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!
Xochitl (so-cheel) was only six months oldwhen she was hit by a car, probably in the early evening as her body was cold by the time we found it predawn the next morning.
On Friday, before dawn, my friend Melina called me to let me know there was a dead coyote on the road. I was able to meet her 15 minutes later. I identify coyotes by their faces, but it’s almost impossible for me to identify a dead coyote by its face — I need to see the placement of his or her active eyes, among other things.
There had been two different coyote families living on opposite sides of that dangerous road, but recently we hadn’t seen any members of the first family and we kept noticing the second family — Scout’s family — encroach further and further into the first family’s territory. I wanted to confirm its identity by identifying the coyotes that were hanging out close-by.
Melina led me to where she had seen four coyotes up the hill; two were still there when we got there : they were lying down, watching the daybreak. I was able to capture this photo of their silhouettes only because the camera was aimed at the daybreaking sky — but it was too dark to identify them. Melina wondered if their lying there was connected to the dead coyote.
The two coyotes got up when they saw us and headed towards the road which they crossed close to where we picked up the dead pup. My camera would not focus because of lack of light and soon the coyotes were out of sight. Luckily, I spotted them again on the other side of the road, and was able to capture a couple of identifiable images in spite of no light and distance. Yes, this was Scout’s family: the coyotes who had been hanging out were Scooter (Dad) and Scout’s other pup. The two that were no longer there would have been Scout and a yearling.
What remains of Scout’s family now is herself and her mate, a two-year-old male, two yearlings, and one pup born this year. They cross a lot of roads as they cover their fragmented territory — two of them high-speed roads. Cars should be considered the coyotes’ main predator in urban areas.
Scooter (Dad) on the left; and Xiomar (see o mar, the surviving pup) to the right.
One of the most exciting parts of a coyote’s day is the nightly rendezvous. Here, family members who have been resting and sleeping during the daylight hours in spread-out parts of their park, come together to socialize and reconfirm their bonds and statuses before going off on their hunting treks. Each rendezvous can be quite different, some involving the whole family, some involving just parts of the family, some all wiggly and happy with play and games, and some not so. As the pups and yearlings grow, their relationships to each other develop in a gamut of directions. Here is one such rendezvous. Unless you know the individuals and can tell them apart, and know what is going on, these interactions and their nuances can be easily missed. They often occur within a split second, so a camera helps firm up what’s happening. The portion of the rendezvous that I saw and wrote about here lasted a little over an hour. I use a lot of photos to explain the abundance of interactions and activity.
The picture galleries can be clicked on to scroll through them at a higher resolution.
It was hot when I arrived at the park about half an hour before sunset. Mom was napping only about 50 feet from the path — unusually close to the path for her — while one of her yearling sons had begun some early exploring and hunting before the family rendezvous. The few humans, some with dogs, who passed by were a quiet bunch. Many did not even notice the coyotes. The sleeping coyote raised her head off and on to watch some of the passers-by, especially if their unleashed, active dogs caught her attention, and the yearling wandered over to a secluded spot in the field where he sprawled out in the growing shade to cool off. It appeared that not much was going to happen with the coyotes socially until the evening wore on a little more — everyone was waiting.
Yearling brother #1 wandering around aimlessly waiting
But then a second male sibling appeared. He looked around, assessed that nothing was going on and found a spot where he, too could bide his time until the evening meetup.
Brother #2
And that’s when both brothers set eyes on each other, and things were not calm from then on. These two brothers used to be best buddies, but over time this devolved to where now Brother #1 can’t stand the presence of Brother #2. So, Brother #1 came charging towards brother #2 who knew exactly what to expect because the behavior had become routine by now. In response, Brother #2 crouched, drew into himself, and fell to the ground on his back while Brother #1 stood over him with hackles up and snarling menacingly. When Brother #2 found an opportunity, he made a dash to get away as Brother #1 watched him almost disdainfully (see photos immediately below).
Brother #1 slams down brother #2 who then slips away.
