Coyote Yipps

Fifth generation: born April, 2020

Life just keeps moving forward, spinning and weaving itself out as part of nature’s inexorable web. I’ve been able to follow a tiny segment of this web with my coyote documentation work. I’ve been able to keep track of a whopping ten new litters this year here in San Francisco, of which there are plenty more.  Of particular interest to me is one family line I’ve managed to follow generation after generation (not to be confused with litter after litter, which for years will be part of the same generation) since 2008. The youngsters depicted above are from the fifth generation (or fourth, depending on which line you follow) of that family, born this year.

Background: Coyotes first re-appeared here in San Francisco in 2002 after many years of absence, having been exterminated as “vermin” in the 20th century. Times changed so that environmentalism (of which coyotes are a part) became the new norm by the end of that century: coyotes made a comeback after a trapper brought several into the city. They now thrive under the new ethos here. According to DNA analysis (from my ongoing scat study begun in 2008), all of our SF coyotes came from just four founding individuals — they can all be traced back to that point. This posting portrays the genealogy — or the underlying “scaffolding” — of one of the many families and individuals within those families whose unique stories I’ve been writing about.  That family’s stories as a whole might now constitute a sort of family “saga”!

1st Generation: I began following the lineage in 2008. Although I don’t know the age of that first coyote I started with, I would say she had to have been three years old or older when I first met her, based on her surpassing wisdom, and that she had a singleton pup at the time: so she would have been born sometime before 2005. Yet she was obviously youthful and could not have been older than 6, so that would place her among the first coyotes to be born here in San Francisco after their return (Nisei?).

An original emigrant coyote

Possibly an original founder: To the left is a photo probably of one of the original four to six brought in. He was an aging old man when I met him in 2007 — born well before 2002. I’m including his photo here even though I don’t know if he is a direct ancestor of the line I’m describing here — though chances are high that he is.

Born before 2005 — I’m guessing she’s from the first generation actually born here in SF

Depicted above is the coyote I’ve named/labeled as Maeve, born before 2005 — making her one of among the first coyote generation actually born here in SF. Her mate, however, may have been one of the original four. He was older than her, and very wary and reclusive which is why I have only a few fuzzy photos of him — my guess is that he was this way because he never recovered from the trauma of having been trapped and removed from his previous situation. Every coyote is different, and some are much more sensitive than others.

2nd generation born in April, 2009

2nd Generation: Maeve’s litters, then, born over the next several years became the 2nd generation to be born in San Francisco. These eventually included a son, Silver (above), born in April, 2009, part of a litter of just two. His father, as I stated above, may have been one of the original four coyotes: I say this based solely on his older appearance and incredible wariness. I called him Toughy. He died of rat poisoning (as did a domestic dog at the time) and it is Silver who then filled in his shoes (paws?).

This posting is simply a pulling together, in skeletal outline form, of a this family’s genealogy, a bare-bones scaffolding exclusive of the stories about them. It is the stories about these individuals that reveal the “WHO” about these individuals and which bring this scaffolding to life. Knowing the genealogical connection just makes their story that more interesting by adding another layer to it.

3rd generation, Chert, above left. Silver, above right, is a 2nd generation coyote.

3rd Generation: At the age of four, in April 2013, Silver produced his first litter, constituting the 3rd generation of this coyote line. This litter included Chert (above left) who was one of four pups born by Maeve and Silver that year, and the one to remain on the land, and therefore the one I would continue to follow in this line.

On the turn of a dime, events can occur and circumstances can change, without our necessarily knowing the ultimate cause. Maeve, who became Silver’s mate (she was also his mother) disappeared suddenly when their youngsters were only 7 months old, never to be seen again. And this is where the story gets twisted a little because within a year, Chert moves into Maeve’s position as the female alpha of the territory: her father Silver  (above right) becomes her mate (yes, there’s lots of inbreeding in this line), so we have now a 2nd generation and a 3rd generation uniting to produce the next generation, which could be called either 3rd or 4th. I’m calling it 4th.

In 2015, I put together a 275 page book with over 700 photos about the family up to that point. It was entitled and focused on “Chert: One Day In The Life Of An Urban Coyote”. I was asked by a would-be publisher to transform what they called a “field guide” into a “story”. I never summoned up the bandwidth to do this, so the manuscript/monograph languishes on a bookshelf in my study. With two more generations to add to it, the story would now become a true “saga”. 

Scout, above left is the 4th generation. I do not know her mate’s lineage (above right).

4th Generation: Chert and Silver’s various litters constitute the 4th direct generation of this line. Scout (above left) was their first, a singleton pup, born in April 2015. Scout dispersed from this territory: she is the first youngster I’ve followed AFTER her dispersal which occurred at an early 9 months of age, whereas the previous generations that I’ve kept track of in this line simply “inherited” the property on which they had been born, and that’s where they reproduced. So her story continues on a new territory not so far away.

Scout’s mate (above right) is a newcomer to me — I don’t know his background. We’ll have to wait for DNA to find out his lineage. Dr. Ben Sacks at UC Davis has, or will be, analyzing all of their scats to “scientifically” confirm the relationships I’ve documented, and to find the connections between the coyotes whose backgrounds I don’t know..

5th Generation: Scout’s is a long and fascinating history, many aspects of which I’ve written about on this blog. It was not for many years, until she was five years old, that she acquired a stable and faithful mate and had her first litter in April of 2020. This litter, then, is the fifth generation of this one family line: the pup photos in this posting are hers.

So the story as a whole continues with new generations continuing as they have from the beginning of time, and with my relaying individual stories that serve to individualize and distinguish each coyote from the next — it’s not unlike what goes on with us humans. :))

Below is a standard genealogical chart — just the chart without any stories — of the family from 2008 (or from before 2005 if you incorporate Toughy and Maeve’s birthdates) to today. The stories about the individuals, including their personalities and interactions, can be found in this blog. However, I never mention locations, and seldom have I used their names in my postings, and this has been done in order to protect them.

©  All information and photos in my postings come from my own original and first-hand documentation work which I am happy to share, with permission and with properly displayed credit: ©janetkessler/coyoteyipps.com