Bio

Janet Kessler: Documentation, Research and Outreach

Janet, known throughout San Francisco as “the Coyote Lady”, is a self-taught naturalist who is into her 18th year of daily field research: documenting our urban coyote behavior and family life — including their behavior at encounters with people and pets. She has been called a “pioneer in the photo-documentation of the lives of urban coyotes, capturing the intimate lives” or these animals.

More recently, she has delved into their population dynamics, mapping their territories and some of their dispersals here in san Francisco without the use of tags or radio-collars. She is able to do this through facial recognition of each coyote — she’s likely the only person who knows just about all of the coyotes here in San Francisco individually, their families, and the extent of each of their territories. She is using DNA from scat, which is being analyzed by Dr. Benjamin Sacks’ Lab at UC Davis to confirm her visual findings and the origin of this population from north of San Francisco.

She shares guidelines and observations through published articles, videos, posters, exhibits, flyers, presentations, and talks with walkers and dog walkers in the parks. She is combating and correcting the negative perceptions of coyotes spread through rumors and social media. She is a co-founder of Coyotecoexistence.com, creator of the acclaimed educational video “Coyotes As Neighbors”. She maintains a blog about urban coyotes life and issues in San Francisco: coyoteyipps.com; and an Instagram account by that same name.

Janet has an Anthropology degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Master’s from that same university in Art History. She was born in South America and spend her childhood there. She has worked at Vorpal Gallery, U.S. News and World Report, and at several law offices, and has enjoyed being a 100% mom to her sons and playing her pedal harp. It was after a finger was nearly sliced off — which put an end to harp playing for awhile — that she met her first coyote on Twin Peaks in 2007. Her enchantment with these critters has never abated.

Janet’s statement: “I *Do Coyotes*! I spend my time watching them and documenting them, and then I share my first-hand information, compassion, and love for the animals with folks in various ways, in hopes of filling an informational void which prompts fears or misunderstanding. Coyotes are always doing something — this is why they are so interesting. By watching carefully and noticing what occurs before and after a behavior, you can tell what’s going on.”

For my bibliography, press here: Bibliography.

https://coyoteyipps.com/category/other/janet-kessler-other/

One thing I don’t think I’ve made very clear in my blog is that I’m not simply a “photographer”. I’ve never studied photography, I don’t have a degree in it, I’ve never sold a single photo. The camera for me is my tool for gathering information: to help with identification and to find out about relationships, family behaviors, family interactions, behaviors at encounters with people and pets and vice versa, etc. My camera is my notebook. SOME of my photos are “good photographs”, earning me the moniker of “photographer”. But the camera is simply a tool  for what I really do, which is much more substantive and in-depth than simply “photography”.  As Courtney Quirin put it: I’m a “pioneer in the photo-documentation of the lives of urban coyotes, capturing the intimate lives” of these animals.

More can be found out about me in this Profile of April 28, 2023 written by Paul Krantz with photos by Douglas Zimmerman, for SFGate: The San Francisco resident documenting the city’s coyote population: