Coyote Yipps

This little girl yearling sat atop a knoll to watch the active dogs playing below in a fenced-off dog play area. It must have been a little like watching TV for her. The dogs ran after each other, wrestled, got mad and nipped at each other, ran after balls the owners tossed. There was high energy which must have been very entertaining for the coyote who spent a good half hour there. While she was there, I took these photos of her: it’s so easy to fall in love with coyotes. BUT, please do so at a distance and non-interactively as you walk away.

3″ cards being distributed

By clicking on any of the photos, you can enlarge them and scroll through them.

A while after taking these photos, I spoke to a woman who was excited about what I had to say about coyotes. She told me about the coyote she had seen several times across the street from her shop, right in the middle of a residential neighborhood and right here in the middle of San Francisco. We talked at some length — she had lots of questions for me. Then, she asked if she could “touch it” next time and maybe “take it food”. Her adoration for the animals was overflowing. She was absolutely shocked by my response: “please leave them alone and don’t approach them.”  She had no conception at all about the needs of a coyote — their need to remain wild, remain healthily wary of humans, and to hunt for themselves.

I went through simple guidelines with her, and gave her a 3″ business card listing those. I’ve been handing these out because succinct guidelines are not printed on park signs, and aren’t readily known by most people. Please go over them yourself if you aren’t sure about them!! Truly loving coyotes involves loving their well-being, their wildness, and their ability to care for themselves — it does not involve interacting with them in any way, including feeding them. Please remember that feeding them causes them to hang around and approach people which may lead the city to kill them, which happened here in the city last July. Feeding is a selfish need of the feeder — it does not benefit the coyote and actually hurts them. It’s understandable that you may want to love them, but please do so hands-off and at a distance, without feeding! Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤️