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!
These are just a portion of the nursery herd cows and calves on a local ranch. They have been moved to summer ranges and the grass is still lush, green and thick from record spring rains. This not only means rich grazing…but thousands upon thousands of mice, voles, moles and grasshoppers are literally everywhere. You feel and see scurrying or hopping with every step.
I can describe all this as I patrol these ranges. But Slim Jim the elderly male coyote..must simply have felt it. And returned.
For the past few weeks…Slim Jim has pup-sat and lived here with daughter and her mate. He then left them as the 2 pups started foraging with parents. Kinky Tail daughter rules this area and Slim obviously doesn’t feel tied here.
Last update [Slim Jim’s Bigger Picture] he had somehow amazingly joined his yearling daughter, her mate and two pups. The bison he walked with had newborns. New Moms perhaps made it risky for old blind Slim. How he joined his daughter 8 miles away we don’t know.
We joke that Slim Jim can read. He went to land off limits to hunting or public access.
We thought this was his last move. He was a very tired pup sitter. The pups have been moved several times by Kinky Tail mom. And are now hunting grasshoppers and mice themselves. This move…seemed to allow Slim to make his own choice.
Ancient Slim Jim. He’s actually a Big Fella. We thought he was smaller — he was always so tattered and slinky. But..he now seems to have lost the slink, and meanders slowly and stately near or among bison especially at night. He’s safe. And shocking us all with his choices and endurance.
He left the rocky (but hot) sanctuary to return to bison herds. The calves are bigger and the cows pay Slim no heed as he noses about and munches the rodents and grasshoppers they flush up while grazing. They graze. He feeds. Side by side. You can’t really even see him at times among the bulky bison.
Mostly blind. Tattered. Very very worn. But quite happy. Slim Jim is very full. Sleeps long among cottonwoods. And slowly walks among bison.
He made the choice and must have known…old haunts and bison and grasslands and feeding, were better for him then rocky hot haunts his family are at for now.
I thought the rocks were his last move. But sweet grass and bison herds..obviously are his preference. He was tossing sticks and mice today. Still playful and enjoying life.
PREFACE: I’ve been watching and writing about coyote behavior — their individual behaviors, their family life, and their interactions with people and pets — for the last 15 years, here in San Francisco: I’m interested in finding out WHO each one is as an individual — in the process, I’ve seen their relationship to, and interactions with, the environment, i.e., their ecology and the root of their behaviors stemming to a great extent from their diet habits and territorial imperatives within that ecology. What I write here is purely based on my own first-hand visual observations over an extended period of time, without scientific measuring devices. There’s a short summary of key insights at the end if you don’t want to wade through this long writeup!
PEOPLE: Before I begin about the coyotes themselves, I want to state that, as far as I have seen, the biggest impact caused by coyotes’ return to San Francisco has been on the interface with people and their dogs: on people’s perceptions and the social amplifications of fear engendered by coyote presence. Some of it is profoundly and vocally negative, but a lot of it is very positive: we have many people in San Francisco who are thrilled to have wildlife, including coyotes, around. It’s a constant and often heated source of exchanges online in the NextDoor chat-group. The negative impact is heaviest on those who are unwilling to roll with the punches and slightly change their behaviors.
Coyotes are territorial and therefore keep other coyotes out of their claimed areas, and they do the same with dogs. Coyotes will “message” dogs insistently with scary gaping and an arched back, and sometimes charges and a cattle-dog-fashion nip to the hind quarters to get the dog to leave — it can be frightening if you don’t know how to respond. By leashing, keeping away, and walking away, humans can avoid this kind of conflict. Coyotes have been known to grab cats and small dogs which is why these smaller pets need to be more vigilantly supervised and then removed from the area if a coyote is sighted. A dog trainer today was telling me that even large dogs with mild behaviors have grabbed a small dog and begun tossing it up in the air as though it were prey: small dogs must be kept away from larger ones.
In addition to this human/dog-based impact, there have been some natural ecological changes caused by coyotes’ return to San Francisco, although not to the same degree that reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone had — that impact was big because the deer, who had slowly altered and changed the balance of the flora through their overpopulation, suddenly had significant predators. With the deer diminished in numbers by the wolves or moving to new locations to avoid the wolves, plants that hadn’t grown in ages, having been nibbled back by deer, such as aspen, among others, began to bloom again. The beaver population also increased. The wolves were causing a trophic cascade* (“addition or removal of top predators involving reciprocal changes in the relative populations of predator and prey through a food chain, which often results in dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and nutrient cycling.” — Britannica.com) of ecological change. Here in San Francisco, other things are going on which might prevent us from clearly seeing any direct impact caused by a return of a coyote population.
NATIVISM: A dozen years ago, a friend told me that the only reason the coyotes had returned to San Francisco was “because of the re-introduction of nativist plants“. She had a Ph.D. in the sciences, therefore, she said, “she _knew_”, and she used simply that to back herself up. This was back in 2010 when the “nativist” direction in our parks was fairly new: at that time, only a few small garden-size plots had been converted to exclusively native plants. So her statement was interesting to me for its overarching-reach, made by someone with three letters after her name which was all she used to justify the statement. Others in the program, and even those not involved in the program, have noted that the main ecological changes resulting from the reintroduction of native plants was an increase in a variety of native insects dependent on those new plants.
Consider dens as an example of habitat use here in San Francisco: some are dug into the sandy soil, some buried beneath a tangle of cape ivy, some protected by blackberry brambles. Some dens have been established under our porches, or along culverts behind tall cyclone fences in the right-of-way of the city’s Public Utilities Commission — some beneath the roots of fallen pine trees. Some are among rock crevices and formations along the banks of creeks. Coyotes have denned among the non-native exotics of the SF Botanical Garden, where the pups have played on freshly mowed non-native lawns, and they hide in the non-native golden grasses brought in by the Spaniards long ago to feed their cattle. None of these encompass native components.
Coyote diet staples depend heavily on native species: pocket gophers and voles, and to a lesser degree native skunk, raccoon (usually roadkill or easy-to-grab juveniles or compromised adults), mallard ducks, pigeons, and ravens. But their diets also include plenty of Norway rats, opossums, cats, many exotic fruits from the planted trees here, pizzas and hamburgers, which are not on the list of native species. The species that coyotes live off of did not suddenly appear due to the nativist program — they’ve been here far longer than that.
As for water: we have very few natural water sources here in San Francisco. These include seven natural springs and three natural freshwater ponds. That’s it. The local Eucalyptus trees (non-native), and even pine trees, capture a lot of the fog and create wonderful puddles of water throughout the city, and I’ve seen the thick morning dew licked off of guard-rails along roadways by coyotes. One of the requirements of a den area is proximity to reliable water: it happens that non-native, man-made lakes and spigots are available throughout the city. These are coyote water sources.
So, I wouldn’t say that coyotes returned to San Francisco because of the introduction of native pants or the nativist program. Man-made structures and brought-in-plants, along with rodents and mesopredators who thrive in all kinds of environments throughout the US, are used substantially by coyotes. After all, coyotes themselves naturally inhabit a multitude of environments throughout the country: there’s not any one type that attracts them.
