Gray Fox in the Middle of San Francisco!

l set out a field camera hoping to spot a couple of coyotes that we hadn’t seen in awhile. This was in the middle of San Francisco’s densely populated, commercial and tourist-attracting North Beach.

I indeed did capture what I had hoped for: two coyotes who hung around the area for a considerable time. They investigated by smelling — dogs come by here regularly which would have caused such an investigation — and they left their own urine markers — their calling cards — before heading off on their trekking adventures for the evening.

After the coyotes left, to my eye-popping surprise and astonishment, a tiny GRAY FOX appeared! Gray fox sightings are extremely rare in San Francisco. As seen in the video, the fox jumped up into a tree, right over the camera — it came too close to the camera to be in focus. You next see her backside as she looks out from the bushes and then she “marks” before leaving after only three minutes in the area. Of course she could smell that this was coyoteland.

After six hours, the coyotes returned, and they were keenly interested in what had transpired here while they were gone: they were well aware that the fox had been there.

The gray fox is one of my most interesting captures to date in a field camera. I’ve also captured a mountain lion right here in the city, skunks challenging a coyote, raccoon families, opossums waddling through, ever-intelligent rats, domestic cats and part of an owl — all night-prowlers in the urbanwildness of San Francisco, and all appearing in the areas coyotes use!