Coyote Yipps

Survival requires putting one’s best foot forward and dealing with a myriad of stressors. Of course, we want some stress — that’s natural — stress is what motivates and drives us to do something when we are hungry, sleepy, lonely, bored. Stressors also include diseases, injuries, territorial disputes, inter-family disputes, dispersal, raising and protecting pups.

Above and beyond these common, even if life-altering, pressures and life hurdles, the presence of humans and dogs, and all sorts of human activity, especially in denning areas, stress coyotes. For the most part, humans tend to be unthinking, unknowledgeable, or uncaring about wildlife situations and therefore add more hurdles to their survival. I’ll use recent events in Amber’s family as an example:

Left: Dog chases coyote in her denning area. Right: Unleashed dogs being approached and driven out. Even leashed dogs are approached by the coyotes: they are demanding dogs leave a sensitive area. For perspective, please remember that coyotes keep OTHER COYOTES out of their areas in the same way.

Last year Amber (alpha female b: 2018) picked a den-site off of a heavily used dog -path in a park. Why she picked this spot when there were many quieter, more isolated, and wilder areas around I can only guess at, and I would be pleased to get insights from other observers. Maybe the den itself already existed. Maybe the nearby pond as a water source was attractive. Maybe the den itself had few access points and could be well protected. Maybe the trashed food in the area was an attractant, or the area had tangled brambles to hide in, or it offered a good vantage point. Or maybe the dogs were slightly more controlled on this path in comparison to the wild and free running dogs in wilder parts of the park.

For whatever reason, this area was chosen as last year’s den site and remained the den site throughout that pupping season, in spite of there being a constant stream of dogs, many unruly, on the nearby paths. Most were leashed, but this doesn’t matter very much to coyotes in denning areas who don’t want ANY dogs anywhere closeby. Of course dogs and coyotes are notorious antagonistic enemies which can only be managed by keeping dogs away from them. Leashing is a tool for controlling the dog more than anything else: it gives you control for pulling your dog away from situations and prevents the dog from chasing them.

Amber to the left; Arrow her mate on the right

Defending their denning space is paramount to coyote parents. But it’s not just during the pupping season because coyotes firmly keep all outsider coyotes out of the area using the same methods: this is what keeps our coyote population in check: only one coyote family per a 2.3 square mile territory. This family of coyotes — parents and several yearlings — became fixated on letting the dogs and their owners know that they were there and didn’t appreciate the presence of dogs: they were protecting the pupping area. They would snarl at or encircle the dogs, and even attempt to butt up against or nip the tail end of a dog. They followed some of the dogs *escorting* them out of the area. Some people came to believe, inaccurately, that all coyotes were like this all the time. I put up denning signs in the area, but these were soon removed by the park department. When I asked that they be left up, they told me they wanted only their own signs up — and that they were working on new signs. Their signs never went up. So I spent my time out there where I docented and educated as many people as I could by talking directly to them, asking everyone to please leash up in the area because it was a den site, to please try walking elsewhere. Many folks listened, but some did not. That was last year.

Three year old Scarf and One year old Dart both serve as babysitters and aids to their parents.

Come Fall of last year, the park department decided to dredge the nearby pond and clear all vegetation in order to landscape it differently. We humans tend to think only in terms of ourselves and not of the many individuals and species who use the area. Bottom line: the coyotes’ territory was taken over by that project, so they now needed to expand their territory further east. But this entailed a chain reaction: the coyote family’s territory to the east was squeezed east, putting stress and pressure on that family, as well as on Amber’s family. Repercussions reverberated throughout.

I think there are six pups total this year.

Hence, the following year — this year — Amber had to find a new den location. She picked a location about half a mile away, on another pond where she had her pups in April of this year. But soon afterwards, although there were many dogs and their walkers in the area, it was two large incessantly intrusive dogs — dogs that deliberately went after the coyotes every time they came, chasing them wildly and for long stretches — that caused Amber to move again to a new location, this time with young pups in tow. Although I didn’t actually see them move, I did document another family’s move: it entailed Mom carrying each pup, one at a time the half-mile distance, over the period of about a week..

This new location, again, was in a dog play area. Every inch of the parks have become dog-play or dog-walking areas. Most regular dog walkers, fortunately were understanding and moved their dog-play group to another field, but some of those dog owners had/have a need to continually *test* the coyotes by walking towards them whenever they see them: they want to show the coyotes that they are the ones in-charge. This situation continues — we’re only into the first few months of the pupping season which lasts through the Fall.

May 14th there was an outdoor rock concert which sprawled to the den site. We have a handful of these loud concerts every year here in our San Francisco Parks and apparently the Mayor has proposed increasing them: please write and oppose the idea. It’s much cheaper for the city to use the parks rather than renting out venues. But it’s “an extractive exploitation of a common space that was intended for quiet outdoor recreation”, as a friend of mine put it.

Visitors to SF love the concerts, but many of us who live here are disturbed not only by the loud noise generated, but also by the parks being taken over for these money-making events which last many days. A gardener decided to measure the decibel level during a concert right at the densite: it came in at 90 dB. We don’t have to have these loud outdoor concerts in our parks where our wildlife is. Can’t we use our baseball stadium or the colosseum? Besides the loud noise and crowds of people into the late evening, there are miles of temporary cyclone fencing put up for the event which block many of wildlife’s habitual travel routes.

As I passed one of the den-sites on June 19th, I heard either firecrackers or gunshots — I recorded some of these deafening blasts which came one right after another (above recording). We humans may forget how super-sensitive coyote ears are compared to ours: just look at the size of their ears to know they are catching and processing sounds on a much higher and more intense level than we are. I myself find the concerts deafening; this is compounded many times over for coyotes. I can get away from it when I’ve had enough of it, but the coyotes, birds, owls, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, etc. cannot.

Fireworks will be coming up on the fourth of July: just think of your own dog and how terrified he/she becomes at fireworks noises. It’s compounded for coyotes who don’t understand it and have no way to escape it.

Evening of May 1, 2023, coyotes being harassed in the dark of night by the city

On top of this, our city apparently harasses the animals unnecessarily. I totally applaud our city’s support for coyote coexistence: in addition, they have helpfully cordoned off some trails to dogs during pupping season, and usually put up signs where needed. They’ve been pretty good about leaving the coyotes alone, which is what is needed. However, a month ago, I was stunned as I watched a large white city van, headlights on, roof emergency-light bar flashing, horn blaring as it approached and directed its powerful searchlights on a family of three adults who were gathering for their regular activities at dusk, minding their own business. In this case, two “officers” jumped out of their van and rushed the coyotes with high-powered flashlights, pursuing them. The father coyote circled around to defend the others— they were all in a frenzied state of *scared*. Several  bystanders yelled out at the officers to stop harassing the coyotes.

The next day I spoke to these same officers: by harassing the coyotes, all they were doing is teaching the coyotes to hide from their vans, their harassment wasn’t creating general *fear of humans* in the coyotes, if that was their intended goal. They told me that “they wanted folks to see that they were doing something about the coyotes.” They told me the coyotes were *approaching* people. Truth be told, this department relies totally on hearsay rather than actually getting out and looking at and assessing situations. Over ten years ago I pleaded with them to please, please come out and watch, but they preferred the hearsay which is so often sorely mistaken.

These coyotes indeed have approached dogs, even leashed dogs, to drive them away — their *approach* was not towards the owner. Coyotes might hang around areas where they are fed, especially if food is being tossed towards them, but it would need to be happening a lot for any coyote to approach a human, if it’s happening at all: this human activity is what needs to be addressed. The difference between a coyote approaching a dog vs. a person could be one of life or death for the coyote. If there is ever a need to “haze” coyotes, it has to be done properly. To be effective, hazing has to have a very specific purpose and be tied to a very specific place: it is counterproductive if used generally to instill fear of humans. Coyotes get used to it and begin to ignore it, so when a situation then arises where the tool is needed, it becomes useless. There is an expert in Canada who is willing to help train city officials.

In a similar vein, in 2019 I repeatedly watched these same vehicles with blinding searchlights as they followed a terrified coyote through the streets in the dark of night, and even directed that searchlight up a trail into a park where they saw the coyote go — it’s where the coyote lived. Is this supposed to make them wary of people? It doesn’t. It’s simple harassment.

So, this is urban stress. For perspective, in the wild/wild — outside of urban areas — the stresses of life for a coyote are extreme and come from wolves and mountain lions hunting them as prey, and from humans with their dogs or from helicopters hunting them down in farming and ranching areas: coyotes have been and still are the most persecuted animal in America. Coyotes may have moved to cities to escape some of that kind of stress, but they’ve traded it for different stresses caused by indifferent humans. The namesake for our city is St. Francis who is the patron saint of the environment and animals. Maybe we should help bring our city’s name and wildlife policies and treatment into better alignment.

The best “management” tool we have is educating the public about coyote behaviors, and letting the public know that their best option always is to avoid coyotes and walk away from them, especially if they have a dog. Denning areas should be avoided and feeding should stop because it can cause coyotes to hang around. In addition, intense park noises, such as outdoor concerts could be moved to more appropriate venues such as stadiums or colosseums that are meant to handle the noise and crowds, and maybe, with a little more understanding, the city can stop unnecessarily harassing the coyotes.