Brother #2 continued heading away from his tormentor towards Mom who was still lying on her side in the grasses not far away. Brother #1 followed him. As they approached her, they hugged the ground and crouched, respectfully acknowledging her alpha status. When this ranking is no longer respected, if it comes to that, the youngster will be pushed out of the territory.
Approaching Mom requires a show of submission
But the two brothers were dealing also with their own interpersonal dynamic. In the first row of three photos below, Brother #1 makes an effort to divert Brother #2 away from Mom by getting between them. This is a coyote tactic I’ve seen before for keeping a rival away from another coyote. But Brother #2 still had his eyes on Mom, and was not giving up on reaching her as seen in photo #4. By photo #5 Mom snarls at what she knows is going on. She doesn’t normally care if they fight, but she doesn’t want it happening right next to her, so she squelches the activity by grooming the yearling closest to her. Grooming is often used to keep an underling coyote still and force submission — the youngster has to put up with it.
Two yearling brothers interact between themselves and Mom (see text)
But the very minute Mom stopped grooming her yearling son in order to scratch herself, Brother #1 took the opportunity to attack his sibling again.
When Mom turns to scratch herself, bullying Brother #1 attacks his sibling.
Above are a VIDEO and a few photos of the short but telling fight. When the fight subsided, Brother #2 walked away, but both brothers obviously retained stress from the event: Brother #1 started pulling up dry grasses and chewing on them nervously, whereas Brother #2 lay down closer to Mom and did the same thing. I wonder how much of Brother #1’s behavior is built in: this antagonism with siblings seems to be one of the factors that leads to dispersal. These siblings are 18 months old — the right age for dispersal.
Shortly after this, and as they were calming down, Dad sauntered into view.
Dad
Brother #1 seemed to have moved out of the area by this time — I did not see him again before I left. Brother #2 (below) greeted his approaching Dad appropriately by crouching low and reaching up to lick his muzzle, and then Dad hurried off to greet Mom, with Brother #2 at his side.
Brother #2 greets Dad.
Mom and Dad with yearling between them.
When they caught up with Mom they exchanged nose touches, with youngster Brother #2 in-between, remaining in a crouched, close-to-the-ground position. The youngster appeared anxious to make contact with Mom — maybe this is what drove Dad again to make sure the youngster knew his place in the family scheme. The youngster obliged by flopping to the ground on his back.
Mom and Dad with Brother #2
And here is another VIDEO showing more of the above. The video actually consists of three clips from this rendezvous. 1) Mom, Dad, and Brother #2, showing how reactive Mom got when her son touched her — yikes! Family life is not all warm and cuddly as many people might think. 2) As it gets later and darker, a third brother arrives and is greeted by brother #2 and Dad; 3) People are still out walking at this time, and Dad diverts them away from the rest of the family.
Everything then calmed down and three of them — Dad, Brother #1 and Brother #3 — spaced themselves at comfortable non-interacting distances, yet together, ready to go when the cue would be given by Dad for the evening hunting trek.
There’s plenty of space between them now
My camera caught a few more interactions, such as the teasing and playing below, and then it was too dark, so I left.
Calm bantering continues on and off until I can no longer see in the dark.
Last shot of Brother #2 as I leave. The camera, amazingly, captured this and adjusted the light.
Scout’s story continues, but without the obvious adventures she had in her early life, or maybe they are continuing in a more subtle way, below most human’s radars. I see her only periodically where she had her pups this year, and just as periodically in her old hangouts where I used to see her almost single day. Instead, she’s become a stealthy shadow which my field camera occasionally picks up on, and who I see in person only a couple of times a month, if that. But I know from other people who know her that she has been moving deeper into her new territory which has/does belong to another coyote family. Will this be a territorial takeover? We’ll see. Remember that she had a baptism by fire in territorial battles and takeovers when she was younger, so she’s well seasoned if this is the direction she’s taking.
Over the last month she has appeared a couple of times during daylight hours at her old, original territory. During one of those appearances, she spewed her anger and displeasure to the one dog on her nemesis list. I wasn’t there to see or hear it, but I was told about it and sent a video. I guess she’ll never give that battle up. Interestingly, her two-year-old son who serves as the mainstay of the old fort, has taken on doing the exact same thing to the exact same dog, most likely in imitation of his mother. Coyotes do pass things along to their offspring in an almost “cultural” sort of way.
On her second daylight appearance, I found her and this same two-year-old son curled up in balls where they used to hangout regularly over a year ago on their old territory. She slept — with one eye open — right through my arrival there, not budging at all, but HE slipped off warily into the bushes where he remained hidden from view.
Two-year-old slithers into a quieter space, while Mom keep her eyes closed.
Meanwhile she went back to sleep. It was before most dog walkers were out and about — she knew she had nothing to worry about until they started arriving.
BUT, soon the dogs arrived. These three photos above shows her lifting her head, and then slowly spiraling her way to a standing position and finally “messaging” an approaching dog to leave her alone. She really didn’t want to move, but with the dog slowly approaching, and her son on the other side of her, she put in the effort to look scary. The dog walker got the message if the dog didn’t and complied by going the other way, and Scout went back to snoozing for about 20 more minutes. That’s when sirens sounded.
Interestingly, these coyotes have never vocalized a whole lot during daytime here in a response to sirens — these have more often kept their vocalizations to night and twilight hours. I wonder if daytime vocalizing is reserved for strongly established territories that the coyotes are able to defend? For many years, Scout was a loner here and she rarely howled during the day, even to sirens, unless she was chased by dogs, particularly her nemesis I mentioned above.
Left: stretching in all directions; Middle: looking over at her son and subtly communicating with him; Right, she begins to howl.
Anyway, a siren sounded when I was there, and Scout got up, taking her time about it. She stretched backwards and forwards and upwards. She stood there a moment as though debating whether or not to howl, and then looked over to where she knew her son was hiding, possibly signaling him to join her, and she began howling in response to that siren.
After she began howling, he then joined her from the distance: you can hear him in the video. After a minute, she walked in the direction of his howls and met up with him. By that time the howling from both of them had ended, and they both walker off together.
Scout walks with her son to keep him company as he leaves. Her son is the bigger coyote to the left.
She then returned alone, and, as seen below, stretched again in all directions and again looked over her shoulder to where her son was, assuring herself that he was happy and safe, and then she fell asleep again — with one eye again partially open. I waited a little while for something to happen, but nothing did, so I left..
A couple of days later I found her and her mate at their new territory at dusk, or maybe it’s their territory’s extension. I saw them as silhouettes, but the camera sometimes does better than my eyes and captured the images below. She’s with her mate in the first photo. They’ve always worked together intuitively and in tandem, almost as one. I love watching them work together, communicate, and even look at each other. He looks so much bigger than her when they are next to each other.
And below she’s doing what mothers do: grooming the one yearling youngster that went with her to the new territory (or extension of her old one). I see her two pups very seldom which is a good thing. Pups throughout the city this year are running the gamut from casual acceptance of their surroundings which include people, to continued careful wariness of them. I don’t know where Scout’s pups this year fit into the continuum, but I think it’s a good thing that I haven’t seen them.
There is a lot of misinformation, speculation, and sensationalism in this article. The sad part is that a lot of it is supplied by our ACC and by an organization that does not know our San Francisco coyotes first-hand: Why would they make such incindiary statements? I need more room to comment than allowed in the comments section, so I’ve posted my comment here:
1) The article states: “To some wildlife experts, the warning is more urgent than ever, since the death of an alpha male coyote like Carl may spur a breeding frenzy”. My response: I’ve read such possibilities in academic studies, but the alpha male’s death by gunshot, over a year ago did no such thing. A new male soon took the killed coyote’s place, and indeed both the alpha female and her daughter became mothers together on this one territory for just this one breeding season. AND THAT IS THE END OF THE DOUBLE FAMILY. That alpha male has left and all I see these days is the daughter and a male who may be her brother — these are younger coyotes who were born on and grew up on the territory and are now taking it over as the reigning alphas. Again, we have a stable pair in the eastern part of the park and this is due to their territoriality. With more food available, such as might happen with a big increase in feeding, what might happen is that the territories could shrink in size so that eventually we might have more and smaller territories. Right now we have about 20 territories. But it will not spur a breeding frenzy. Coyotes die and are replaced as a normal and continuing life process.
2) When the alpha male approached the child — note that the child was not touched, was not “attacked” — he was protecting his denning area. ALL alpha males and females protect their denning areas. The denning area, with three month old pups was right there. NO signs were up about a den. I offered to docent, hand out flyers and put up more signs, but no one wanted to respond to me. It’s the fault of the city more than anything else for not educating the public and putting up prominent and visible signs: they should have known about this very natural denning behavior and prepared the public for it. The year before, the city cordoned off a section of the botanical garden that included a den; but they did nothing of the sort in 2021.
3) Contrary to what the article states, the killed alpha coyote’s mate did not move into Corona Heights. She remained and remains in the Lake Merced area with a new mate. Rather, the killed alpha coyote’s SON has continued as the new Corona Heights alpha male while his dad, before being killed, moved to the Botanical Garden. Please note that Carl himself, when he moved into the Botanical Garden of Golden Gate Park, took the place of the previous alpha male there who probably died. This is how it works: vacancies are filled.
4) The article states: “This rapid cycle of denning and procreating . . .” — My response: WHAT is this supposed to mean? There is NO rapid cycle of denning and procreating. Litters are born just ONCE a year. The first litter we’ve had at Corona Heights after two years of no pups was this year: two pups were born this year. This is normal. There is absolutely NO “rapid cycle of denning and procreating” occurring at Corona. Whoever is supplying this information doesn’t know what they are talking about. Carl’s litter in 2021 — he was killed when they were 3 months old — was seven, which is the upper limit in size for a litter, but most of the pups didn’t survive. The information and language in the Chronicle article is irresponsible and provocative.
5) The article states: “Some have suggested that one of Carl’s sons successfully “seduced” the dead father’s girlfriend. And coyotes are constantly migrating into the city, probably roaming from the Marin Headlands and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.” My response: Again, there is absolutely no truth to either of these statements. Carl’s son who was two years old last year paired up with a 1 year old most likely from Glen Canyon. They did not have pups last year — there were no pups at Corona last year or the year before. They had pups for the first time ever this year: they had two pups. And for the second statement, please tell me which coyotes have migrated into the city from Marin — I don’t believe there are any.
6) The best way to avoid encounters with coyotes is to stay away from them, especially if you have a dog. Coyotes are very defensive against dogs who constantly go after them: they’ve been taught to be this way by aggressive dogs who go after them, chase them. Small dogs and children must be kept away from coyotes: this means you have to be vigilant if you are in a coyote area: all coyote areas should have signs saying this. If you start hazing — scaring off — coyotes indiscriminately, they eventually get used to it. Therefore, they should be hazed or scared away only when they are actually approaching your dog who hopefully is leashed and next to you.
7) The “stakeout” talked about in the article by Captain Amy Corso of ACC was set up by me. I did all the work. She had the badge and gave the ticket. I found the feeder, I found where the food was being left, I found the time the food was being left, and I found where the Captain could hide. ACC is not very good at giving credit where credit is due.
8) Coyotes don’t “drift through” San Francisco, as ACC states in the article. We have a stable situation of families on territories and very few transients. The population does not peak in September, in fact, that’s when it diminishes as the yearlings begin to disperse. Peak of population is right after the pups are born in April.
9) The article states: “Brace for what could be an eventful mating season”. My response: It sounds like sensationalism to me. WHERE does this information come from?
10) OF COURSE a new male entered Carl’s territory — vacated niches are always filled. The new male in Corona happened to be Carl’s son who actually grew up there. He filled Carl’s empty spot. This is normal behavior: I’ve seen it in all the parks. After Carl was killed, a new male replaced him in Golden Gate Park, having moved there from Glen Canyon.
About My Site and Me: This website reflects my 16 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 