However, our nativist program has had some consequences for them, including contributing to their increased visibility.
INCREASED VISIBILITY OVER TIME: A lot of the clearing of non-native understory thickets has been performed by that nativist program, as well as by other entities in the city: this thick, often impenetrable underbrush is where the coyotes could hide, and there was much more of it when the coyotes first arrived than there is now. Even last year, I observed that a coyote family was compelled to move its den when clearing continued into the denning season in one of the parks. Fortunately, coyotes are adaptive — they simply moved.
Coyotes generally are very elusive critters. The continued clearing appears to have increased coyote visibility over the years — be it due to the native plant program or for other reasons, such as for construction, or to discourage the homeless from trying to camp in the parks. But there are other factors contributing to this increased visibility. For example, more humans out than ever means more eyes are there to see them and report them — a phenomenon which became apparent during the early COVID pandemic. During lockdown, early in the pandemic, there were reports in the papers about sightings in “new” places — for example, Greenwich Street — where, in fact, I and others had seen them there, regularly, even nightly, since 2007. The only thing new was new eyes reporting them. Over the last ten years, use of the parks has increased many times over, with many more eyes around to see things, whereas I remember sitting alone in parts of some of the parks and for a full morning only ever seeing a small handful of other people, all without dogs. There has been a big change.
Another possible factor involved in the increased visibility of coyotes is that they have simply become used to us in their environment — and that is, again, because there are more and more of us than ever in “their parks” as compared to ten years ago. So they are taking us much more in-stride these days than they used to, of necessity. Because of this, some people have been calling them bold, even though they are totally minding their own business. It’s more a matter of us humans having changed their circumstances: humans have become ever-present in their environments.
An increase of humans feeding coyotes has also increased coyote visibility over the years. Feeding them causes them to return to, and hang around in, the areas where they are being fed. If you add “hand” feeding to the equation, you are attracting the coyotes closer and closer to humans, including children, who, because of their smaller size, coyotes would feel safer approaching than an adult human, to message them: “get outta here”.
By the way, remove the food source, and the activity in the area, and therefore their visibility, will diminish, as happened in the Bernal Hill area: the “egregious Bernal Hill feeder’s” photograph was splashed all over the news, which put an end to her feeding them. Those coyotes no longer appear at that location daily, though other factors may also be involved in their all-but disappearance from that area. (Which I’ve written about on my blog).
HABITAT CHOICE: It appears that coyotes have always been drawn to the periphery of human environments, from the time of the Ohlone Indians in San Francisco (see “The Ohlone Way” by Malcolm Margolin), and — I’m speculating here — to the Spanish ranches early on in San Francisco history — where they would have been extirpated, no different from wolves — and now to urban centers where many other animals are also drawn or were brought in, including chickens, goats (no longer allowed in the city), cats, raccoons, skunks, rats, ducks, etc, which in turn have been attractants to the coyotes. Coyotes not only benefit collaterally from our presence, but they appear to be safer in cities than in more rural environments where they continue to be shot in large numbers in some areas.
Coyotes inhabit and use the entire city, all except the San Francisco Downtown area, although they have occasionally even crossed into that area briefly. Coyote habitats in San Francisco run from the expansive grassy and shrubbed golf-courses, to the sandy and often wind-blown forsakenly desolate banks of the ocean, to the lush planted Golden Gate Park, to vast barren but golden and long-grassed hills which form part of our open spaces. They inhabit the areas surrounding our lakes as well as our densely overgrown creeks and ravines. Coyotes can be found in our most densely human populated neighborhoods such as North Beach, to less densely populated neighborhoods such as West Portal, to parks without any human dwellings. The elements that all these habitats have in common are: proximity to water, availability of hunting and food sources close by, and cover for protection, including remote areas and fenced-off areas to dogs.
Coyotes travel their whole territories, which include the surrounding neighborhoods, regularly, and in doing so they use and cross streets regularly, often to their detriment: Animal Care and Control picked up 24 dead coyotes last year (2021) from the streets, and I’m sure there were others not found: this is a huge number out of a population of 80-100. I’ve seen coyotes travel nightly at least 2 miles and back, using paths and roads as part of their routes, as they head over to and return from their food bases. Dispersing and moving coyotes — some have picked up and moved wholesale to a new distant territory — can easily travel the length of the city and further, and then back again. A substantial amount of their travel is on the same paved roads and cleared paths that we take — these being the “paths of least resistance” which involve less expenditure of energy: coyotes are very efficient!
POPULATION DENSITY: Here in San Francisco, the coyote population numbers fluctuate from about 80 to 100, and have until now been limited by coyote territorial imperatives: each of about 20 territories has one family, and a family consists of a mated-pair and their new pups and possibly a yearling or two born the previous year. The fluctuation from 80 to 100 is a naturally-occurring, breathing, expansion and contraction which occurs every year, beginning with the pupping season in April and then gradually diminishing as the pups eventually disperse during a two-year period after birth.
Within the last couple of years, I’ve noted just three exceptions to this fairly strict monogamous family structure, whereby a two-year-old daughter who is normally “behaviorally sterile” has had a litter along with her mother on the same territory: this appears to have been caused in two instances by a disruption in the alpha-male’s presence — he either died of old age or was shot. Only in one instance was there not a disruption in the alpha male’s presence, and I’m still trying to figure out what went on there. I have not seen this “double denning” until the last few years — monogamy and mating for life is the norm.
The ultimate cause of this double-denning might be population and territory saturation here in San Francisco: I emailed Professor Sacks about it and he said he had seen the same phenomenon in foxes due to an increase in their population. Recently and unusually, I’ve also seen a couple of coyote “divorces*” Might population saturation be affecting their family structure? (It appears that most of our youngster coyotes have been dispersing south and out of the city, as seen in a Presidio study.)
The map I’ve created of territories here in San Francisco shows that each territorial family claims about 1.5 to as many as 2.4 square miles of space to themselves: they keep other coyotes out, though I’ve seen several instances of outside dispersing youngsters being allowed to stay for a short time — all resources on that territory belong to the family that lives there. As far as I have seen, their hunting seems to support sustainability, not depletion of supply. They leave enough of the supply to renew itself through reproduction: be it gophers, voles, or even ducks. That being said, coyotes do seem to have reduced the feral cat population — but this is a mostly non-reproducing population because of the city’s neutering program. Also feral cats are drawn to feeding stations which in themselves attract coyotes: feeding feral cats lures both feral cats and coyotes to these areas, and therefore to the cats’ eventual death by coyotes caused by well-meaning but short-sighted humans.
When coyotes first returned to San Francisco in 2002, there were only four breeding coyote pairs (as determined by Professor Ben Sacks and Monica Serrano at UC Davis, based on DNA analysis from scat I collected). The limited population led to a lot of inbreeding. To this day, I continue to see inbreeding. Inbreeding turns out not to be rare in coyotes, but apparently is not an issue for their health and well-being, according to Professor Sacks. Over the past 15 years, I’ve noted that coyote territories have been fairly stable in their size and configurations with only minor changes over the years.
