December | 2015 | Coyote Yipps

Siccing Your Dog On Coyotes Is NOT Cool

31 Dec 2015 3 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in coexisting with coyotes, communication, coyote safety, coyotes and dogs, coyotes defending themselves, territoriality, wariness Tags: avoiding coyote interactions with your dog, coexisting with coyotes, coyotes and dogs

2015-12-30

Some unleashed dogs, through the negligence of their owners, run off chasing coyotes. If your dog has a tendency to get excited and wants to chase coyotes, you need to keep your dog leashed or walk in a different area. The problem is the repeat offenders: it appears to always be the same few unrestrained dogs who go chasing after coyotes because their owners refuse to leash them when coyotes are around. But even worse are the dog owners who blatantly prompt their dogs to go after coyotes: I’ve seen this innumerable times, and I’ve heard stories from others who have recounted their observations of this dog-owner behavior. This is not cool. It might be entertaining and fun for the dog owner, but it is not so for the coyotes, nor for other folks in the park who have watched this happen. In fact, it’s illegal to harass the wildlife in San Francisco. Another variation of this human behavior is to leash their dog and then proceed to approach the coyote as close as possible.

Coexistence involves respecting the wildlife and not interfering with it. It involves keeping your distance to begin with. It means leashing and walking on, away from the coyote whenever you see one. It means advising other walkers with dogs if a coyote is out and where it is so that they can take the proper preventative precautions — it’s important to prevent all interactions by keeping these species as far apart as possible. It means understanding that a coyote might approach your dog for territorial reasons or, if your dog is very small, it might even grab your dog. These contingencies are easily avoided by keeping vigilant, by keeping your distance, and by walking on, away from the coyote. Coexistence also means knowing how to shoo one away if there is an encounter which is uncomfortably close or if a coyote approaches your dog. See the YouTube video, “How To Shoo Off A Coyote.”

Please don’t allow your dog to go after coyotes, and please let others know that doing so is not cool. In fact, it hurts everyone in the park when the coyotes are taught by this treatment that they must remain suspicious of dogs even if they are out in the distance. They are territorial and NEED to defend their space — and they are more likely to do so when provoked. To prevent inciting this instinct, we need to keep away from them. It’s not hard to do: I see folks constantly doing their part to make coexistence work. So please let’s all help those not in-the-loop to come into the loop by letting them know good/safe practices and why keeping our distance and moving on is so important.

Lee Cline: “Maybe Coyote”

25 Dec 2015 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in Art and Culture

Lee Cline has painted some gorgeous portraits of coyotes which can be seen at the Four Barrel Cafe at 375 Valencia Street in San Francisco. The large canvases (36″x 48″), in oil and charcoal, capture coyote’s movements, essence and form — wispy and almost not there, the way you might encounter one on the street at twilight out of the corner of your eye before it disappears and you wonder if, in fact, you actually saw it — in an almost monochrome palette, with just a hint of subdued color in each painting for accent.

Lee says about herself: “I didn’t go to art school. But I like to draw and I like to paint. Never more than now, with all this digitalization of experience, this feels like the authentic thing: the hand-drawn, the dirty hands, the working and re-working in a world where there is no Undo.” I’m on the same page! I think her art is exquisite! And, of course, she paints a subject I’m passionate about. For more of her art, visit leecline.com

Cars And Coyotes

20 Dec 2015 7 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in causes of urban coyote deaths, coexisting with coyotes, coyote deaths, coyote injuries, coyotes and cars

Now I know why I took it -- because I found it both sad and interesting and so beautiful. Looks like it could be sleeping.

“Now I know why I took this photo — because I found it both sad and interesting and so beautiful. Looks like it could be sleeping.” Meta Larsson

By far, the most common killer of urban coyotes is cars — these amount to 40 to 70% of urban coyote deaths each year. Vehicles can be thought of as urban coyotes’ number one “predator”. This is not surprising because coyotes take long daily treks through vast urban landscapes which include an extensive grid of roadways.

In addition, a car may not kill right away, but instead may permanently maim and produce injuries which make life that much more difficult, ultimately shortening the coyote’s life.

A coyote’s full potential lifespan of about 14 years (they live this long in captivity) is usually reduced drastically to an average of around 3-5 years in the wild, though some individuals beat the odds and live a little longer.

Coyotes also die from malnutrition and diseases such as mange, and in rural areas, a huge number are shot for no reason at all except that they are coyotes. A coyote’s life is not easy.

By the way, cars are also a primary killer of pets: over 5.4 million cats are killed each year by cars and over 1.2 million dogs are killed each year by cars. Interestingly, dog bites to other pets are the third largest injury to pets — coyote injuries to pets is dwarfed by these statistics.

Coyote Splits, Lickety-split, Upon Seeing a Large Pack of Large Dogs Running Loose

15 Dec 2015 2 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in coexisting with coyotes, coyote behavior, coyote reactions to dogs

: Foraging in an open field of a park in San Francisco

: Controlled dogs on leashes do not present a threat to coyotes for the most part

: Concern begins when a pack of unleashed large dogs appears and begins running around wildly

Coyotes know that they don’t need to be afraid of everyone that comes to their parks — they simply keep their distance and continue whatever they were doing. If humans walk by in the distance with their leashed dogs, a coyote more often than not will continue its foraging, or may stop to observe as the dog and walker pass through. Distance is everyone’s friend, as is controlled calm.

However, danger is signaled to coyotes by individual or packs of unleashed dogs running about, as happened here. This coyote looked up from her peaceful foraging to see several large dogs running around wildly and exploring hither and thither, with no owner in sight initially. It was a signal for the coyote to head towards a safer area. Our coyotes are chased often by dogs. An individual dog which pursues them they can handle now and then even though they dislike it tremendously, but a large pack of large dogs is something they do not want to test.

: a large group of large dogs running around wildly

: Coyote runs towards a safer vantage point

: watching from a safer location close to some bushes

The dogs did not see the coyote, but the walker did. He leashed up his seven charges as soon as he saw the coyote, and he walked on. The coyote sat, close to the bushes to where she could make a quick getaway if needed, but she didn’t need to. When the pack of dogs was out of sight, she simply lay down and took a nap!

leashing up the dog pack

“I Was Just In Their Way, In Their Path”, A Coyote Experience by Dorothy

05 Dec 2015 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in avoiding humans, coexisting with coyotes, coyote behavior, Coyote encounters, coyotes and dogs

I met Dorothy and her husband in a park walking their little white dog. They are in their 80s. They live right on the edge of one of our San Francisco parks: they love walking their dog, they love nature and they love the wildlife, including the coyotes.

Dorothy told me about her coyote encounter two days earlier. She doesn’t see them often so any encounter is a real treat for her, but this one was a little different.

She was out walking her little dog on the street at 7:00 in the morning, when her dog began barking uncontrollably. She turned around and saw a coyote. Oh, she thought it best to pick up the little dog, which she did. When she turned around again, there was a second coyote. Very exciting! By the time she had walked a few paced and looked back again, there were THREE coyotes! When she stopped and eyed them, they did not approach, but when she turned her back to them and walked on, they seemed to get closer.

She was a little concerned that they might be interested in her little pooch, so she decided to cross the street — creating this distance between herself and the coyotes seemed like a logical thing to do. Sure enough, the coyotes continued walking on the other side of the street, and then turned to go between two houses and into the park. “I was just in their way, in their path”, she told me.

Dorothy did the right thing. She picked up her small dog and moved away from the coyotes. A+!!