territories in SF | Coyote Yipps

SF Coyote Territorial Map and Family Situations to Summer 2025

12 Aug 2025 3 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in territorial changes, territoriality, territories in SF Tags: coyote territories, coyote territories in san francisco, territories

Updated 2025 map of coyote territories in San Francisco

Introduction: It might be fun to get to know something about your very own neighborhood coyotes! My documentation has always been on this very basic, primary building-block level, starting with the individual coyotes. And my information has also been conveyed, individually, to folks in the neighborhoods where I have been documenting the coyotes — after all, these were THEIR coyotes. Mine is very much a grass-roots endeavor. As you can see from the map, coyotes cover the entirety of the city of San Francisco, so you DO have them in your neighborhood.

I begin this posting by describing my approach — a *from-the-ground-up* approach. I then summarize some generalities and quirks about the different territories. Finally I list and sum up what the coyote situation is on each of the territories. And for a some, I even provide histories and links for further reading. Getting to know the whole picture will help you understand your own neighborhood coyotes better. I ask that you act as stewards for them: they are your neighbors and need support in the face of continued misinformation, sensationalism, and fear spread about them. Thanks!!

MY BACKGROUND AND APPROACH: How I came to know our SF coyotes. This is a question I have been asked, so here, I’m diving into it for you!

My friend Audrey saw this map when it fell to the floor and asked what it was. I told her it was my map of coyote territories in San Francisco. She enthusiastically responded that she maps her bird territories: that it began by her simply noticing the same scrub jay in various places and then seeing another scrub jay and where he went. One never appeared where the other appeared, and the two never appeared together. It’s from this that she began mapping some territories of the birds she watches. This is exactly how my studies began in 2007.

I’ve come to know the coyotes of San Francisco one at a time as unique individuals. Not anonymously, not as numbers, not just as a whole species. I give them names based on characteristics or events that will help me remember them — it’s easier than numbers, and it confirms their individuality. This is the cornerstone on which all my information is built.

I am able to distinguish and identify each coyote by its facial features, and sometimes by the way one carries itself or their behaviors. As I’ve stated so often before, each coyote is unique and distinguishable — as much as each human is — however, like in human families, there are family resemblances for which sometimes detective work is needed to tease out the differences! I am a self-taught naturalist and not an academic which gives me the freedom to follow leads I come up with without having to write them out in a proposal, or wait for peer review.

Academics rely on metrics. For many of them, if it can’t be measured by a human-made device or formula, it doesn’t exist. So, interestingly, my information doesn’t exist for some of them. Rather than lab work, statistics and numbers — which is their MO — my information comes from watching coyotes out-of-doors in real time and reveals what coyotes are like: it’s accessible, hands off and non-intrusive, not rarefied, real, and accurate, and can be verified with DNA from scat or photos — few academics know coyotes well enough to actually distinguish individuals, much less all the individuals and families in the city.

By watching and documenting them every single day (through a 650 mm equivalent lens), I’ve developed a very good understanding of them: their behavior, family life, individualized relationships (with its ups and downs), family structure (in its variations), along with their disaffinity for dogs, and their aversion to humans (though not necessarily *fear* of us). I’ve also developed easy guidelines for coexistence, based on real-encounters and seeing what works.

In turn, and by the same token, having the ability to identify individuals, and knowing their families and family dynamics, has allowed me to map their family territories and to follow their histories on those territories. What follows is a summary of their current territories and situations as of summer 2025 here in San Francisco. I’ve brought up to date a couple of their histories, and supplied links to their past stories (for two of the families).

Interestingly, years ago, the City brought in an *expert* who proclaimed that the city of San Francisco could only support 5 to at most 7 coyote families. Yet I’ve documented three times that many. This year, in 2025, I know 18 different nuclear families and the territories they exclusively claim, and I’ve seen the pups on 15 of those 18 territories — and there could be several more territories that I’ve missed.

Obviously, I’m not present 24-7 in any of the territories. In fact, most of the families I now see only glancingly every couple of weeks or even months. But others I’m more in-touch with, sometimes even seeing them daily for long stretches of time and then less frequently for equally long stretches of time.

When I see them, I might see them for as long as a couple of hours, morning and/or evening, OR I might simply cross paths briefly with a couple of them which gives me only a few minutes of catch-up observation time. The point is that none of these histories is complete. I’m presenting them as I have seen them through limited time frames. But it’s over 18 years of everyday observations that I’ve accumulated what I know about the nature and structure of family situations and their territories.

Here, I have updated my territorial map from when it was first posted in 2021 (and then updated in 2024). See: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/07/14/territories-and-population-in-san-francisco/. There are 18 exclusive coyote-owned territories in San Francisco that I know of. Allowing for my missing some, I’ve rounded this out to 20. There could be a few more that I’ve missed, but there are not fewer. These territories cover the entirety of the city of San Francisco.

THE MAP I’ve created.

I’ve circled most territories in red, a couple in blue and an undefined couple in black. Some of these territories have remained fairly stable over the years — in terms of location and extent — however, they’ve all endured some form — minor or major — of disruption since I started studying them in 2007, so that in some cases, new families have taken over, or in other cases boundaries have been somewhat reconfigured, or territories have actually been divided. And I’ve even seen *shared* territories.

The 18 territories circled in red are confirmed territories. All 18 (except Territory #9) are claimed by an alpha mated pair. Most, but not all, have one to four yearlings, and so far, I’ve seen the pups in 15 of those territories, with litters ranging from 3 to 7 pups.

Before listing the territories and their current situations, here are some individual territorial generalizations and quirks I’ve noted.

Unusually, one of those territories overlaps slightly with another (Territories #10 and #11) — I haven’t figured out the dynamics here yet, but two different, adjacent families travel some of the same corridors regularly. In another, two adjacent families (Territories #4 and #5) appear to be on high alert at their shared border, apparently to maintain where it is.

The *boundary* between the families in Territory #13 and #14 has shifted since 2018 from substantially west of Crossover Drive, to substantially east of the same roadway, and now stands right at that point. Each family has pushed its boundaries — as do all coyote families — but then been pushed back by the adjacent family. It’s a continual process and I think is determined by the stronger physical strength or willpower of a family at any one time. I’ve heard the distressed vocalizations between adjacent families as they’ve worked out their boundaries, which makes me think that the sparring and boundary disputes or confirmations are mostly vocal and not physical. This of course isn’t always true: I’ve seen a number of blood-drawing battles, and an in-between approach where hostility was used to drive a newcomer away. See: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/22/recent-territorial-shift-in-golden-gate-park/.

This year and last year, two of the territories, Territories #1 and #2, and Territories #3 and #4, were expanded, divided, reconfigured, and branched off by sibling-offspring of the original territory. In both cases, those sibling-offspring are now parents on what has become their own defined territory. Yes, inbreeding occurs routinely in coyote families with no visible adverse effects so far, unless weakened immune systems and mange can be linked to it. Each of the reconfigurations was caused by different circumstances and situations.

In the larger circled family, Territory #9, the alpha parents themselves disappeared at the beginning of this year, so there are no new pups there this year that I have seen. The parents’ disappearance appears to be due to mange: two coyotes with severe mange were seen sporadically in the territory for a while, but it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to identify a mangy coyote who I at one time knew when it was healthy, especially when I didn’t see the condition progress. I never did identify them in this condition first-hand. People sent me photos, but there were never enough pixels for me to actually identify them. As do many injured or sick coyotes, they avoided being out in the daytime during this vulnerable time. So, blatantly missing in 2025 from this territory are those parents who for six years had been the ever-present and very visible alphas, while the four yearlings born last year along with one two-year-old remain as the territorial owners, holding down the fort. This fivesome of siblings continues to patrol and mark the length of their territory to keep it safe for themselves. If another mated pair moved into a remote corner of the territory, they may have had pups, but I have not seen this.

Some of the territories involve sagas of long lasting family dynasties which are passed down over five generations (as in Territory #1 and Territory #3). Others are more short-lived, changing hands every couple of years, either peacefully ending their generational ownership of the land (as in Territory #9 in 2019), or forced out by a decisive territorial battle (as in Territory #3). In some cases, as in territory #14, the female has remained the alpha, while she has shuffled through a new male sometimes every year, sometimes every other year: death is often the cause, but so is *divorce*. The divorced male has frequently remained with the family and behaved like any other yearling. And one family, after years of occupying a territory, suddenly up and moved — BOTH alphas and a yearling — to a territory 5 miles away (from Territory #12 to Territories #6 and #13). This last one ended in divorce of the alphas with one moving back to the original territory, and the other remaining there, each with a new mate. I’ve seen a divorced and replaced male stay with the family as if he were a yearling.

A couple of the territories I’ve kept pace with solely through field cameras (Territory #6): it’s enough to capture some behaviors, including the arrival of pups, and shows turnover when it occurs.

In two instances — within one, and next to another territory — I’ve circled areas in blue. These have been claimed by loners who haven’t seemed to interact almost at all with members of the larger territory — at least for extended periods of time. For example, at the very western end of Territory #14, there has been one loner individual with mange who has hung out there for 2 years. He actually was (is?) part of the larger family but seems to have split off a couple of years ago to that farthest outpost within the territory. A younger brother of his would visit him sporadically, but otherwise there was no real interacting between him and that family that I saw. Having said this, beginning in mid-July, 2025, for the first time in two years, I saw that family’s alpha female — Mom — in this outpost area and now I’m seeing the rest of her family there, so temporary situations seem to exist in these territories, and I wonder if the loner has been a sentinel holding the territory for the family? Also, I’m wondering if the family moved back to that area because of the huge concerts going on in Golden Gate Park in August: there is tall cyclone fencing throughout the park and the noise and crowds are tremendous during the weekends. In the other blue circled territory, Fort Funston, there is one individual that has hung out alone regularly — no other coyotes ever appear there, just him. The same situation may exist here — I don’t know the *why* of these situations, just that they exist.

I’ve summed up a bunch of dispersal stories in this posting: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/10/04/some-dispersal-routes-and-family-situations-over-the-last-several-seasons/.

The thin black circles are where I have not kept up — so these are unconfirmed territories, and there may be several more. There are never enough hours in a day for me, one person, to keep up, though I’ve generously been sent sightings and sometimes facial photos from some of my very loyal supporters which has helped me immensely! I don’t know the situations for the thin black circles except that coyotes have been seen sometimes regularly and sometimes sporadically in these areas. I have not zeroed in on them enough to identify them or their relationships, though I know they are there.

🐾 Interlopers and Floaters. We also have had a few interlopers over the last few years — these are, unusually, loners without territories, living on the edges of others’ owned territories.. One was lame and old and possibly this is why he was allowed to stay; he did quite a bit of roaming. Also, I’ve seen mangy individuals and pairs hanging around the periphery of claimed territories, sometimes for several months before finally moving on. And occasionally an unknown coyote — unknown to me — turns up in someone’s backyard which I can’t identify: I assume these are dispersing youngsters who haven’t found homes within the city and will probably have to move south and out of the city. I often don’t identify pups until I see some kind of permanence in their situation, which should explain why some of the coyotes are unknown to me.

In summary, some of the territories have been geographically stable for years, and some have been slightly — but never drastically — reconfigured. However, some of the famlies on them have changed — in some, there has been a turnover. Most are claimed by mated pairs and most of these had pups this year.

As for population size, please remember that population numbers fluctuate over a year’s time and indeed have increased somewhat over the years incrementally. Like a breathing bellows: population grows during the pupping season, and then shrinks back down based on low pup survival rate, those killed by cars in the city (this comes to about 25 to 30 per year) and dispersals of the older youngsters. The adult population hovers under 100. Rounding this out, the ballpark numbers come to just about 20 breeding pairs or 40 individual breeding adults, plus an average of two yearlings on each territory (some of course have none, and some more) — these yearlings have remained to help raise the next litter and will soon disperse. In addition, there are just about that same number of pups born this year as there are adults — the pups who surmounted their low survival rate and being hit by cars, also will disperse sometime during their second year, and — as far as I have seen — they will most likely head south and out of the city because, most territories are already taken in the city itself.