However, two substantive territorial changes have occurred recently that I have seen. Four years ago the Lake Merced families — there had actually been three families on two different golf courses and around the lake — had deaths and divorces which led to those territories reconfiguring into one large territory with the same mated pair of coyotes controlling it all. This reconfigured family has allowed some dispersing youngsters into their fold for a little while, but these always moved on. Then last year, I observed the expansion of one territory onto the periphery of another, a full mile away: so, over extended periods of time, these territories can change.
In addition to coyotes on these claimed territories, I have been seeing — more often than in the past — lone coyotes during the daylight hours, usually early morning or late afternoon, hurrying along a street, who appear to be dispersing: most I cannot identify from what family they came from. Some of these dispersing youngsters find temporary niches in nooks such as backyards, where they hide out during the day before taking off to hunt and explore when it gets dark. As far as I have seen, these temporary refuges are normally used anywhere from two weeks to several months, before the coyotes moves on for good. However, some have been staying longer, so it appears that now we have coyotes staying in the interstices BETWEEN the territories I originally mapped. Will these become family-owned reproducing territories? We’ll have to wait and see.
COYOTES’ EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT. What effects on the environment might coyotes have had over the last 15 years?
I’ve seen that the red fox population — this is a non-native species that was brought to the area in the 1970s, apparently by hunters — appears to have been diminished and pushed to the periphery of the city, very likely because of the coyotes — that timeframe pretty much coincides with the arrival of coyotes here. So foxes — whose population has always been small in the City — have been excluded where the coyotes have dug in. Both coyotes and red foxes are competitors for many of the same resources, so their ecological effect on the environment would be qualitatively fairly similar, though quantitatively more so for coyotes: both are omnivores, opportunistic foragers, predators, and scavengers with varied diets based on what is available, so not a great qualitative change has been caused by the switch.
We have a very small native gray fox population — I don’t know if coyotes have affected their population, though I know a coyote will pursue and attempt to grab one if he/she sees it. One appeared on my trail camera once right where I frequently see coyotes. Once. That’s the only time I’ve seen one.
Coyotes are attracted by all sorts of food sources, but seem to opt for the easier catches when they have a choice.
Coyotes throughout the city, no matter their location, all seem to depend predominantly on gophers and voles, and secondarily on mice and rats as their staples. Our owls and hawks also catch and eat these rodents. They are so plentiful that they are trapped and killed by many people in the city, including on our golf courses and by our city parks personnel, and by private citizens in their gardens. I doubt that coyotes have reduced or affected this population much: coyotes take enough and leave enough so that the rodents can reproduce: the balance really hasn’t changed over the years as far as I can detect visually. Coyotes still hunt to the same degree in the exact same spots as they did in 2007, when I began documenting them. Interestingly, just yesterday I heard folks talking about a new gopher “infestation” in the city!
Rats, raccoons and skunks are hunted and eaten by coyotes, all of which have been considered “pests” by humans. Humans routinely have put out rat-poison and they have hired exterminators to rid their properties of all of these critters. Last year, the City’s Animal Care and Control felt compelled to slaughter over 10 raccoons from one clan which had been fed profusely by humans and began charging towards every human for food as a result. The point is that coyote predation hasn’t had a huge altering effect on these animals which were routinely eliminated by humans before the coyotes even reappeared in the area.
I’ve seen fewer snakes and lizards over the last 15 years here in SF, but I don’t know that anyone knows what the cause is : Might the disturbing omnipresence of people have contributed? Children in the city camps regularly caught little lizards they found sunning themselves on rocks, and slowly these stopped appearing. I know about this trend because my own children attended these camps and told me how each year the lizards were fewer and fewer — that was way before coyotes re-appeared here in 2002.
Now we have one coyote family in that camp park which is in their territory — a mated pair and their 3 yearlings (who will soon disperse) — coyotes didn’t finish off the lizards and snakes because, although rarely, I still do see them. Certainly these lizards are not a preferred food for coyotes: I’ve watched as several lizards and snakes were caught, “toyed with”, and rolled on, but not eaten, by coyotes. That was back a dozen years ago. I haven’t seen any predator with a snake or lizard in years. More hawks in the city may be contributing to their reduction in numbers: I used to see red-tail hawks flying high in the sky with snakes dangling from their beaks, but I haven’t seen this in years.
Kestrels have diminished in the city since 2008 but this has nothing to do with coyotes: my bird specialist thinks it might have to do with a change in the insects they eat and swallowtail butterflies have diminished as more fern plants were removed — but this has nothing to do with coyotes, all in the same timeframe. Hmmm, back again to the native plant program? Native Swallowtails depend on non-native fennel for their survival, which the nativists are intent on removing, leaving nothing for the Swallowtails [corrected].
The quail population went down at about the time the coyotes came, but there has also been an increase in the raccoon population — possibly because of humans feeding them — which eats quail and their eggs, as well as increased hawk and owl populations which do the same. I’ve been told anecdotally that a possible cause for hawk population growth in the city is that we cleaned up the environment substantially over the last score of years — but then again, maybe it’s just the preponderance of gophers and voles that brought more of these raptors into the city. I don’t think we’ll ever know the exact reasons, though we can guess.
COYOTE DIET BREAKDOWN: I wrote a diet summary posting a while back: What Do Coyotes Eat Here in SF? How much food does a coyote eat? I’ve seen a coyote catch five large gophers in a row and wolf all down except the last, which it buried for future use. Having said that, I don’t know what their daily intake is, but I know they can go for weeks without any food at all.
A collaborator in my San Francisco-wide genetics project at UC Davis is studying coyote diet through their DNA. She is creating pie charts and graphs showing the minute breakdown of individual diets within the city. For her minute details, we will have to wait: hers is part of her PhD program. However, without that study, my direct observation can provide a lot of broader information.
To recap, coyote staples here in San Francisco are gophers and voles, with mice and rats coming in after that. Moles (as opposed to voles) are interesting because coyotes always spit these out as though they are too bitter — the same as they do with lizards. They catch and kill them and leave them, or rub on them for their pungent odors. Coyotes love to wallow in smelly items. As stated above, coyotes will head for what is available in their territory, including carrion and roadkill which may include opossums, squirrels, raccoon, skunk, rats, voles and cats. They’ve been seen carrying ducks where there are ponds, red-tail hawks (presumably ones that were injured previously), and owls (many of which we’ve found to have been rat-poisoned, and therefore slowed-down enough for a coyote to catch).
