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!
January 11, Saturday 3 to 4:30 pm Golden Gate Valley Branch Library 1801 Green Street, San Francisco 415 355-5666
January 22, Wednesday, 6:30 to 7:45 Glen Park Branch Library 2825 Diamond Street, San Francisco 415 355-2858
February 15, Saturday, 3 to 4:30, Bernal Heights Branch Library 500 Cortland Ave., San Francisco 415 355-2810
March 1, Saturday, 3 to 4:30 Presidio Branch Library 3150 Sacramento Street, San Francisco 415 355-2880
March 12, Wednesday at Noon, Presidio, [Private Group]
April 1, Tuesday, 6 to 7:30 pm North Beach Branch Library 350 Columbus Avenue, SF 415 355-5626
Pupping season is fast approaching in April: it might be a good idea to learn something more about our coyotes than the very preventable dog/coyote incidents you hear about in the news.
I’ll be explaining coyote population structure and distribution, family life and interactions, and how to understand and diminish dog encounters — all based on my own observations here in San Francisco. I’ll also talk briefly about the coyotes in the immediate neighborhood.
First come, first serve, so be sure to come early to claim your space!
From my previous talk at the Park branch library: “The Coyote Lady”, Janet Kessler is a self-taught naturalist who has spent nearly two decades conducting daily field research documenting urban coyote behavior and family life. In this presentation, Kessler will share her first-hand information, compassion and love for the animals, as she tells you what you need to know about them.
Kessler will discuss where they are, who they are and how to get along. She will also describe what to expect if you have a dog and you encounter a coyote.
Documenting her experiences with a camera, Kessler has come to know and identify most of the coyotes and their families here in San Francisco. She has been able to map the general extent of each of their territories and some of their dispersals here in the City. Kessler has collaborated with Dr. Benjamin Sacks’ genetic lab at UC Davis where the DNA from scat she collected is being analyzed.
Video posted on NextDoor (see below) taken by a bystander who claims the coyotes in this video followed and then cornered a dog and walker . The video repeats several times, giving you an opportunity to see what happens.
Reports of dog/coyote incidents this year seemed to be up, including three small dogs killed at Crissy Field by a coyote. But are there more such incidents? Whether there are or not, all could have been prevented had there been fuller education and effective signage.
Take Crissy Field. Coyotes have appeared on Crissy Field regularly for many years. Lack of adequate signage, along with only a few reported coyote sightings during doggie play time, probably contributed to folks feeling that, since it was a designated *off leash* area, it was safe for their little dogs. But an *off leash* area means nothing more than that dog-owners are not going to be ticketed here for having their dogs off-leash. It does not imply that the area is free of coyotes nor necessarily safe for little dogs. Even in off-leash areas, an owner must always stay vigilant and constantly supervise their pets for many reasons: including danger from larger dogs an yes, coyotes — and children notoriously get nipped by dogs. Coyotes and dogs don’t like each other and don’t get along. Coyotes live throughout the entirety of San Francisco, so small dogs especially should never be left unsupervised wherever they are.
Because of the loss of 3 small dogs to coyotes in Crissy Field, coyotes became a political issue with pressure put on the City to do something about the coyotes. The city bowed to the pressure and went out and shot the coyote culprit, and signs have finally been posted in the area.
For months afterwards, some of the dog owners wanted more done than this. They banned together, vowing to keep the Crissy Field issue alive. They wanted *something done* about the coyotes: they wanted them culled, relocated, neutered — anything to diminish or get rid of them. They claimed that, because of more reported sightings and more reported incidents, that we were being overrun by coyotes. But I haven’t found evidence of this in the territories I keep track of.
When I’ve asked specifically WHERE in the city someone has seen *more* coyotes, they list several different places in the city where they have seen one or several, and then rely on the sightings by other people to support their belief that we are being overrun by coyotes who, to them, have become a problem. I know most of the coyote families and their territories, and I can vouchsafe that there are not more in the seventeen territories I know well: just one family per territory. Yes, sometimes the coyotes become more visible, and there have been regular *hotspots* which they frequent for stretches of time during the long denning season, but this doesn’t equate to an increase in their population. The population for each family/territory is a routinely fluctuating one, expanding during the pupping season and then shrinking back down to the alpha parents with often several yearlings lingering to help with the following year’s pups before moving on. Territories are owned by an alpha breeding pair and their pups and yearlings (yearlings are pups born the previous year) who generally disperse sometime before two years of age. Those who survive cars appear to move south and out of the city because all territories are already taken within the city proper.
As part of the effort to keep the *dangerous coyote* story alive, the incidents of the three dogs killed at Crissy Field were reported in at least four different newspapers. On NextDoor, there have been many postings of simple sightings informing folks to “please watch your pets” — these are valuable notices to people with pets. But these postings inevitably attract doomsday comments and opinions, many of them fear-mongering from people who don’t want coyotes here.
In addition, some mere sightings have been spun into postings of tall tales — on the same level as the runner in Marin who claimed to have been attacked by a coyote which turned out to be fabricated [https://coyoteyipps.com/2022/08/21/attacker-or-attacked/]. Some of the postings about coyotes chasing dogs and their walkers, or coyotes killing dogs, are simply not true, and I now wonder how many of these stories have been *enhanced* or totally made up. Since these are reports I’m seeing on NextDoor, I can image that the same reports are sent to Animal Care and Control (ACC). ACC does not vet what they hear — I know this from personal first-hand experience. So their statistics are not reliable: garbage in = garbage out. [Vetted: critically reviewed and evaluated for official approval or acceptance]
Here is one such posting on NextDoor which attracted a slew of fearful comments and misinformed speculations. Fortunately, as many commentators saw through to the reality. I hope folks are aware of these for what they are.
Martha: Edited • Saw this at 7:40am this morning. They were chasing and trying to corner a man and his 50 lb dog (seen towards end of video in yellow shirt). I walk my 12 lb yorkie after 9am for this reason and avoid walks after sun down. This is not the first time they’ve approached humans here. There’s a daycare 100 ft away, too. Near 18th St and Carolina St., between two apartment buildings. Edit: I was at the gym and noticed the man run across the paseo with his dog first. He looked concerned and was looking over his shoulder. At that point I suspected a coyote would show up and I took out my phone since my neighbors also reported seeing coyotes here. I didn’t expect to see two hunting together. I stopped my workout to go scare the coyotes but by the time I got outside they all were gone. Edit 2: The man did not stumble upon the coyotes. They followed him. I have a newer post that shows from my building’s security footage that they were on his tail.
Take a careful look at the video to see what is actually going on. Here is a fearful commentator and then my reply to her: Gloria: This is very scary. Coyotes are out of control in San Francisco. These coyotes obviously wanted that man’s dog. My reply: Gloria, “Obviously”? I think you need to look at the video again: the coyotes in fact are obviously AVOIDING the dog. When they see what way the man is going, they go the other way.
Gayle: 10/24 at 1:00am on De Haro & 17th Street someone’s dog was killed by two coyote’s who chased it into a corner and mutilated the poor pup. The sounds were spine chilling. I ran outside with a broom to help but the dog was already dead and being carried away. How is this acceptable? This is a city, not a National Park. I am an animal person all the way, but living with wild animals is NOT OK. We must call the police and complain. There are now 4 dens on Potrero Hill. I see them weekly now.
This is a third person reporting on a supposition or presumption, without checking out the details — and it was posted at least three times. There was a *sound*. No one saw an incident. I myself have heard raccoons emit spine chilling sounds when they are attacked by a coyote. No dog owner has come forth saying their dog was mauled or missing — i.e., this would have been a first person account. Few dogs in fact are out at 1:00 am in the morning, especially running loose, whereas this is prime time for raccoons to be out. So I’m doubting the report and calling it “garbage in” barring further evidence. But it has generated a large number of comments and amplified existing fears.
Botanical Garden Incident of June 30, 2024: In addition to the Crissy Field coyote/dog incients, we’ve had several instances of bad news over the summer concerning the coyotes. In the Botanical Garden at the end of June a coyote bit a small child at a daycamp. The repercussion from the City was to shoot three coyotes from one coyote family indiscriminately. I knew about the den there: I had seen Mom coyote lactating and the rest of the family come out at dusk for their activities. But the City denied there was a den there, and said the bite had been caused by a rare “aggressive coyote”. In fact many people, including the City, knew there was a den there, so my question to them was: Why were not denning signs posted? Why weren’t the camp counselors educated adequately? Precautions could have been taken to prevent such an incident, but were not. Then in the aftermath, we learned that THREE coyotes were shot. Why three, I had to ask. In fact, one of those shot was a three-month old pup: what other proof does the city want that a den was there?, but the City never corrected their misinformation, even though they knew the facts.
Lastly, and impressively, The Chronicle on October 30, 2024 in their article by Nora Mishanec entitled “Reports of S.F. coyote encounters exploded this year. What should the city do about it?” The article was sensationalist and fear provoking more than anything else.
The word *exploded* stands out, and implies a huge increase in both sightings and actual incidents., if not even an *explosion* in their population. The word *explosion* is most often associated with population numbers. Further reading shows there were 600 reports of encounters. C’mon everyone! This is less than two sightings/encounters a day in a population of 90 adult coyotes and a human population of 788K in 2024 and a dog population of over 200K. One has to question the newsworthiness of what the Chronicle writes, except to fan the flames of controversy and raise the level of fear. Here is the article for anyone interested: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/coyote-encounters-animal-control-19855206.php. There is also a map of the 690 sightings: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2024/coyote-sightings-sf/. I want readers to beware that these sightings have very little to do with the coyotes and their population, and much more to do with the few humans who decide they need to report them: most people don’t report sightings, but people who are afraid have been encouraging everyone, on NextDoor, to report these. Where groups of individuals are pressing folks to report these, of course, there are more reports.
What I’m trying to point out is that coyote sightings, coyotes looking at you, coyotes walking in your same direction across the street or even 30 feet away, should not be *alarming incidents*, and neither should coyotes following or escorting dogs. These things happen regularly and should be expected in an urban environment. Dog owners can keep situations from escalating by keeping their dogs from barking at or lunging at coyotes: these things incite coyotes to react negatively: walking on and away from the coyotes — without running — almost always de-escalates tensions between dogs and coyotes.
Fall is coming along well. Lots of doings with the dogs patrolling properties as usual. We recently wrapped up a 3 week “investigation” into 4 coyote packs who were accused of livestock predation on sheep.
We worked with cooperating landowners, and some biologist students, as well as Ranchers.
This is progress, as historically the answer to sheep being killed is to hunt every coyote within 100 miles. This only leads to the surviving coyote booming in population, and never solves issues or give solutions.
I am proud of my dogs in helping clear accused coyote…though they don’t see it that way.
The sheep ranch sustaining losses is surrounded by a 5,000 acre Quail Hunting Preserve. Coyote have fairly large packs there. 4 distinct packs or family groups. They don’t affect Quail numbers. In fact, they removed feral cats that were affecting Quail introductions.
Proving coyote innocence takes time, skill, and impartiality. We WANT to be accurate and find the raider, who risks all local canids being suspect, ranch dogs, coyote, or wolves.
The Pack and I travel miles and miles and miles along tracks and trails. The dogs mark and leave scent as we travel, advertising our route. Of course, this greatly irritates coyote, but they come along after we move on. The marking insults between dogs and coyote are kept track of and studied.
Scat doesn’t lie. It is irrefutable proof of diet. All 4 packs of coyote, for 3 weeks, countered my pack with markings, scat, and vocalizations. Not a single wool encased scat.
Deer hair (deer hunter scraps or road kills) are in some, but overwhelmingly…all 4 packs show vole and gopher diet. And a few late berries and spawned salmon.
When we finally did locate wool encased scat, biologist students brought trail cams and liberally set up in that area.
Long story short, not a single coyote scat with wool for over 5,000 acres was ever found.
But it seems 3 pet dogs let loose in evenings are our proven suspects. Trail cam and scat proof literally from pastures to their country home.
It’s very easy to suspect coyote in pet or livestock raiding. And it does happen. But most people would be shocked…far more often…its unsupervised dogs killing livestock.
Summary: I’ve spent a lot of time filling in family details here, but the gist of what I’m saying is that we’ve had a single, long-term, nuclear family, owning one of the territories here in San Francisco, generationally now for four generations. At the beginning of this year, 2024, disruption was caused in the family’s tight hold of the territory when an alpha male, Scowl, left and the aging alpha female, Chert, headed into her twilight years, even contracting a severe case of mange at the end of her life. Another family came in and pupped here, but they did so without kicking out the resident offspring or weakened alpha female who had been here so long. Now, as winter 2024 approaches, that “intruder” family appears to have left, and it’s Chert’s offspring who again — without Chert — seem to have control over the territory: they are fourth-generation owners (and I’m not talking about 4th litter owners, I’m talking about a territory passed down from mother to son to his daughter and now to her daughter = four generations).This is the history of one territory over 20 years.
Our long-term alpha female, Chert, is no longer around, having reached the ripe old age of eleven and a half years. A daughter and son appear to be the new alphas in the territory — so we are stable again. But Chert’s last waning months led to a disorganized territorial situation!
Chert’s 2-year old son and daughter are behaving like the alphas now
A Little History: Chert’s story actually goes back to 2013 when she was born, and her family’s goes back to 2004 in this park. But it was in 2009 that I started focusing on the relationships of the individuals living on this territory at the time, and figuring out the extent of that territory. The territory is average in size for an urban territory. However, territories here in the city of San Francisco and most urban areas run less than half the size of rural ones, possibly due to a ready supply of food — it turns out that human refuse figures larger than thought [Tali Caspi, details TBP]. The territory covers four of what I call *pods* or *hubs* towards the center of the city — these are substantial parks — and only one family has owned it, generationally, for all that time: nuclear family members are the only ones ever seen throughout the extent of the territory, with the exception of very temporary suitors or dispersers. In San Francisco, we have approximately 20 territories — each about the size of the Presidio — each occupied by one family.
Above is the early genealogy I put together, showing how the family evolved: it shows that there has been plenty of inbreeding within this one territory. Dr. Ben Sacks, the geneticist at UC Davis assured me that inbreeding was not a problem as long as new blood eventually entered the scene, and it always has eventually.
In 2009, the territory was owned by a family that consisted of the Maeve, the alpha female, Toughy was the alpha male and there were two male pups — Silver and Bruno. Toughy’s life ended suddenly and brutally when he ingested rat poison before his offspring were weaned. A small dog suffered the same fate at the same location.
Maeve taught me a lot about coyotes, but mostly about the alphas total awareness and control of their territories: she knew every dog and their human, and she knew which dogs — most were off leash — were troublemakers. She would sit high on a knoll and watch the early morning activity, while at the same time keeping her eyes on something in the distance: it took me awhile to see that those were her pups over there hidden in the bushes.
Maeve with her two sons, Silver and Bruno in 2009
As these two pups grew older, they started their own little forays throughout the park. Over time, I watched these best buddies become arch enemies. It very obviously involved vying for the attention and affection of their mother. Bruno just wanted to get along, but Silver did not want him around and in the end drove him out with bites causing yelps of pain from Bruno. Silver then hung around and for two years romanced his mother who finally accepted him as her mate when he turned four. So for three years, we had no pups in the park, and a very young alpha male, yet this same family continued to own and control it.
In 2013, Silver and Maeve produced a litter of three pups. This was Silver’s first litter and Maeve’s second: Chert, Gumnut and Pinecone. Pinecone was not very social and kept to himself. I think he had a somewhat antagonistic personality because he was actually driven away by his father and Chert. I wondered if Chert might have been retaliating from some sort of mistreatment by him: yes, coyotes keep score!
Chert on the left and her long-time mate Silver. They were together for 7 years until he passed away.
So the two remaining pups, Gumnut and Chert, became inseparable best buddies. I thought they were going to disperse and find a new territory together, but it was not to be. Their father, Silver, had other plans. Silver began breaking up the bond between the two: he incessantly put Gumnut down and hovered between the two siblings to keep them apart, all the while showing great fondness for Chert and putting up with her teasing naughtiness which normally might have elicited harsh disciplinary action. At the same time, Gumnut became extremely submissive — he was doing everything he could to remain on the territory and close to Chert — he wasn’t allowed to show any dominance over Chert — or Silver would land on him by forcing him onto is back in submission. Of course, this caused Chert to value Gumnut even more.
In the Spring of 2015 a singleton pup was born to Chert. Gumnut was still around, hanging in there: his affection for Chert had not waned. But that summer was the last time we saw Gumnut — he had been driven out by his father. The family now consisted of Chert, Silver and the singleton pup I named Scout. Of high interest is how inordinately severe Silver was on Scout: it seemed whenever he saw her, he charged at her aggressively and forced her on her back. Chert would console her whenever Silver was not around, until one day in January of 2016, at just 9 months of age, Scout had had enough and left home. Another point of interest: I normally see Dads driving male youngsters off, and mothers dealing with the daughters — not so here.
This is the earliest I’ve seen a youngster disperse — most don’t do so until after their first birthday. Could Silver tell that Scout wasn’t his own offspring? [Monica Serrano, details TBP]
Although the relation was not mutual to begin with and had been forced, with Bruno gone, Chert and Silver remained committed long-term mates and owners of the territory through Silver’s old age. Chert stuck with him until his end, which was January 2021. They produced litters throughout the years with some of them dispersing to become alphas within the city: Sparks ended up as alpha male in the Presidio; Vida ended up as alpha female in the Buena Vista Area; Scout at Bernal, Gumnut ended up as alpha male in the Lake Merced area [Monica Serrano, details TBP].
After Silver, passed away, there was a vacancy: suddenly Rookie, an older male appeared on the territory in 2021. He was not liked by Chert or her yearlings, as could be seen by their their distressed vocalizations, and then over time, keeping their distance from him and not including him in their grooming sessions. Of consequence is that the six offspring produced that year had light colored eyes, just like Rookie’s. But Rookie knew he was not liked. He didn’t fit in and he ended up abruptly leaving and moving on to Golden Gate Park for one year (before leaving again — I’ve not seen other instances of this).
While Rookie was still with the family, Chert began grooming one of her yearlings as her next mate: this was a strong message to both: Rookie: “you, go”, and to the yearling: “you stay”. Scowl was one of seven pups born in 2019 to Chert and Silver. To get Scowl to stay she began lavishing constant attention on him. Indeed, he stayed, becoming the alpha male and father on that territory for two years, and producing two litters with his mother, Chert.
Chert (2013 to 2024) turned to her son Scowl as a mate a year after her long-term mate died, and right after her unhappy pairing with Rookie that lasted less than a year (2019- )
But after two years, and actually even before two years, he was feeling wanderlust. [I wrote a posting on changing mates which you can find HERE if you are interested.] Today’s posting is focused on the long-term ownership of a territory and its disruption when the strong hold by the alphas is in someway disrupted.
Scowl left Chert after raising two litters with her. He paired up with a two-year-old female only one mile away: here is one of the four pups they produced in 2024
Scowl left Chert and the territory at the beginning of 2024, this year. I’ve wondered if his instinct to disperse finally caught up with him, or possibly if Chert was losing her pull through diminished hormones: this last is a thought I had without any proof. He appeared in a territory only one mile away where he paired up with a daughter of the previous alphas from that territory, Vida and Cape at Buena Vista who had both been killed by cars in 2022 before their pups were grown. But interestingly, the Buena Vista territory remained in the family with their offspring, which is not always the case: I’ve seen territorial takeovers by absolute newcomers after an intense territorial battle when strong alphas aren’t around. But this did not happen here.
Falcon 10-2023ArcherIntruderRagsTawny
Above: Chert’s 2024 suitors — HERE is a posting I wrote about changes in mates — in fact, most coyotes — in spite of their famously being known for *mating for life* — appear to go through a number of mates in their lifetimes, some of them long-term and some less so.
Back to Chert and what happened to her territory: Chert must have had enough luring hormones because she attracted five suitors in early 2024 after Scowl left (actually, one before he left). The first three were quickly driven away. The next — Rags — had mange. He was accepted and hung around for several week. Unfortunately, months later we noticed that he had passed his mange on to the rest of the family — it’s highly contagious.
Screenshot
Bottom row: family after driving Rags out; top left: the steely stare for emphasis letting Rags know he can’t come back; middle above: rags hurrying away; top right: rags looking back, knowing he has to go.
Then, several weeks after accepting Rags into the family, yet another new suitor appeared: this was Tawny — a new fellow for that time frame, but he looked familiar to me and could have been a returned family member from way back in time who I had lost track of — familiarity would have caused her to choose him, Tawny, over Rags. I then watched as Tawny, Chert and her yearlings viciously drove Rags out. I’ve seen this before: the guy forced to leave looks back knowing that he must go, and he never returns. But even this new arrangement — Tawny and Chert — didn’t seem to last long as I’ve not seen Tawny since before any pups were born.
Chert, Bibs, Tug and Root all came down with mange. It probably led to Chert’s death. To show how disfiguring mange can be, I’m showing here images of Chert without (above) and with mange (directly below) — Chert’s case is one of the worst I’ve seen. In the center column, Bibs is seen without and then with mange: she recovered. Then Tug on the right: before and now with mange. [To see the drastic change in appearance in dogs from mange, click HERE]
Unfortunately, mange spread through the family. Come June, we saw in this territory, Bibs (Chert’s two-year-old daughter who now had mange) with another female who was so disfigured by mange that I could barely identify her except by some minor markers — her eyes and face were completely crusted over. This would be Chert — based on her behavior and sticking to her favorite hangouts — mange really changes their appearance. BOTH females — Chert at 11 years of age and Bibs, now two years old — were lactating. I’ve seen this double-lactating phenomenon before, suggesting the daughter was either a wet-nurse or, potentially, it was an actual double-denning situation. What appears to lead to this double-lactating condition is a disruption in the alphas: and indeed that happened here with Scowl leaving and Chert aging. Tawny, Rags AND Scowl had all been around during mating season, and NONE of them were around to raise the pups, so I don’t know who the father was, but both Chert and Bibs were definitely lactating. However, another thought occurred to me: I wonder if in their reproductive cycle, their teats might enlarge even when they haven’t produced pups and aren’t lactating. If anyone has information on this, I would love to learn about it!
The OTHER, intruder family: Amberson (Dad) on the left; Eyes (Mom above right seems to have recovered from mange); Two of their pups were found dead.
The alpha disruption appears also to have led to a weakening of Chert’s family’s hold on the territory: strong alphas have absolute control over their territory, but with aging and illness, and no alpha male around, this might not be possible. So yet another pair of non-related, foreign/intruder coyotes came in and took up residence in the main hub of the territory — within just several hundred feet of where Chert and Bibs were, where they had their litter of pups. Interestingly, Chert and her daughter and younger brother were not driven out by them, conceivably because the newcomers themselves were not a strong pair, and were not familiar with the situation: they had arrived shortly before their pups were born, perhaps having been driven out from another area and desperate for a denning site. The female of this pair also had mange. I don’t know how mange in parents affects their offspring, but two of their very young pups were seen with neurological disorders and eventually found dead.
