also be aware that a leash does not protect your pet during a coyote/dog encounter, it just allows you to control 1/2 of the equation. Note also that dogs and coyotes do not like each other: all canids, including wolves and foxes, exclude the others from their territories.
We have about twenty coyote family territories here in San Francisco and these cover the entirety of the city: you should be prepared for a coyote appearing anywhere here, and any time of the day, although most of their activity begins at dusk and goes on through dawn.
A coyote might follow you out of curiosity or to escort you away from an area: Just keep walking away from that coyote without running, picking up a small dog as you go, and dragging your larger dog if you have to. IF the coyote comes critically close — which he probably won’t if you keep walking away from him — you’ll have to scare that coyote away. But the main point is to keep waling on.
If you need to scare away a coyote who has approached to within a critically close range, the best way I have found to scare him off is with a handful of gravel thrown angrily, viciously and louds TOWARDS the coyote (not at him). This disarms them — it’s a little like shrapnell — and makes them pause and reconsider.
Dens are not often marked by the park departments, because they don’t know where they are: coyotes choose secret places, mostly in out of the way spaces.
Focusing on a coyote and walking towards him is what you don’t want to do — it makes them feel like you are after them. So instead, do the opposite!
BTW, I’m a self-taught naturalist, not an academic, with 18 years of every single day observing them: their individual behaviors, their family life, and their behavior towards pets and people.
Stay safe out there, for yours and theirs.
If you prefer reading the above material in bullet point fashion, here it is:
➡️ Walk Away the Moment You See a Coyote Whether the coyote seems curious or indifferent, just calmly and steadily walk away. Pick up small dogs and keep moving. Don’t stare or approach the animal.
➡️ Coyotes Will Often Avoid You — But Not Always While most coyotes will scurry off, you should expect an encounter eventually if you walk dogs regularly. Knowing what to do makes all the difference.
➡️Note that SF has about 20 coyote territories, covering the entirety of the city — and I’ve seen pups in 14 of them so far: in other words, a coyote can be seen anywhere and anytime, though mostly from dusk to dawn.
➡️ Dogs and Coyotes Don’t Mix Coyotes see dogs as rivals — just like wolves and foxes. Being leashed helps you control your dog, but it doesn’t “protect” your pet in an encounter.
➡️ If Followed, Keep Moving Sometimes coyotes follow out of curiosity or to *escort* you out of the area. Don’t panic — just continue walking away without engaging. This alone will usually diffuse the situation.
➡️ If a Coyote Comes Too Close However, IF the coyote gets too close, you’ll need to scare it away. A handful of gravel thrown forcefully and loudly toward the coyote can break its focus and send it running. Yell loudly while doing this. It’s like a burst of shrapnel that startles them.
➡️ Dens Are Hidden Don’t rely on signage — dens aren’t marked and are usually in quiet, hard-to-find places. The best protection is to stay vigilant and give all coyotes a wide berth, especially now.
➡️ Don’t Walk Toward a Coyote Coyotes interpret this as aggression. Instead, always move calmly and steadily away.
And if you prefer a quick summary checklist, here it is:
See a coyote? MOST IMPORTANTLY: Walk away immediately, especially if you have a dog.
Dogs and coyotes are territorial rivals — they don’t like each other.
Respect their space — don’t approach or stare them down.
Always assume you’ll see coyotes when you’re walking a dog, especially during pupping season and be prepared.
Note that SF has about 20 coyote territories, covering the entirety of the city — and I’ve seen pups in 14 of them so far: in other words, a coyote can be seen anywhere and anytime, though mostly from dusk to dawn.
It’s pupping season (spring through fall) — coyotes are extra protective right now.
Dens are hidden and not marked — stay alert in all natural areas.
Coyotes protect ¼ mile radius or more around their dens — it’s important to know this.
A leash helps you control your dog, but doesn’t protect it from a coyote.
If followed or escorted by a coyote, stay calm and keep walking away.
Pick up small dogs, drag large ones if needed, but keep walking away.
If a coyote gets too close, best scare tactic involves yelling and throwing gravel toward (not at) it.
Never walk toward a coyote — it feels threatening to them. Always move away.
🧭 About me: I’m a self-taught naturalist with 18 years of daily observations of coyotes — I document their individual behavior, family life, and interactions with pets and people. My advice comes from lived experience, not theory.
Coyote captures prey in a park nestled within a densely human populated city
Anyone tuned-in to coyotes over any length of time will become aware of how highly intelligent they are. If intelligence is defined as “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills,” then coyotes demonstrate it in abundance through their ability to adapt, their perceptiveness, and their ability to meet and solve challenges. I put this posting together because, although I have always accepted their intelligence, I hadn’t thought about it in a cohesive way until a CBS interviewer put the question to me: “Tell me about their intelligence”. So here it is.
Their intelligence begins with their highly refined senses: vision, acute hearing, and most notably, smell — and remember that each of these is connected to highly developed areas of the brain that can finely interpret these. They are able to gather nuanced information and then finely manipulate, organize and remember that information for their own needs. If you look it up, you’ll find that a coyote’s olfactory lobe is more than twice the size of a domestic dog’s, enabling them to interpret a world saturated in scent. Smelling helps them detect threats, find mates, recognize rivals, *map* their territories, and accurately navigate their territories and beyond.
Please keep cats indoors: it’s a given, and not shocking, that they will opportunistically grab cats if circumstances are are right.Coyotes are both predator and prey, so they are always suspicious and looking over their shoulder for trouble, particularly from dogs, and ready to react.
Coyotes are generalists—just like us humans. Our species thrives not by fitting into a single ecological niche, but by adapting flexibly to many. Coyotes share this capacity: they can live in all climates from the coldest north to the hottest deserts; from arid desert to beach to mountain to riparian terrains, and among all levels of human population density, from ranches to city parks, to our densest neighborhoods. They are both predator and prey, which means they must think like both at the same time: they hunt in a dominant fashion, and at the same time they are continuously highly-suspicious of being hunted. In wilder areas, wolves, large cats and humans kill them. So they keep defensively aware of their surroundings and everything in it. As Jake Breeden put it: “Wolves and humans stride across landscapes as if they own a place, whereas coyotes slink, pause, and dart because they’ve seldom owned anything—except their ability to read the room.” Coyotes are always reading their environment—always strategizing and planning ahead.
Their GPS: They Absorb and Understand the Lay-of-the-Land and the SituationsOn It
They are great at mapping spaces and situations and have amazing memories for this
Coyotes are incredibly aware of the land — I call it their GPS system — and the situations thereon. They understand not just the geography, but the dynamic situations on those geographical locations which they move through. In San Francisco, for example, within their 2.5 square mile territories, they have a detailed understanding and memory not only for where everything is and how safe it is for them: parks, corridors, food sources, safe street crossings, and risky dog routes—but also that the dynamics of those areas change over the duration of a day and over longer periods of time.
Dogs are their chief nemesis in cities, but they have to watch out for ravens and crows and all corvids, and cars are their chief killers in urban areas.
They also remember meaningfully. Unlike humans, who often need notes to recall things, coyotes store what’s relevant: feeding spots, threatening individuals, the sound and appearance of specific cars, the daily rhythm of traffic, and even when spigots are turned on and can be relied on for water.
LEARNING: Curiosity and Dealing with Challenges: They Learn and Change by Watching and Trying
Coyotes are fast learners, mostly by observing and imitating. Sometimes it takes only two exposures—or fewer—for a coyote to remember which car feeds them, and where. I’ve seen them watch dogs dig to catch a gopher — when the dog leaves empty-handed, they hurry over to the excavated spot, having less work to do now. I’ve seen them spy on a a sibling burying food and then steal it and bury it somewhere else just for themselves. I read that they’ve watched humans unlatch gates and then attempted the same. They learn when it’s safe to cross roads, often looking both ways as they’ve seen humans and other coyotes do, and even use the traffic light to help them get across. They can adjust to changing conditions: so for example, when prey becomes scarce, they switch to berries or insects. They adapt by creatively trying something new and different. Lou has written about a lone coyote who, in the absence of regular rodent prey, has switched to crayfish fishing as the major part of his diet!!
Eating blackberries when prey is less plentiful and Crossing the Street with the light at a crosswalk.
You can read about cognitive tests where coyotes outperform domestic dogs in independent problem-solving, persistence, and creativity. Dogs are intimately connected to humans — the two have evolved together over thousands of years, so dogs look to humans for guidance, whereas coyotes think for themselves. This independent intelligence makes them wildly unsuitable as pets—but supremely equipped for survival.
I’ve seen them engage in purposeful deception: leading people or dogs away from dens, vocalizing from false locations to protect pups. I’ve also seen them *pretend* to be hunting in the distance when in fact they are assessing the threat from a dog or even a human. Deception requires insight, forward planning, and an ability to mentally model another’s perspective.
HIGHLY SOCIAL:Family Life is Immensely Interactive, Organized and Communicative
Communication through vocalization, eye-contact and body language, family life, hierarchy and care through mutual grooming are tantamount to their survival.
Coyotes live in families and form long-lasting bonds. They constantly interact interpersonally and have individual relationships with each other. They can *read* each other, and they communicate constantly using a variety of vocalizations —howls, yips, growls, whines, squeals, hisses, and much more —modulated with tongue, lips, pitch, and tone. They use these to express their feelings and intentions towards each other, as warnings, to *check in* and call to other family members over great distances, and to define themselves to any neighboring coyotes. They also rely on more silent forms of communication involving body language and facial expressions, which even we humans can sometimes interpret. By watching them carefully, it becomes obvious that their finely nuanced communication is complex and intentional. Their constant interactions reinforce hierarchy, cooperation, and cohesion within families.