I’ve seen coyotes catch pigeons, bluebirds, ravens, and crows which they expertly and quickly defeather by yanking off large mouthfuls of feathers at a time, and yes, I’ve seen them run off with cats in their mouths: I saw one family bring into their denning area a cat a week for about 4 weeks, and then it stopped. I see them eat fruit such as pears, apples, loquats, by picking these off the ground, or actually picking them off the low branches of the fruit tree, often reaching high by standing on their hind legs. They pick blackberries off the vine one by one: these are seasonal finds but become a major part of their diets during certain times of the year — when they are ripe, which occurs at different times for different fruit — as can be seen in their scat. I’ve seen them eat snails and crickets. Squirrels are caught year-round by coyotes, especially the unwary younger ones, and consumed right down to the last fur at the tip of their tails, as are all the rodents they eat — there’s absolutely no waste.
I have seen scat filled predominantly with loquat seeds and peels for months at a time in one area. In other territories, there might be apples or pears or blackberries in locations that the coyotes will return to regularly until the fruit is gone. Availability is a big factor in their diets. Another example: those with duck ponds in their territories have ducks on their menus: so for example North Beach coyotes’ territory extends to Fort Mason and the Marina where they have been seen carrying away ducks in their mouths as they return to North Beach.
I would estimate, based on my visual observations, that about 3/4ths of a coyote’s diet is animal, whereas the rest is plant-based. However, this appears to fluctuate over the seasons. Seeing long stretches where the scat appears to be predominantly fruit (seeds and peels), usually in early summer for loquats, fall for apples, and then stretches when there appears to be no fruit at all in the scat confirms this. Besides the plant-based fruit I’ve mentioned, I’ve seen coyote eat fresh green grasses, especially when it comes up after the first rains of the season. I’ve seen them nibble on bark and twigs. I’ve seen them nibble on wild radish roots.
Their nutritional requirements skyrocket during pupping season: pregnant and nursing moms need much more nutrition and therefore will be out hunting more, as will dads who often carry prey to their mates. Then, during pup-weaning and afterwards, both parents feed the pups solid food which is initially regurgitated for their pups: this increases nutritional needs many times over for the parents!
HOW DOES DIET IMPACT COYOTE BEHAVIOR? Coyotes have to eat, so a big portion of their behavior centers around hunting and looking for food over long distances. As they trek through their territories, they mark in order to keep other coyotes out, and they scour for food sources as they peruze their territories for any activity or changes that might affect them. Their keen sense of smell takes them straight to any type of food. They have fantastic memories, so they know exactly where to return to after they’ve discovered a new food source, and they will continue returning there until that supply has become diminished.
In urban areas like San Francisco, in order to avoid humans, coyotes have adapted their hours to mostly at night when we aren’t out. Although you’ll see them hunting at dusk and at dawn, and even during daylight hours — after all, they are not nocturnal animals — the majority of their hunting occurs in the darker hours when we are not around. I’ve recorded them trekking distances of 2 miles and even more, as they search for, or return to, food sources. A lot of them follow the same routes day after day, checking out the locations where they’ve found food in the past: where they’ve heard gophers underground, where they find human refuse, where they see the free-roaming cat they plan to nab some day. Please keep your cats indoors.
And, occasionally, they will grab a small dog and run off with it, usually during twilight hours when their hunting instincts are at their highest. Our Animal Care and Control estimates that about 4 to 5 little dogs are grabbed each year — these aren’t a major part of their diet, but rather they are opportunistically grabbed additions to their diets. Still, it is traumatic for any pet owner to lose a pet to a predator. Please keep your small pets leashed and supervised!
When garbage and human food are left outside, coyotes will inevitably find it and check it out. I’ve seen them pick through human refuse predominantly for the protein: I’ve seen the meat of tossed hamburgers eaten, the cheese of pizzas, the meatballs in spaghetti left on the side of the road — the wheat fill is often left behind.
I’ve seen coyotes hang around where they might get free handouts from people in specific locations where they have been given such stuff before: in parking lots, along trails in parks, even by their parked vans. The bad thing here, of course, is that coyotes return to and hang around these spots, increasing the potential for conflict with dogs. Their behavior towards humans is also changed — tolerance for proximity to humans is increased through feeding them. And, our luring them there — because that is what we are doing — pulls them into areas where there is traffic, increasing the potential for their deaths by cars.
There are some customs passed on in coyote families — a culture of sorts — involving their diets. Some coyote families specifically go out looking for, for example, cats, or human handouts, whereas others don’t seek these out. Could it be that where cats are ignored as prey, there is plenty of other food, so “why bother with a cat?” Also, though, I’ve seen cats who through their own feisty fierceness have kept coyotes away: this type of cat is much too much trouble for a coyote and not worth the effort! When they see the odds of potential injury being high, they avoid the situation.
Coyote family hierarchy is strong when it comes to feasting on what’s been caught. Higher ranking individuals always get to eat first, and the others have to wait far enough away, and look disinterested, until top guy is through, and only then may they approach for their share. This happens when larger prey, such as a raccoon has been found. Most eating, though, by a coyote, is on smaller rodents, which are not divvied up but consumed by one coyote.
Also, I’ve seen coyotes find food and attempt to bury and hide it just for themselves, to the exclusion even of their mates! The treasure is often found anyway, and sometimes taken to a new location! More blatant stealing also occurs: say, if a rat is tossed within another coyote’s easy reach during the *toying* with it after capture, the other coyote might grab it: once it it’s in the mouth of the other coyote, it is considered theirs and cannot be grabbed. You’ll often see a coyote hurry away from other family members when he/she has caught something: this is to prevent them from grabbing it!
KEY SUMMARY INSIGHTS: From what I’ve seen, coyotes haven’t caused huge ecological changes in San Francisco since they first arrived — the biggest impact has been on dogs and their humans, and human perceptions of them: leashing and walking away from a coyote seems to be too inconvenient for some people.
Coyote movements within, and interaction with, the environment have their dietary habits and territorial imperatives at their base. They regularly trek more than two miles distance and back, to check out known and new food sources, and to mark their territories and defend it, doing so mostly at night in order to avoid humans as much as possible, though of course you’ll see them out during the day as well.
Coyotes seem to have pushed red foxes to the periphery of the city through exclusion; and they may be reducing the feral cat population, but only because it is a non-reproducing population. These appear to be their most profound impacts. The feral cat population is mostly fed by humans, but these cats also prey on small rodents and birds whose lives might be spared by reducing that cat population, thereby impacting the ecology of the area.
Although coyotes are eating a large number of gophers, they haven’t diminished that population, as seen by their continuing to catch them as often and easily as ever, and by an overabundance of them causing humans to try to get rid of them. Raccoons, rats, gophers, and skunks have all been targeted as pests and removed by people, well before coyotes came to the city — it would be hard to single out coyotes as the ecological changers in those populations, if indeed any change has been noted in them: as far as I can see, these populations are actually increasing.
Coyotes eat what is readily available in their territories which run up to about 2.5 square miles, and they’ll trek nightly over most of this area to the spots where they know food can be found. Seasonal changes in the flora and fauna affect their diets, especially seasonal fruits. They return repeatedly to areas that provide them with food until that food diminishes to the point where it’s easier to find something else somewhere else.