So a sort of *coexistence* existed between these two families in the same hub that lasted through the early summer, with vocalizations between them confirming their presence to each other. And in another hub or pod of the territory — where I had only ever seen Chert and her family — an ADDITIONAL new litter surfaced, reported to me, but I didn’t have time to check them out,. This should tell us a lot about disruption of the alphas. As winter approaches in late November, I’m only seeing ONE pup occasionally, and frankly I don’t know whose it is.
Yearlings from Chert’s last two litters retain the territory. It looks like Chevy and Bibs, two year old littermates have formed a pair bond. Their littermate Root is still there. Tug is still there, but with a hefty mange condition.
Things seem to have returned to normal now that winter is fast approaching, with just Bibs and two littermate brothers — Chevy, who appears to have become her mate and one other, Root — along with a younger brother, Tug, now living on the main hub of that territory and one additional pup born this year whose parents I’ve not been able to yet identify. This could change quickly and I’ll update if it does.
Over the years I’ve been sent photos of coyotes on Angel Island, but I’ve never had the time to check them out. I was even brought some scat for my scat study, but, most people don’t know what *fresh* scat looks like, and what I was brought was definitely not fresh, so it was not included in my study.
I was told that possibly coyotes swam over, crossing the shortest part of the bay at what’s called the Raccoon Straight. I’ve always been skeptical of this, but, wow, there’s a photo in this article that shows a coyote swimming from Angel Island to Tiburon, so indeed it is possible. I’m including the article which appeared in Bay Nature, by Jillian Magtoto because I found it fascinating! Enjoy! And thank you Staci Hobbet for sharing this with me!
I’m writing this in the wake of all the dog/coyote incidents that have recently been in the newspapers. I want people to know that there is more to coyotes than just that, that coyotes are fascinating as individuals and as a species because of their intelligence, personalities, family structures, and land management, among other things. Here I dive into some of my observations of them and share some telling photos.
Dad bantering with his pups: many if not most coyotes mate for life and both parents raise the young.
Coyotes are our fellow citizens here in San Francisco — a *citizen* being someone who lives in the city — a denizen of the city. They are living in and sharing the same neighborhoods we do. We share this urban environment with lots of wildlife, even if we humans want to predominate and dominate the scene. According to Brandon Keim [in “Meet the Neighbors”, page 13], in this setting, “what makes us human is not what makes us different from other animals, but what we have in common.” Brandon writes about the “personhood” (his term) of animals and indeed, it’s knowing and appreciating them as individuals that helps break through some thinking barriers we’ve been handed down through the ages, including through science.
Raising the young is a lot of work: this mom moved her pups three times for safety reasons: here she is carrying one of six pups, 1/2 mile, through the streets of San Francisco, to a safer location.
In this vein, my own view of coyotes is anchored in my hours of *focused observation* which has led to my feeling of commonality and empathy with these critters, in spite of the obvious superficial differences that we usually focus on. Animals, as we, in fact are thinking and feeling in a much deeper way than most people have imagined.
Coyotes communicate constantly through eye-to-eye contact and body language: including intentions and moods.
Through hours of observing them, I’ve come to see coyotes as living parallel lives to our own, similar to the Hobbits who are *over there* in the shire, mostly invisible to us humans, but living very equivalent lives to our own, within their territories and family structures, and functionally doing what we humans are doing: trying to survive and eke out a living in an often inhospitable outer world, but also within a an often rich social context that constitutes their/our closer inner circle. When that social context is broken or missing, it affects them no less than it affects us.
Coyotes’ basic social unit is the nuclear family: both parents work for a living by hunting and defending their turf, and both parents raise, defend, and provide for the young, while yearlings pitch-in with all of these duties. They live on their exclusively family owned territories, keeping all outsider coyotes out. We have about 20 of these family-owned territories that cover the entirety of San Francisco (see map]
Litter mates become best buddies or sometimes bullies: every family is unique and different.
Coyotes are highly social, highly interactive, and highly communicative, and many if not most famously mate for life, and they also engage in individual activities — hey, not different from ourselves: they play, they hunt, they have parties (most evenings the family congregates for its rendezvous), they celebrate (yes, I’ve seen it!), they tease, they defend, they go exploring. Their relationships vary from simple companions and like-minded buddies, to bullies and rivals, to peacekeepers, caregiver and comforters. Mom and Dad are always at the top of the hierarchy, and just as in our own families, there often is sibling rivalry and vying for superiority within litters and even between litters.
They communicate vocally, with sounds that vary from yipps to growls, squeals, hisses, grunts, purrs, moans and screeches — these range from barely audible to overpoweringly loud! And they communicate silently through odors and pheromones — for example, scent marking their boundaries — and silently through body language and subtle eye-to-eye-contact and expressions. And from what I’ve seen, it’s every bit as nuanced as our most carefully chosen words and the entonations we use, if not more so.
They display the same full range of emotions that we display, from joy, enthusiasm, affection, excitement, to boredom, pain, rejection, sadness, jealousy, anger, oneupmanship and even deception (even though that’s not exactly an emotion). They love to tease each other.
This coyote is acting sad and rejected: she’s been taunted, shunned and excluded. Their emotions seem to be extremely intense, and are very obvious when watching them (which is why it’s so much fun to watch them, if they allow you to)
Their bodies respond to the environment no different than ours. There is physical pain from thorns and bugs, and from bigger injuries from lost eyes and tails and broken legs and crippling diseases such as mange. Some of these are accidents and illnesses that weaken and compromise their ability to live. This is all the stuff I’ve observed repeatedly through hours of first-hand observations and then written about on my blog, but besides observing this stuff, isn’t it just plain logical that this would be so?
