Coyote Yipps

One of the coyotes I’ve been keeping track of since his birth five years ago is Sparks. I watched him grow up and form strong bonds with his siblings, especially with his sister, Cat. Sparks was prone to leg injuries, and Cat would worry about him and take care of him — her anxiety for him when she felt he was in trouble or pain was immensely palpable.

Sparks dispersed from his birthplace when he was one year old — WITH Cat. She returned home after a few weeks, but for Sparks, it was a final breakaway from his birthplace. He endured numerous leg traumas continuing into his dispersal — life is not safe or easy for dispersing youngsters. After one of his leg injuries, he was harbored by the North Beach coyote family in their territory for several weeks, showing that not all dispersing youngsters are treated brutally by foreign territorial owners! Then a bone in his arm was snapped in two — he could not have continued had not Good Samaritans nursed him through that injury. After a six week recovery period, he returned to one of the territories he had passed through months earlier where he noted a vacancy — the previous alpha male was no longer around. Sparks was accepted by the reigning alpha female and he moved in, becoming the alpha male of that territory where he continues today.

I don’t spend much time with this family, so this update comes from just 2 weeks of observations on my part and from a general outline from my previous observations. The family at this point in time consists of Sparks who is the alpha male and dad, Wired is the alpha female and mother, and two male yearlings I identify by Spider and Cricket: these are all that survive from a litter of five born last year.

Wired appears to have gone through some kind of trauma at the end of last year/beginning of this year: her entire pattern and routine changed totally according to everyone I spoke to. People stopped seeing her, whereas before this, they had been seeing her regularly for years. SOMETHING happened: SOMETHING is always behind a big change in behavior. I’m wondering what happened — if a person was involved which might have caused her to withdraw from view and become more self-guarded: this is just a guess of mine. Whatever the cause, there was a big and noticeable change in her behavior at the beginning of the year.

I had trouble finding her, and I even thought she might no longer be around since only one person I knew had seen her in two weeks, but I finally spotted her briefly. She’s thriving and actually lactating. She had her pups at the beginning of April. After giving birth, mother coyotes often appear to *celebrate* giving birth when they emerge from their dens and play wildly with their mates, almost as if to say, “well, I did it!” Although I didn’t see the energetic celebration, a friend of mine saw it on April 13th. By the next day, she was denned up again with her pups and no one I know had seen her since then until I saw her a couple of days ago, when I found her relaxed and napping in the warm sunshine.

Mom, aka Wired, herself had a previous life which was on the wild side. She first appeared in the area at the end of 2018 and was immediately tagged and radio-collared on January 5, 2019: she was trapped and restrained manually by a human while the tags and collar were being attached. When I first came across her shortly thereafter, she was still trying to get rid of the collar — shaking to get it off and scratching at it — and her distrustful, angry *look* at all humans made me think that the manhandling she had been through had affected her pretty badly. The collar itself — used for tracking her — was supposed to self-release after a year for humane reasons, but it malfunctioned and is still on her today, after five years, even though it stopped working after a year. The collar allowed scientists to track her criss-crossings throughout the city for several months as she searched for a territory and a mate. Once she settled into her current situation, she stopped wandering, she sticks to her territory which has fairly exact boundaries, and she keeps all other coyotes out: this is what coyote territoriality is about.

In a territorial takeover fight, Wired ferociously battled the previous female alpha owner of the territory which she (Wired) now owns — even drawing blood. The previous female had lost her mate (he disappeared, but I don’t know what happened to him — possibly he succumbed to old age — they had been long-time alphas there) and was aging: she could not defend her territory alone. By the 2020 pupping season, Wired and her mate at the time, Puff, where the alphas of this territory. But before this, in the early part of 2019, Wired fought — again drawing blood — for another female coyote’s territory AND for that female’s mate. That story can be found here, and with updates which can be found by putting *Scout* into the search box. *Scout* is the name of the female Wired battled in 2019: Scout’s story is even documented in a film, “don’t feed the coyotes” and will be coming out in a book soon! So, that is Wired’s story.

Yearling Spider interacts with Sparks (Dad)

As for Sparks, I’ve seen him recently hunting alone, or patrolling in the company of his two surviving yearling sons. Above is a series of photos of him being Dad with one of his sons: notice his son, Spider, always remaining lower than his father. Hierarchy is very important in nuclear coyote families, with Mom and Dad always at the top and in charge.

Five pups were born last year. Of those, the only ones we’re seeing are the two rambunctious male brothers seen above, Spider and Cricket, though a female without an eye might still be around: compromised individuals tend to be more guarded in their visibility, which is understandable.

Sparks and Wired at this point in time have two surviving sons who were born last year. Above you can see how they let go and play wholeheartedly with each other. Play, of course, helps them grow by developing speed and precision, and by refining communication subtleties. However, beware that they are neither wary nor flighty, as one might expect from yearlings, but rather brave around dogs and even uppity around humans on a golf course: they approach dogs to drive them away (this is normal denning behavior which even the yearlings engage in) or to test the dogs to find out what their energy is for pushback.

Below you can read more about this plucky behavior of theirs in a couple of my Instagram postings: click on the links below the following photo to read more, including about their *claiming* behavior.

This next photo below shows that yearlings are worth their weight in gold to their parents. In addition to helping with defending the territory against dogs (which creates problems for dog owners; please vigilantly supervise especially your small dogs, as several small dogs have been grabbed as part of their natural territorial behavior which is intensified during pupping season), this youngster is bringing in a huge gopher to help feed his Mother who has recently given birth to a new litter. Nutritional needs of the mother, of course, skyrockets at this time of year while she produces milk to feed the new litter — we don’t yet know the size of this year’s litter.

For my Summer, 2023 update on Sparks, press HERE. Putting his name, *Sparks* into the blog search box will bring up additional previous updates.

© All information, maps, and photos in my postings come from my own original and first-hand documentation work [except where indicated] which I am happy to share, with permission and with properly displayed credit: ©janetkessler/coyoteyipps.com. All photos in my postings are of the individuals I’m posting about.