Humans, too are omnivores, and we each eat as individuals, as families, and as cultures according to our customs and personal tastes and habits, and according to what is available — famous cuisine throughout the world was originally based on regional supplies.
Scout is one of the coyotes — a 7-year-old — whose life I’ve been following and whose story I’ve been telling. However, she has pretty much been off of my radar for the last six months: she all but disappeared from her territory during that time-frame. I knew she was not far away because she appeared regularly in her old territory, even if only briefly, in the dead of night, with her mate, Scooter, and sometimes one of her yearlings: I have been able to capture this because of a field camera I put out in her old territory. And, through the field camera, I’ve been able to capture a little about her continued story. Here is an update and summary of her story.
Update: What the field camera showed about Scout was her rounded shape back in March and then in April her losing that roundness and gaining the lactating tits of a nursing mom. Ahh, so Scout had another family — her third litter. But she had them elsewhere, not in her old long-time claimed territory — the territory she had battled for so valiantly when an intruder tried taking it from her in 2019. Few coyotes, once established in a claimed territory, move away, so this is an unusual situation. Of additional interest is that she returns almost nightly to her old territory where several of her yearling pups still remain.
These are field camera photos taken at the old territory, showing Scout fat to the left, Scout svelte again in the middle, and Scout lactating to the right — the camera is on a path she habitually frequented and apparently still does.
Video allowing me to identify her
I kept my eyes and ears open for any clues as to her new location. People told me about coyotes they had seen, but either they didn’t have photos, or the photos were not of Scout. One lady I met told me she had taken some videos of a coyote on the street and offered to share them with me. I sent her my email, asking to see the videos, but she forgot to check her messages until just a week ago, six months after our exchange! So a week ago I saw the video to the right where I was able to identify Scout! I then spent several mornings talking to more and more people where the video had been taken, and within a few days who should I come across but Scout herself!
I gasped, and Scout saw me. She of course must know who I am from my documenting her movements and behaviors over the last seven years. She stopped and looked at me, knowing I would not approach, and then she lay down for a few minutes, allowing me time to watch her. After a few minutes, her mate, who is much more flighty and wary, appeared and then fled when he saw a group of people nearby. But he stopped when he saw Scout watching me — her calmness seemed to calm him. After a few minutes, he must have beckoned her because she turned to go with him: he and she are a tight team, and work and communicate seemingly telepathically as a unit. It’s really nice to observe this!
Scout and Scooter at their new location a few days ago. Please remember that I don’t reveal locations for the coyotes’ sake: for their privacy and security, but I wanted to share Scout’s continuing story, which many people have followed on my blog.
Over the next few days I found that they were there with one of their yearling sons born last year, Cyrano. Over those next few days, I observed them patrolling the surrounding area and I observed some of their food sources: pizzas left out for them, I saw them hunt and eat gophers, and a cat (yikes!). There are ducks not far away and squirrels all over the place in the immediate area, and I know they trek over 2 miles each night to mark their territory as they search for and return to food sources they know about: for example, they’ll return to fruit trees, once ripened, until the fruit is gone.
To the left is a one-year-old son who migrated with them to their new location, and to the right is one of their new pups — I’ve counted two (there may be more) in the litter born this last April.
And I even glimpsed two pups hanging around what must be their densite. I make it a practice to stay away from dens, but this year I literally and inadvertently tripped over a handful of them. These particular dens are minimally hidden and placed where anyone would walk. If there had been predators around, these pups would have perished long ago. Then again, maybe the coyotes comprehend that there are no real predators around. Loose dogs could injure them, but most are not actively looking for them as prey to eat.
There’s plenty of food in the area
The den is a hollow under a fallen tree
Parents patrol the streets and fields — they know everything about their territories.
They visit their old territory at night where this, their two-year-old offspring appears to be holding down the fort!
A little backgroundfor those who haven’t followed her story here. Scout was the first *litter* if you want to call it that — she was a singleton pup — born in 2015 to a young 2-year-old mom and that 2-year-old’s 6-year-old father. Yes: inbreeding. There was a lot in that family. There are stories about her birth family on my blog.
I watched Scout grow up as a defiant little rascal — her father was constantly chasing her and throwing her on her back because of her defying him. I guess she had had enough of it by 9-months of age, because that’s when she dispersed. It’s one of the earliest dispersals I’ve seen — most take place between 1 and 2 years of age. I last observed her in her birth territory in January of 2016, and two weeks later, in February, she had appeared where she would remain for the next six years. It was a vacant territory 1.6 miles away from her birthplace. There had been territorial coyotes there before, but the last alpha was killed by a car, and not until Scout arrived was that vacancy refilled. Luck was with her, considering that the majority of dispersing youngsters move south and out of the city due to a lack of territorial vacancies within the city, and on top of that, while dispersing, many, many get hit and killed by cars. Cars are their chief killers in cities.
Scout remained a loner for three more years. Remembering that coyotes are highly social, this must have been difficult for her. She filled the void by watching humans and their dogs. Some people fed her. Some people fed her from cars. This caused her to hang around, wait for food, chase cars. If she saw you eyeing her, she would perform — she seemed to like attention, which most coyotes do not: she would start playing with a stick, or a ball, or do zoomies — almost in imitation of all the dogs she had been watching. She seemed to smile more often than other coyotes I see — maybe she was imitating her human and dog neighbors?? There was one dog she hated and would bark at when he came into sight, there were other dogs she ran from, and others she would test: people thought she was playing with their dogs, but I could see it was simply *testing* behavior.
Finally, into her 4th year at this territory, a strapping young fellow appeared and both she and he hit it off. This was a fellow I had watched grow up in North Beach, over four miles away. He was dispersing now, at 1.8 years of age. Their immediate friendship was amazing to watch: this previous loner was now smitten with the company of another coyote. They walked around together gazing in each others eyes (I’m not kidding), they played and cuddled and teased each other. They hunted together and howled together and she looked after him and would get worried when she felt he was endangered. Rightly so: he ended up acquiring a broken ankle (diagnosed by my wildlife vet based on videos I sent her) after being chased by a dog. I had to convince everyone to please leave that coyote alone, that the injury would heal on its own, which it did. Several people went so far as to hire a trapper so they could *fix* the coyote. People simply didn’t realize how powerful nature is as a healer. But also removing a coyote from his social situation would have been absolutely detrimental for both him and Scout, disrupting the relationship and opening the way for another coyote to take his place, which his absence would have done.
For four months, everything went smashingly well, with Scout paying less attention to people, dogs, and cars, and spending more time learning to be the social coyote she was meant to be, and then suddenly everything was turned upside down for her: another powerful little female showed up who decided to fight for Scout’s territory. There was a skirmish under a car and blood spurted out. The intruder had been radio-collared and tagged only a month or so earlier in the Presidio. Unfortunately, the radio-collar gave that intruder, I call her Wired, an advantage: it served as protective armor. I next saw Scout with bloody gashes on her neck and forehead. And then I saw her flee as she was pursued throughout a lot of the city by this single-minded female intruder. I followed their trajectory into Diamond Heights, Dolores Heights, Noe Valley, McLaren. Scout attempted to return to HER territory several times, but each time she was repulsed by Wired. This exile lasted about 6 months, and then suddenly one day, Wired was no longer around. It turned out that Wired had found a better territory in the Presidio, which is where she has been living with her mate born and dispersed from North Beach. They’ve had several litters of pups.
