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!
17 Jun 2026 6 Comments
in Sparks, Sparks family Update, Wired
I’ve followed Sparks’ story since he was born in 2019 in Glen Canyon — much less so recently, but here’s an update nevertheless. He’s seven years old now. He’s thriving as the alpha male of his territory in the Presidio where he’s on his fifth litter. Last year he had seven pups, only 3 seem to have survived, two of them remain on the territory, and I’ve named them Scruggs and Flatt. Scruggs, well, he’s scruggly (scraggly?), but this becomes apparent only on close examination: he had a severe displaced femur break when he was younger leaving the bone end pushing against the skin — this is how it healed. Interestingly, neither his gait nor his stance revealed this early injury — he seems to have recovered to 100% operability. Flatt is the other remaining yearling brother in the family.
Sparks’ long-time mate — since 2021 — is Wired, who is now 10 years old. Sadly, both of these alphas, along with their yearlings, have cases of incipient mange which I’m sure makes life more difficult for them, but otherwise they are operating as a normal family with a new litter this year.
This photo (above) shows him in June of 2026: he was trekking with his mate, Wired, whose images I’ve added here below. She is TEN years old now and has been stuck with that inoperable collar for 7 years of her life now. It was supposed to self-release after one year, but it malfunctioned, so it’s stuck on her. She had pups this year, but I don’t know how many yet — I will add that when I find out. Wired’s early history is intimately associated with Scout’s whose territory she tried to take over: for a long summary of that, here is a writeup: https://coyoteyipps.com/2022/06/18/finding-scout/
Their two yearlings I have come across are Scruggs and Flatt. I’ve posted the circumstances under which I observed them this year (2026) on my Instagram account: Scruggs: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZk_46Rgc3Y/?img_index=1, and Flatt: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZk_46Rgc3Y/?img_index=1
Sparks’ Story Back in Time:
Early in life, Sparks was plagued with severe leg injuries. During dispersal he suffered a compound fracture which he probably would not have survived had not a couple of caring Good Samaritans nursed him for six weeks as he recovered. He’s had pups that were crippled. I’ve wondered if all these injuries are normal, or if inbreeding or some other agent might be causing them.You can see the bone sticking up under his skin: I looked this up — it’s a compound break, and although this X-Ray is not his, it would have been similar.
Of interest is the leg injuries and crippling that has occurred in him and his offspring over the years, and I wonder if there is some kind of genetic component: I don’t know the answer. A son of his from last year had a compound break in his femur which healed in the same crooked way as Sparks’ own injury. There have also been crippling neurological issues in his offspring.
Rather than writing his whole story over again, in this posting I’m providing the links to the stories I wrote about him as his life progressed — the story is repeated over and over in each posting, with the additional update each year.
Sparks is one of seven siblings born to Chert and Silver in 2019 in Glen Canyon, and here is his genealogy: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/06/23/the-fifth-generation-of-one-direct-family-line-documented/#jp-carousel-55731
Here is his earliest leg injury that I recorded: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/03/21/frantic-concern-for-an-injured-sibling/
Sparks’ beginning to disperse with his sister, Cat: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/08/02/two-youngsters-take-a-tentative-step-towards-dispersal/
Sparks in September of 2020, into his seventh month of dispersal: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/09/08/update-into-sparks-seventh-month-of-dispersal/
2021: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/04/04/sparks-a-happy-springtime-update/
2022: https://coyoteyipps.com/2022/07/15/sparks-presidio-family-an-update/
and: https://www.instagram.com/p/CigbORyJhCY/
2023: https://coyoteyipps.com/2023/07/08/sparks-update/
2024: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/01/catching-up-on-sparks/
2025: https://coyoteyipps.com/2025/08/12/sf-coyote-territorial-map-and-family-situations-to-summer-2025/
================
Some of Wired’s early story I told through her early involvement with Scout in 2019:
Wired attempts a territorial takeover: [https://coyoteyipps.com/2019/03/03/a-protracted-territorial-feud/]
Wired finally finds a mate and territory in the Presidio: [https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/05/28/setting-up-house-in-the-presidio/]
How a radio-collar benefitted Wired: [https://coyoteyipps.com/2019/03/08/detrimental-effects-of-radio-collars/]
[https://coyoteyipps.com/2019/05/28/coyote-territorial-movements-scouts-story/]
[https://coyoteyipps.com/2019/06/30/scout-update-heartwarming-and-heartbreaking/]
03 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
[Reposted from my Instagram account]
This video began as 15 minutes in length. By cutting and speeding, I’ve reduced it to 2:45 minutes, which I think is manageable on Instagram. The parents are mostly guarding, but Mom messages a dog at 0:50, her mate deals with a dog in some capacity at 1:12, and at 2:02 a dog casually enters their denning area. The end shows what they are guarding.
FIRST DAY
0:00 First Dad does guard duty.
0:09 He leaves
0:12 Mom takes over guard duty
0:50 she messages a dog with a halloween cat scare. This segues into
1:03 kicking dirt angrily and ferociously to enforce her message, and then she charges at the dog on the other side of the railing
1:12 she appears to watch her mate negotiating with a dog — trying to keep him away, but she sees it’s not going well and so she quickly ducks into safety as her mate whizzes past her, probably in fear of the dog’s owner. I’ve stopped the motiion here because it happens so fast that you might otherwise miss it.
1:19 both parents come out to guard together — here I super-speed up the video because it’s repetitious
1:48 Mom leaves leaving Dad in charge of guarding alone
1:54 Mom returns and they both leave together
FOUR DAYS LATER
2:02 a dog ENTERS the denning area but soon leaves. Dad can’t have this, so at
2:14 Dad comes out to guard. He mostly sleeps, but you can be sure he’s ready for the next intruder. Again, I super-speeded up this section of the video.
2:41 He eventually leaves without incident.
2:44: Their pups appeared for the first time in my field camera that evening.
Again, I want to repeat and emphasize what I posted last time. Parents are *extremely* protective. They are extremely suspicious of every dog, no matter its size, and that its purpose is to grab one of their pups. This is why they are so proactively protective when it comes to dogs. In the wild, their pups would make a good and easy meal, even for small mammals like weasels. So please understand their behavior from their perspective and give them a break: walk away from them whenever you see one and keep your dogs away from them.