Here one sibling is removing ticks from her brother: family members take care of each other through mutual grooming.
They deal with death and they deal with birth, their own and others’.
*Science* is only now agreeing more and more with the view that animals are much more intelligent and feeling than science admitted in the past. Brandon Keim’s book talks about the intelligence of bees, the friendship of snakes, puzzle-solving turtles, etc, and science is indeed confirming these. One has to wonder why *science* is just now *getting* this, when focused observations by anyone makes it all so obvious. Science upholds a hierarchical order of things passed down from ages past, putting humans at the top. We don’t like to see our characteristics shared with others.
Science is rooted in observation. Repeat observations allow us to form generalities. However, science itself has had to reverse some of its proclaimed truths. We drank milk when I was growing up because we needed calcium. Now we know that milk actually leeches out the calcium from your bones. Long established underlying scientific principles should always be questioned. I’ve approached studying coyote behavior not with the idea that *they aren’t like us until proven otherwise*, but rather with the idea that *they ARE like us until proven otherwise*.
Sometimes life can be as much fun while being alone as being together: here a good rubbing on something smelly — I call it a perfume bath — seemed to create overwhelming joy for this coyote!
Galileo applied mathematics to experimental physics. His mathematical methods were the standard ones of the day, but he was condemned for pointing out that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the universe because that broke long established conventions about where man stood in the world: that we humans weren’t at the center of the universe with everything revolving around ourselves and our religion. This was anathema!! I think we’re still grappling with this hubrustic concept. I don’t see much difference between this and the idea of anthropomorphizing — a concept where we attribute human characteristics — including intelligence and emotion — to animals, as if humans were the only ones with such characteristics.
Coyotes tease and horse around all the time: here one slipped under another and lifted her on his back where he left her to dangle for a moment. They can indeed be very funny — and they themselves think this is funny!
In sum, having empathy for, and being able to relate to other animals, grows connections and understanding whereas dehumanizing or objectifying these animals [it has been argued that these are one and the same: https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/08/02/is-dehumanizing-animals-possible/] — makes it easier for us humans to dominate and persecute coyotes and other animals as dangerous or mindless/stupid enemies without feeling bad or guilty about it. What we don’t know engenders fears in us, and we destroy what we fear and what we relegate to a status below ourselves. People end up filling in what they don’t know with rumors, hearsay, unvetted conventional thinking, or a single experience from which they generalize. There’s more to learn about coyotes than simply the issues of dog/coyote encounters that have hit the newsstands.
More sharing of overwhelming fun and silliness, contact, and togetherness.
On an ending note, in THEIR contexts, in fact, they are smarter than we are: try sniffing out WHO passed through your turf yesterday, or simply REMEMBERING everything you need to without writing it down, like elephants do!
On the left, siblings who used to be best buddies have become arch-rivals. On the right, a father coyote uses scare tactics to get a dog to leave: these tactics can often be intense, insistent, and persistent, especially during the denning seasons, which is what makes them so scary. If it weren’t so intense, we would not listen. And herein lies a problem with humans and their dogs: humans want to always control situations, not be controlled by other species. We get around it by calling them aggressive, but they aren’t, they are simply demanding what they need.
I’m visiting mange again. This video shows a young mother coyote who developed the condition over the summer. The first part of the video was taken in mid-September showing her ragged tail and pocked face. The last part of the video — for comparison — was taken in mid-June when she was still not afflicted.
I’m seeing more cases of the horrible disease here in San Francisco, whereas two years ago I never ever saw it at all here. Mange is caused by a small mite which burrows deep into the skin of canids, where it lays its eggs and multiplies, causing intense itching and unsightly scabbing and hair loss, mostly around the face, ears, legs and tail. It’s a horrible and painful condition.
There are two types of mange apparently: sarcoptic and demodectic, which are caused by different mites. Sarcoptic mange is very contagious and is caused by a roundish, eight-legged mite. Demodectic mange is not contagious and is caused by a cigar-shaped mite which actually all canids carry: their healthy immune systems keep the mite in check naturally. However, when immune systems are weakened, this mite can take over and results in mange. Rat poison is known to weaken immune systems.
Some of the afflicted animals are able to mount an immune response to mange, but many succumb to eventual dehydration and starvation, and secondary infection.
CAFW, possibly through a licensed rehabber, can administer a medication known as Bravecto (Fluralaner) in the wild without removing a coyote from its territory or family situation: this medication improves their condition noticeably. A stronger medication is Ivermectin, but this medication requires monitoring, which is difficult in wild animals. If you have questions about a coyote with mange, please contact the folks at @yggdrasilwildlife or @claremont_wildlife_habitat.
I’ve been invited to give my presentation again by the prestigious Telegraph Hill Dwellers, so if you missed it the first time and wanted to come, please come! It will be the same presentation I gave at the Park Branch Library on August 31st, but this one will encompass a bit about the North Beach coyote family.
I’ll be explaining their population structure and distribution, family life and interactions, and how to understand and diminish dog encounters — all based on my own observations here in San Francisco. I’ll also talk briefly about the coyotes in North Beach.
*WHERE: North Beach Library Meeting Room 850 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA WHEN: Tuesday, November 12th 5:30 to 7:30 pm
First come, first serve, so be sure to come early to claim your space!
Janet “The Coyote Lady” Kessler is a self-taught naturalist who has spent nearly two decades conducting daily field research documenting urban coyote behavior and family life. In this presentation, Kessler will share her first-hand information, compassion and love for the animals, as she tells you what you need to know about them.
Kessler will discuss where they are, who they are and how to get along. She will also describe what to expect if you have a dog and you encounter a coyote. This talk will talk a little about the North Beach coyotes.