So, I think to her great surprise, Scout found herself returning to her territory without having to face Wired. She carefully allowed herself to become more and more visible and then more and more at ease there. That was in June of 2019. That fall, a new male appeared. Although the relationship was nothing like her first love (!), her bond and devotion to him, and his for her, has grown. In 2020 they had their first litter of four pups, three of whom survived to adulthood. In 2021 they had a second litter of 6 pups, one of whom was killed by rat poison and one by a car. You can read about all this here.
It is during the fall of 2021 that everyone who knew her started seeing less and less of Scout and Scooter. They stopped their sentry duty where they had been seen daily for years. Everyone began to see them more sporadically and for shorter periods of time. And then I noted, they no longer appeared at all, except in the deep of night caught on a trap camera. That was six months ago.
Addendum: I can speculate on what might have contributed to her move based on what I know was going on, but of course we’ll never know for sure if these were contributing factors. *The huge number of dogs in her old territory didn’t seem to be an issue earlier on, but as Scout got older they may have become more of a problem for her — harder for her to deal with. *Last summer one of her pups born last year died of rat poisoning and we noticed that she herself became slow and lethargic at that time — and it’s shortly after this that we stopped seeing her so often: might she have ingested a less-than-lethal dose of the same rat poison that killed one of her sons? It’s something that might have influenced her to move. *Then, a large fenced-in area — and therefore dog-free refuge which she often retreated to — became a construction zone so she no longer had a totally safe place to go, especially if there were to be more pups. *Most of the holes under the fence of that sanctuary were boarded up at the time construction began: she might have feared total blockage and so had to find a new place. *Most importantly, a vacancy would have to have occurred in her new territory, and in fact, a coyote was picked up DOA, hit by a car not long before she moved. *The new territory is much wilder and has water nearby — it’s definitely a *step up* for her, which may also have contributed to her deciding to move. *Might she have wanted to leave her old territory to a youngster? This is actually what has happened, but was this by design? We don’t know. *Lastly, although I won’t know until all the DNA results are in from my population study, I have a feeling that her mate, Scooter, was probably originally from the new park — was born there — and it possibly is because he led her back there that they moved there. All these things were going on and may have contributed to the move, but ultimately, we simply don’t know why she moved, keeping her toe in the old territory, so to speak, by visiting almost every night.
Forward: Almost ten years ago, in 2012, in Atlanta, several people noticed coyotes in and around Candler Park (450 acres or 2/3rds of a square mile) where they had not been spotted before. City authorities were brought in to assess the population in the park and discovered 6 coyote dens. They concluded that coyotes were multiplying wildly and taking over, and they would have to get rid of them. I was contacted to help fight this proposal and educate the public about the reality of coyotes. Because of our efforts, the neighborhood association in charge decided not to cull/kill the coyotes. Unfortunately, I was told later on, that a couple of homeowners wouldn’t accept this studied decision, so as individuals they hired a trapper who eliminated them. :( Other coyotes soon filled the vacated niches — shooting coyotes doesn’t get rid of them for very long.
By the way, if you are interested, “fear of another species taking over” is a common human fear, and has been written about in this recent article: https://milliontrees.me/2022/06/08/starlings-vagrants-and-dead-birds/. Targets include coyotes, plants, birds, and other people who in various ways can be labeled differently from ourselves.
Coyote facts: On any one territory, with rare exceptions, there is just one coyote family consisting of an alpha male and female, their pups born within the year and in some cases one or two of the pups born the previous year — the older youngsters stick around long enough to help with the new litter before dispersing. All other coyotes are kept out of the family-owned territory, thus limiting the population to that one family. Territories run between 2 and 4 square miles each, so population is not all that dense. All youngsters inevitably and eventually disperse, leaving the two alphas as the static owners of the territory over a longer period of time.
As for the number of dens on each territory, each coyote family always digs multiple sets of dens — over 20 have been found in one of our territories here in San Francisco, all dug by the same coyote parent pair — to have ready to move into if needed, though most are never used. More dens on one territory do not mean multiple families — it’s simply a safety measure.
This video shows two denning areas of the same family.First you see Dad digging and then youngsters exiting and entering where he dug. The video then shifts to a small opening in a tangle of blackberry bramblesas coyotes enter and exit.These dens with the same family are 300 feet apart and used synchronously.
Last week I wandered through a small 100 square feet area of another of our coyote territories here in San Francisco and randomly spotted six such dens. The majority of them were not in use, but two that I found — maybe there are more — were being used synchronously, with pups apparently moving between them at their own will, as I was able to detect over the next few days. Five of these dens are dug into sandy soil. The other den being used simultaneously by this particular family is hidden in a tangle of blackberries, about 300 feet away. [Addendum: on June 13th I discovered another such active den, 600 feet away — that’s about a tenth of a mile between active dens belonging to the same family!]
Sand-dune den to the left; the one in the middle appears not to be used; and to the right, a den hidden within a tangle of overgrowth (with a pup snoozing in front of the opening).
Having multiple dens allows families to readily move to escape any dangers if needed. The photos below show a youngster with bug-pocked marks on his side, and a dad scratching himself vigorously to dislodge fleas: flea infestations in the dens is one reason they move to another den. Pups are also moved if parents sense potential dangers near their dens, mostly from dogs and insensitive people.
Pup and an adult showing signs of flea issues.
Examples of other dens throughout the city where I’ve spotted pups can be seen above: to the upper left is a den nestled under a carpet of ivy (yes, that’s a coyote pup visible through the tangle); in the middle is a hollow under a log; to the right behind a cyclone fence is a den in the no-man’s trashed area running along a freeway; and below, yes, they sometimes den right under our back porches!
Coyotes either dig their dens from scratch, as you saw in the sand-dune den, or they take over existing burrows of other animals and expand these. Caverns under rocks or openings under fallen tree trunks, or even non-dugout hidden areas with piles of leaves which are protected with brambles are used as dens. Fenced-in areas such as PUC Water Reservoirs or the fenced-off shoulders of freeways are also used: these areas are free from dogs and therefore very attractive to new coyote parents. And I’ve seen several dens under people’s porches! Unfortunately, there was a case several years ago where humans didn’t want coyotes around, so they boarded up the area under their porch to keep them out — but in this case, the pups already had been born and so the parents were blocked from their infants on the outside and unable to get in and nurse them. When it was all figured out, it was too late, and the pups perished. :(
A youngster has been given a squirrel by a parent.