Scent-marking is another key form of communication: they use it to define and and reinforce territorial boundaries through urine scent marking, the same way we use fences. But it’s also through smell that they can detect injury in each other and in other species which helps with their hunting. They primarily identify outsiders — along with their personal information such as gender, social status, health — through their odors.
Scent marking and use of odors are other forms of communication.
Coyotes recognize individuals: not only within their species, of course, but across species. They can distinguish particular dogs, cars, and even humans—far more reliably than most people can identify individual coyotes. And, by the way, ravens who are also highly intelligent and social can do the same — they can identify individual humans, even though we can’t tell THEM apart!
PLAY:They Play Creatively and Invent Games
Coyotes play and entertain themselves constantly!
Coyotes aren’t just practical. They play constantly! They tease and horse around, they invent games with sticks, balls, and found objects. They seem to like and be energized by novelty and dealing with it, and even by humor. Their play demonstrates creativity and imagination—they know the difference between “just for fun” and “for real.”
They plan ahead: choosing rendezvous spots and returning to favored hangout spots. Their actions show intentionality, not just instinct. In fact, it appears that planning is involved in a good deal of their activities. Have you ever seen a coyote trotting down the street? It’s not random: they know exactly where they are going and what they are doing — it’s planned out.
SURVIVORS:Evolving and Adapting in Response to Human Pressures
Coyotes have large neocortices—the outer brain layer associated with higher-level functions such as reasoning, learning, and decision-making. This helps explain their capacity for adaptation and behavioral plasticity. They think, observe, experiment, and remember—because they must. Survival demands intelligence.[Wikipedia]
Their intelligence is not like a human’s—after all, they have different bodies with different capacities, capabilities, and different needs, but it’s real, and robust, and magically suited to the world they inhabit. Despite constant persecution by humans (hunters and even our own government kills hundreds of thousands of coyotes every year), coyotes have expanded their range throughout the northern continent. In many places, their numbers are actually highest where they are hunted the hardest. They don’t just survive. They outsmart.
And perhaps that, more than anything, is why some humans dislike them: because they don’t yield, don’t disappear, and don’t conform. They adapt—and they persist.
Rodent skeleton, above, is what remains of a rodent — coyotes’ chief form of sustenance over the past ten years. However, one old fellow has opportunistically switched his main source of calories to crayfish, as can be seen in the shell remains in his scat recently, in the lower right hand photo. This dog is adept at fishing for crayfish, so canids do engage in this type of fishing.
Hi Janet,
I hope you are well and you and “your” regional coyote are moving into summer mode well.
This time of year I study every coyote scat seen especially in ranch or Farm areas. This is part of confirming who or what is preying on sheep, goats etc.
Vast majority of coyote packs again and again have rodents as major food source. They are singularly skilled coyote that sometimes get deer. They get deer that are hit by cars but die in woods. They seek injured or old or compromised deer. And seasonal fawns also are a short term source of food.
I have found more dogs that prey on livestock than coyote this year, like past 10 years.
Also a 1st which I’ll send. An old male coyote has been feeding entirely on Crayfish. The property owner has seen him on trail cams. He goes to river and appears to fish for the crustaceans. I have a Lab who does this. But obviously he’s more successful. He might be old and tattered. But he’s eating the equivalent of daily Lobster for weeks now.
Rodents and Crayfish seem to work well for this coyote. I wished him well.
Lou
Hi Janet,
Some pics of my Lab fishing for crayfish. It’s a seasonal catch..but so far hasn’t caught one 2025.
Of better skills is an old Male Coyote who has been feeding on them several weeks now. I’ve never seen this before. But it’s a great source of food!
I think this article sums up the brilliance of coyotes as a species on a very broad scale, which compliments what I’ve been trying to convey about them on a very intimate scale: their everyday individual social and family lives and interactions: what individual lives are like. And, hey, they aren’t much different from our own when it comes to depth of thinking and feeling without our technology!
About My Site and Me: This website reflects my 18+ years of intense, careful, and dedicated field-work — empirical observations — all photo-documented without interfering or changing coyotes’ behaviors. Be welcome here, enjoy, and learn!
Coyotes reappeared in San Francisco in 2002 after many years of absence, and people are still in the dark about them. This site is to help bring light to their behavior and offer simple guidelines for easy coexistence.
My information comes from my own first-hand observations of our very own coyotes here in San Francisco. They have not been studied or observed so thoroughly by anyone else. Mine is not generic information, nor second-hand.
Note that none of the coyotes I document and photograph is “anonymous” to me: I know (or knew) each one of them, and can tell you about their personalities, histories, and their family situations. There have been over 100 of them, distributed among over twenty families, all in San Francisco. Images and true stories have the power to raise awareness and change perspective.
Press on image above for another crash course on coyotes