Documenting her experiences with a camera, Kessler has come to know and identify most of the coyotes and their families here in San Francisco. Recently, she has been able to map the general extent of each of their territories and some of their dispersal here in the City. Kessler has collaborated with Dr. Benjamin Sacks’ genetic lab at UC Davis where the DNA from scat she collected is being analyzed.
Kudos from my August 31st talk:
I really enjoyed your presentation – and so did many others who attended it who I got to talk to as we were walking out/hanging out in front afterwards. I have seen a number of presentations on coyotes over the past few years – and your’s, of course, was very personal, unique and incredibly sincere. I was very touched by it – and I could tell others were as well.
Janet, your talk at the Park branch was flat out brilliant as far as I’m concerned. I could say more, and likely will down the line.
I enjoyed your presentation at the Park Library branch yesterday – very informative.
Thank you for the LOVELY presentation about Coyote in San Francisco. We thoroughly enjoyed your talk and were duly impressed with the organization, confidence, and sense of humor you brought to it. We learned a lot. We can’t think of anything we’d like to see differently. It was a good length, and the photography (of course, as we know) was fantastic. I liked that you mentioned at a couple of points about how much time was left; it was a nice touch.We were impressed with your delivery and the experience as a whole. Loved the coyote calls and sound aspects!! It warmed our hearts walking up to the library and seeing such a good turnout! What? Look at that all these folks here for Janet! So awesome. We spoke to folks in line who were big fans but never met you, and [we] both felt so lucky to know you for the years we have and on a friendly level. You’re a local celebrity and we have an inside scoop. A big congratulations. Seriously, we can’t think of a thing to make it better. This is a labor of love, and it shows.
It was really good! And what a turnout!!! Pithy, instructive, humorous and concise, delivered with calm authority and a type of reverence that was palpable and contagious. Thank you for your dedication, spine, and passion. Our urban nature experience is richer for it.
I’ve been studying and documenting coyote behavior and family life — including their interactions with pets and people — for the last seventeen years, since 2007. About nine years ago I also began more fully studying their population: it’s numbers, structure, distribution, and dynamics here in San Francisco, including some of their dispersals.
In 2021 I created a rough map of the 17 territories I had seen, and, allowing for a margin of error, I surmised there were about 20 of these territories in total within the city limits of San Francisco. See my methods. The map shows how the population is divided and situated into discrete family units on distinct territories, with fairly exact borders. The territories average about two square miles each — they are about the size of the Presidio which in fact constitutes one of the territories claimed by one family. This is less than half the size of a territory in the wild, due overwhelmingly to the abundance of food resources in the city as compared to rural areas.
Here is my Spring, 2024 updated version of the map, along with some changes that occurred over the past 3 years, including at least five more territories that I know only incompletely. So we have over 20 territories here in San Francisco that cover the entirety of the city except downtown.
Only one coyote family and no other coyotes lives on any of these territories, with token anomalies. The families consist always of a reproducing alpha mated pair: these are the actual *owners* of the territories and they constitute the *core* of the family. Then in addition, there are usually several yearlings — born the previous year or two — who range in age from one to almost three years — they will soon disperse. In some families, all the yearlings have dispersed, no yearlings remain behind. The yearlings that stay help care for the new litter of pups and move on out sometime afterwards. So if we count these yearlings as adults, the adults number from two to five related individuals in each family on each territory
So parent-pairs own vast territories and keep others out, thereby limiting the population to just their own families, per 2 square mile areas. This is what their territoriality is about. Having said this, it’s important to know that NOTHING is 100% when it comes to coyotes, something that has been emphasized to me by Walkaboutlou. For example, we’ve had an interloper loner who has been living on the periphery of others’ territories for several years. He’s crippled and old, and possibly for this reason he has been allowed to live there by resident coyotes. Also, unusually, ONE of the territories this year was claimed by two different families: I tend to think this is a temporary situation, but we’ll have to wait and see. And I’ve seen an injured dispersing youngster harbored and warmly cared for by another family for two weeks until he healed enough to move on. So there are ANOMALIES now and then within the single-family-unit standard which normally keeps other coyotes out.
The reproducing alpha pair generally remain as *owners* of their claimed territory for many years — I’ve seen the same territory claimed for 15 years and running by the same family, generationally. For example, I’ve documented a mated pair passing on the territory to one of their offspring in a couple of instances when they themselves moved out. Eventually, of course, all yearlings leave UNLESS it’s the parents who end up leaving and ceding their territories to one of their offspring: this appears to occur with older mated pairs, but I’ve also seen older pairs remain and produce litters up to 11 years of age. And I’ve also seen territories abandoned, lock-stock-and-barrel, leaving an empty niche for any newcomer to just walk in and claim the territory. This yearlings-plus-parent population — those that are full grown or close to it — number about 90-100 in the city. This is our core population, with pups then added in April. In April is when our population in the city is at its highest, but like a breathing bellows, it eventually shrinks back down to basically that alpha pair with some of those yearlings remaining a little while longer before dispersing.
That covers the adults and near-adults. In addition to the parents and yearlings, then, new pups are born in early April here in San Francisco. Litter sizes range from one to seven with a fairly low survival rate. Those who survive will grow to become the yearlings the following year, all of whom will eventually disperse, with a few remaining with their birth families for a season or even two to help when the new pups are born. Most yearlings disperse sometime in their second year, but I’ve seen it occur as early as 9 months, and as late as three years. They are either driven out by a parent and/or sibling, or they just pickup and leave when their time-clocks tell them it’s time to go. As they disperse, which can occur at any time of the year, many get killed by cars — cars are their chief killers in urban areas. In fact, in 2021, 24 coyotes were picked up off the streets of San Francisco killed by cars.