Most coyote dens I’ve seen are meticulously hidden from access to people and dogs, at least 100 feet away from pedestrian traffic — off the beaten track. Coyote parents want to keep their pups secret in order to protect them. But some are not hidden very well at all and I really can’t imagine what went wrong with such a den placement. These dens might be placed just 15 feet from a walkway in a park with plenty of foot traffic and plenty of dogs. Even in these less-than-hidden dens, interestingly, the pups are left to themselves most of the daylight hours and much of the evening. The parents come to nurse and feed them: the above video shows a little pup running off excitedly with a prey squirrel brought by a parent — youngsters at this time of the year are still too young to hunt for themselves.
The immediate dugout den/crevice/bramble den itself is a temporary structure and used only for birthing, nursing, and as a hideaway for several months. The dugouts have an opening of about 10″ at their entrances and are a little wider within: they are a little like a long tunnel and I’ve measured some abandoned ones to be around 6′ deep. After several months — the same as with birds’ nests or our own bassinets — these are outgrown and abandoned until the next season. An full-size coyote could enter and hide there, but the whole family as it grows would not be able to.
Beyond the den structure itself, the greater denning area is larger than the size of a football-field. Parents defend this football-field size area and more than 1/4 mile beyond it from dogs. Dogs routinely pursue coyotes and threaten them: coyotes have learned that dogs are their chief enemies in the city. The entire area should be referred to as a denning site, and this whole area should be a no-dogs or leashed-dogs-only area.
To the left, a Mom is keeping an eye on active dogs several hundred feet away. In the middle, a Dad in another territory, snoozing and guarding not far from (but neither close to) his densite. To the right: a dad may approach a dog he feels is threatening with a snarly face and arched back: you’ll need to tighten your leash and do as he asks: move away from the area.
A dad will walk around the denning area, and by the den itself on his patrolling rounds several times a day during daylight hours. Sometimes he’ll snooze nearby, within visual range of the den, but seldom (as far as I have seen) immediately beside the den — he doesn’t want to give the location away. I seldom see Moms in the area, though I know she comes by to nurse the pups — she is able to slither in and out, evading detection, and she comes at night when no people are around. I have seen a mom standing or sitting sentry on a lookout, maybe 100 feet away from her den when a groups of dogs was around. If the dogs were to chase her, she would lead them away from this den site. In contrast to this kind of sentry duty, I saw a mother a few days ago, off alone in a distant and totally different hidden part of her park away from people, dogs, and her own pups, relaxing and seemingly enjoying her solitude — this was about 1/4th mile from her densite, in a fenced-in area. I had to wonder why that fenced-off place was not chosen as a denning area. But it wasn’t.
I tried to think of why the parents spend so much time away from their pups. Of course they need to hunt and patrol the area. But also what comes to mind is what I’ve read about baby deer: they apparently have no, or very little, odor, the better not to attract predators. A parent, of course, would have strong odors. So for example, dogs will pick up on the scent of the adult coyotes and pursue them. Might this be one of the reasons the parents don’t spend a great deal of time with their new pups? I’m just trying to think it through. Having said this, I need to point out that parents do spend plenty of time playing with and cuddling their pups — family time is an important part of their lives.
A furious Papa coyote runs after his pups to push them to safety.
Some coyote parents are more laissez-faire than others in their pup guarding. I just wrote about “running away from home” where the parents are seldom around, and some of the youngsters are wandering between dens during daylight hours. At the other extreme, here’s a short video clip showing a much stricter father who obviously is furious that his youngsters wandered out of the safety limits he imposed on them! This family’s den, BTW, is in a super well hidden location, and hidden under a tangled carpet of ivy in a backyard.
Litters may be moved at any time. Over the last two years, in June, I’ve seen two such moves of two-month-old litters. Youngsters are strong walkers by this stage of their development which may be a contributing factor. They may be moved because of bugs, or because their parents have become aware that their den is no longer secret — it’s been discovered by people or dogs who have become more omnipresent, or in one case, within a PUC Water Reservoir where construction was beginning AND many of the under-the-fence escape routes which the coyotes had been using were plugged up. The coyotes must have felt a need to get out before all entry/exits were boarded up.
Gathering her youngsters for a move
The new locations have been between 500 and 1500 feet (1/10th to 1/4th of a mile) from the original den. This video shows a mother gathering her youngsters together for such a move which took place at 9:00 am: You can see that the youngsters are very excited about this event — not so different from our own families before a trip! Their new den must not be far since a pup has been spotted recently back in this area.
What coyote predators might invade a densite here in San Francisco? Of course, the pups as pups have to be differentiated from the adults who have very few predators except cars in urban areas, though larger dogs chasing them cause a lot of leg injuries. Domestic dogs would be the primary threat to coyote pups — this is why dogs are *messaged* by parent coyotes within a fourth of a mile from their dens. The coyote communication of necessity must be intense if the dog is going to get the message: it involves an arched back, snarly face, tongue sticking out and wagging, and may include a number of darts and retreats and even a nip to the haunches or rear end of the dog — cattle-dog fashion — to get the dog to leave the area if the dog didn’t respond to the original message. Small dogs are as much of a threat as larger dogs — any carnivore is a threat that has the potential to grab a small pup.
In addition to dogs, there are raccoons in most denning areas. It seems a coyote pup might be as vulnerable to raccoons as are domestic kittens, which raccoons are known to capture as prey. And then there are the owls which have been hovering right above some of the dens I’m keeping track of. Very young pups the size of kittens are a perfect size for an owl to snatch up, yet pups are allowed by their parents to roam free during the hours when owls are most likely to capture one. I’ve never seen it happen, I’m just listing it as a potential possibility.
Threats to small pups include dogs running loose, raccoons, owls.
The greatest other intruders to denning areas, besides dogs and their walkers, are photographers with absolutely no sensitivity for the animals, including iPhone photographers who feel no compunction about walking right up to a resting coyote, as close as they can to snap a shot — most coyotes will flee, but some have become inured to this human behavior which erodes their innate wariness. It still produces stress. Fortunately, I’m hearing more and more walkers telling these folks to please leave the coyotes alone.
A week ago, my eyes popped wide open when I saw a photographer stationed and hovering right at a densite, waiting for them to appear, and I saw him there again, and again. Several large signs indicated this was a den area, yet the photographer seemed oblivious to the stress he was imposing by statically stationing himself where he was. And then when Dad coyote came around on his regular rounds, I saw him kicking dirt in anger when pursued by this same photographer — the coyote was obviously distressed about the situation in his denning area, and the photographer was totally indifferent to it and denied the coyote was reacting angrily to him.
One’s photos shouldn’t take precedence over the well-being of the coyotes, especially during denning season. Please everyone, give the coyotes space and walk away from them! If you have to be a paparazzi, do so at a distance where they won’t feel a need to react in any way to you — you’ve intruded if you cause them to alter their behavior in any way at all, including fleeing from you!!
I put this collage together to reflect the thought
Well, “running away from home” isn’t exactly what happened (which is why I have the title in quotes), but watching a tiny kitten-size pup the other morning trekking decidedly away from his home inspired the idea. For a fun twist, I put together the above collage, and have written this posting sprinkled with that thought.
The morning began with a coyote dad bringing in a mouthful of animal-prey to his denning area. It was too far off and I wasn’t quick enough to see what they prey was, but it was the size of a large duck. He disappeared into the brush, and I hoped I would see him again. Within a very short time, I heard a coyote calling to another — I wasn’t given enough lead time to record it, it was not a sound I hear often: a short, warbled sound.
a pup follows his parents, but is told *no*
I looked up to where the sound came from and saw him standing and apparently waiting close to where I had seen him disappear earlier. He had been calling to his mate, because within a minute, she joined him. As they headed off, one and then two of their pups attempted tagging along. They either were told *no* or knew they wouldn’t be able to keep up because they immediately turned back. Youngsters desperately want to be with their parents, but no means no, and they were left in the safety of their den area. That was all I saw of the parents that morning.
One pup of this litter is a runt. I’ve observed runts before. They often don’t play with litter mates because their size makes it not fun for them: who likes to be beat up all the time? So they frequently play by themselves. And they go off by themselves. I’ve also seen runts given special attention by their parents: the extra nurturing probably helps their survival. Mom was there today most likely to nurse them, and I saw Dad bring in solid food as I stated above. I wondered if the runt might have been unable to get his share of milk or of what was brought in by Dad? I thought of these things immediately after what I saw next.
Leaving the den took several tries, each ending with his return to the den. On the fourth try, he made it across 100 yards of ‘treacherous terrain’, including flower beds, trees, lawn, and paved paths.
Within the next ten minutes, I saw the runt heading off and away from his denning area. My eyes popped out of my head when I saw him because it was broad daylight and he was so tiny — so much smaller than other pups at this stage of their development — he was alone and completely vulnerable out in the open in a high foot-traffic and dog area, and in the daylight. I seldom see pups, much less traveling alone over vast expanses of open areas where they are totally visible. Of course, I kept my eye on him to see what he was up to. He moved with purpose, the same way you see the adults do: they always seem to know where they are going and what they are doing. Thrice he turned back after about 100 feet, as though he were trying to make up his mind whether to proceed. But the fourth time he reached the point where he had turned around before, and he made a sudden dash forward, across a network of paved paths and a large open lawn. I was able to watch him for about 100 yards before I lost track of him in the ivy. Ivy is a wonderful coverup for them. If a dog had been there, that might have been his end, and I prepared myself to grab any unleashed exploring dogs, but none happened by at the time.
My next post will be about dens, but here I need to state that immediate denning areas are larger than the size of football fields — they don’t simply encompass the temporary dugout birthing den — they are much larger areas than that. Parents will defend this football field size area and more than 1/4 mile beyond it. This youngster was well within his football field area, but because of his direct trajectory, the idea of his running away from home popped into my mind and made me smile. I wondered about the issues faced by a runt: his likely inability to compete for a fair share of the milk or food brought in. I wondered if there might be more going on than simply being a runt: such as illness? He was wobbly in his steps and rickety in his appearance, with bug bites over his back and watery eyes. That’s all I saw of him in the morning and those were my thoughts. No parent was present to lead him back or protect him had he needed it.
Dad waits outside den area for mom to finish nursing and then tires of waiting and leaves.
In the evening his parents returned and everything looked normal. It is customary for parents to leave their pups all day long. They tend to stop by very sporadically, including at dusk for nursing or feeding before heading out again. They are not at the densite often, though Dad in particular, will hang out within several hundred feet, snoozing away the daylight hours and performing his sentry duty. This evening when she came, Mom disappeared into the brush and Dad waited for her on the periphery. He waited and waited, and finally trotted on by himself because Mom was not appearing. I saw her later playing with two of her pups. I could see that Runt was not among them. I despaired for him.
very kitten-looking
The next morning I was there to observe any changes, and to docent, asking folks to please keep their dogs leashed. I saw Dad looking around, but he didn’t seem particularly concerned. Another thought popped into my head: Being the runt, this one looks somewhat like a kitten with its exceptionally short baby snout. What if some human were to *save* him by either adopting him or taking him into the SPCA or ACC. It is illegal to keep wildlife as pets here. In addition, separating a youngster from its family drastically diminishes the youngster’s chances of survival. Few animals taken to wildlife rehab centers survive in the long-run: they simply have not been given the skills to survive: only parents can do this. Please leave all found pups alone — you can only hurt their situation.
Runt is back and safe
I was back in the evening and heaved a sigh of relief when I glimpsed Runt. He’s there! For him, it was just another day, as if nothing special had happened over the last 24 hours — and it hadn’t — but for me, I wrote a whole post about him running away from home and ruminating about a runt’s welfare. But these little guys are hardy and resilient and much smarter than we think. However, it’s important to remember that pup survival rate can be as low as 20 to 30%.
Runt back home
PS: Although I distinguish coyotes by their faces, I have real trouble distinguishing pups. However, Runt stands apart and is very identifiable by his underdeveloped size and ragged/rickety appearance. He’ll probably emerge as King of the Forest some day!! :)
My last postings were harsh ones: they were about rupture and fighting between siblings one year apart in age: the younger one was driven away. Dispersal doesn’t always occur this way: Some youngsters just pick up and leave when their time-clocks tell them it’s time to go, making the process an easy and smooth one. And some linger around longer: I’ve seen dispersals take place as early as 9-months of age, and one case as late as 3-years-old who was ultimately driven out by his father. Some are driven out by another sibling, and this is what happened to that family in my last posting.
Here is another family where Older Brother grooms his Younger Brother. Grooming is equivalent to an invitation to stick around. The circumstances are quite different in this second family: here, Older Brother has moved into the vacated alpha male position, so he’s actually more like a surrogate father than a brother, helping to take care of the brood born two years after him whose father abandoned the family.
“Abandoned” is really not the right word because his mate at the time, who is mother to these two in this posting, never really welcomed him. He happened to come by during breeding season shortly after the previous alpha male died of old age. He filled that position for only a few months, but long enough to sire the yearling pups which include the one year old in this posting. That male was disliked and never really welcomed into the family: he was given the cold-shoulder, and never lovingly groomed as I see with other mated pairs. *Mom*, it happens, had her eyes on this three-year-old son of hers as her next mate and companion, and the two, in fact, are a pair now and had a litter this year. I have not seen the pups yet, but I saw Mom only a few days ago who is still lactating.
Younger brother grooms older brother here.
Anyway, the point is that older siblings can drive out younger members of the family rather viciously and harshly, OR they can establish warm bonds with their younger siblings. Here, you have the latter. The bond only works as long as this hierarchy is maintained, and in fact, grooming can also have a hint of domination and hierarchy: “You just sit there until I’m done grooming you.” But here, younger brother also spent time grooming his older brother: there is mutual respect and warmth between the two.
PS: These photos were taken at the cusp of darkness, in the waning light of twilight hours. It’s only with intense editing that I’ve been able to make them usable and come to life. They seem to work!
About My Site and Me: This website reflects my 17 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.
Coyote Yipps 