The federally run Presidio radio-collared fifteen coyotes over a three year span beginning in 2015, and an additional one was radio-collared in 2019. From these collars, the researcher found that most of the dispersing coyotes seem to move south and out of the city, and of those, most get killed by cars: of the fifteen coyotes that were tagged and radio-collared during that three year time span, all were killed by cars except one. Again, the population in San Francisco has remained fairly stable within each of the seventeen exclusively owned territories — one family and one anomalie.We do have a few more territories than we had in 2015.
These territories have also remained fairly stable in size and boundaries over the years, such as the Presidio, but I’ve also seen some big changes in some of them. For example, the San Francisco Golf Course and the Olympic Club were two separate territories with two separate families for many years. Then, several years ago, the territories merged into one very large territory for a number of years with one family claiming it all. Now, we are back to two separate territories, with the second territory now owned by a daughter of the family in the other.
The Glen Canyon/Laguna Honda/Twin Peaks territory for many years was claimed by one and the same family. Beginning in March of this year, 2024, another family is sharing that space, but separate parts of it. As I said, I believe this is a temporary situation, but we’ll just have to wait and see!
Several years ago, the Bernal family expanded their territory across Alemany Blvd. to include some of McLaren Park. So there were two families living in close proximity to each other there, with each keeping to their own side of a divide which they maintained through scent marking . But this year, the family in McLaren made sure to keep the Bernal family out of there. My take is that the Bernal family had ties to the McLaren family several years ago through the alpha male who appears possibly to have been born there. So he was allowed to live close by. But he disappeared two years ago, and the family without him, but with a new alpha male, is not allowed in: the McLaren alpha male was seen driving out the Bernal alpha female.
In 2018 the Buena Vista family moved, lock-stock-and-barrel, to Lake Merced, leaving their Buena Vista territory to a son who soon found a young mate who didn’t produce pups until the next year when she turned two. The relocated parents at Lake Merced then had the first *divorce* I had ever seen: humans feeding him constantly drew him away from his mate, so she found a more attentive new mate. The rejected male returned to Buena Vista where he was allowed to stay for two months by his son. This displaced father coyote then moved on to Golden Gate Park for a year before he was shot and killed by the city for bearing his teeth to a child in his denning area.
Each row of images below depicts what a coyote family consists of in early Spring: each row constitutes a single nuclear family before the new pups were born. These are about HALF of the families within the city limits of San Francisco. Dispersal, of course, continues throughout the year, so it’s important to know that changes in families are constant. Pups were born in early April will continue to grow through their first year and then they, too will disperse or remain for a year or even two years with their birth families before either moving on, or acquiring the territory they were born on. I have not included all 20 of the families in these photos because most are very similar to these, and in several of the territories, I have not *catalogued* each individual member for those families.
An aside here. I don’t identify coyotes by their locations for their own protection, not just from feeders and poisoners, but from the City itself which has used my sight to identify coyotes they’ve taken out (per their records, “We used her site to identify the coyote”, in their own words). And they’ve done this a number of times, not understanding how powerful coyote defensive denning behavior is. And, by the way, I give the coyotes I know names I can pronounce and remember, not numbers. Mine is the longest running study of San Francisco coyotes, begun in 2007, and the only one which has put together their population numbers, territories, and individuals within those families.
I use no attachment gadgets or lures. Mine is a totally “hands off” effort. Human presence is omnipresent, so my presence is simply part of what is already there and which urban coyotes all have to deal with. I keep my distance and never interact or interfere in any way which might alter a coyote’s natural behaviors.
Clip, Red & Suni(Mom, Dad and a one year old yearling)
Chert, Tawny, Bibs & Tug: Mom, New Dad, two year old female and one year old male
Scout, Skipper, Lapis, Bold, Pow: Mom, Dad, 2 male one year olds, one female one year old
Wired, Sparks, Spider, Cricket: Mom, Dad, two one year old males
Pipa, Blondie, Pip, Philly: Mom, Dad, one year old female, two year old female
Amber, Archer, Scarf, Arrow, Bow (Mom, Dad, three sons, aged one, two and three years old)
OM, Fille, Fern, Fleck (Mom, Dad, One year old male, two year old male)
Cai2, Stumpf, Manx, Coon(Mom, Dad, two one year old sons)
Brows/Bonus is a first time mom, and Scowl who left his family where he had been the alpha male and father
The buck ends there. Our city needs to terminate its contract with USDA WS. Again, denning signage and education could have prevented the bite in the first place, but these were not in place. The aftermath of the bite could have been handled much more efficiently and professionally than the bloodbath that ensued involving WS.
Here are the texts I obtained through FOIA. I’ve copied and pasted the relevant ones here. They sent me many pages, but these are the important ones screenshot from their text messages:
ADDENDUM EDIT after receiving CAWF FOIA documents: The records obtained through FOIA from USDA Wildlife Services state that they (USDA WS) shot “total count 3 adults, 1 pup” and that one of those got away and would be found dead.
But CAWF documents state that three coyotes were shot: 1 male, 1 pup, and a female who got away. Were there 3 or 4 shot?
Reminder: My slide talk about our San Francisco coyotes is coming up in just ten days! I’ll be explaining their population structure and distribution, family life and interactions, and how to understand and diminish dog encounters — all based on my own observations here in San Francisco. I’ll also talk briefly about the coyotes in the Park Branch Library neighborhood.
*WHERE: Park Branch Library Meeting Room 1833 Page Street San Francisco, CA 94117 (Limited parking in neighborhood)
Janet “The Coyote Lady” Kessler is a self-taught naturalist who has spent nearly two decades conducting daily field research documenting urban coyote behavior and family life. In this presentation, Kessler will share her first-hand information, compassion and love for the animals, as she tells you what you need to know about them.
About My Site and Me: This website reflects my almost 20 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! I am a self-taught naturalist and independent coyote researcher.
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. What I’m presenting to you is the reality of their everyday individual lives. 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.