BTW, I read a Chronicle article stating that sightings reported to our Animal Control Department had increased to 600. I mean, really, what does this mean? It doesn’t at all reflect anything about the population size, family structure, territories, or even “encounters” with dogs. Sightings are reported randomly by some people and not others — in fact most people don’t report their sightings. If reported sightings have increased, it would be due to many factors, including easier ways to report these, and being recently prompted to do so on social sites such as NextDoor. Starting with the COVID shutdown in 2019, many more people acquired dogs and started using the parks: more eyes out there translates into more sightings and possibly more reported encounters because of that increase in dog numbers. Let’s see, to put this in perspective: there are 365 days in a year, so even if the number of sightings were double what was reported, it would mean 3 sightings a day throughout the entire city. I myself — one person — see more than this every single day. But that number: *600* makes it falsely appear that there are many more coyotes or encounters, and that we’re being overrun by them. Not so.

THE TERRITORIES and SOME HISTORIES that I’ve documented, with photos of the reigning alphas.

🐾 Territory #1 includes five full neighborhoods including the highest hills in San Francisco. This is where my coyote family documentation began in 2007, with a coyote named Myca, who *owned* both Twin Peaks and its vast surroundings. [For a 2024 summary, see: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/11/25/long-term-territorial-stability-recently-disrupted-but-retained]. And, by the way, DNA testing in 2019 showed that all of San Francisco’s coyotes (up through 2019) descended from just four original founders who began repopulating the City in 2002. [More on that: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/02/28/my-sf-coyote-dna-study-continues/] and [https://coyoteyipps.com/2013/04/26/history-for-the-record-how-coyotes-arrived-in-san-francisco/]

Chert had been our long-time alpha here since 2014. In the vacuum left by her death last year (2024), her offspring Chevy and Bibs — sibling littermates — now three years old — paired up and claimed part of the land. This spring, they had their first litter. Meanwhile, Scowl (Chert’s son-turned-mate for 2 years before he left her) returned with his new mate, Bonus, to reclaim the other portion of Chert’s territory. The once-unified territory now has two households:

Scowl & Bonus hold the larger Territory #2.
Chevy & Bibs command Territory #1.

Through all the upheaval, the land has remained in the same family line for nearly two decades:

Myca (2007) → Maeve (2009–2013) → Silver (2009–2021) → Chert (2013–2024) → Scowl (2019–present) → Chevy & Bibs (2022–present) — with new pups born in 2025 to both branches.

I’ve followed and photographed all of them across these 18 years.

One last note: I continue to see Scowl regularly interacting with other coyotes whom I suspect are his dispersed offspring. I catch these interactions on infrared cameras. Although I can’t identify them individually, the presence of more than just the one family suggests that some family bonds endure, even after dispersal.

🐾 Territory #3

Territory #3 was claimed in 2016 by Scout who dispersed from Territory #1 at nine months of age. Most dispersals I’ve seen here in San Francisco have taken place later than that, during the second year of life. Territory #3 had been unoccupied since the previous alpha was killed by a car a couple of years earlier. You can follow Scout’s running story on my blog, or here is a fairly complete summary: https://coyoteyipps.com/2022/12/21/scout-winter-solstice-catch-up/; https://coyoteyipps.com/2023/04/23/scout-moving-on/. Her update to 2025 can be read here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2025/05/05/scouts-saga-continues-an-update/

The Long Reign of Scout, in short. Scout’s story spans nearly a decade. Born in Territory #1, she dispersed at just nine months to vacant Territory #3, holding it as a solitary queen for three years before being seen with a male companion. Challenges came — most notably a half-year battle with a stronger female who tried to take her land in 2019 — but Scout persisted and regained control of her territory. Over the years, she raised litters with two different mates, shifting den sites and even expanding temporarily into nearby ground in 2022 (to Territory #4). Through all of it, she kept her grip on Territory #3 for nine straight years.

A Daughter’s Coup in 2025. This year, at age ten, Scout met the challenger she could not drive out: her own two-year-old daughter, Lapis, born in 2023. Lapis refused to disperse, standing her ground even under her mother’s repeated attempts to intimidate her. Eventually, the standoff ended with Scout’s departure — her own daughter had taken over the territory — poetic, in a way, after what Scout herself had endured.

Scout has moved back to Territory #4, where she had pupped in 2022, and has been steadily expanding that range. Her push has forced the current resident family there — the mange stricken Clip, Dude, and their two yearlings — to shrink back to a reduced Territory #5. They, too, had pups this year, but the mange has weakened them, and may be the cause for them giving up the expanded area they used to occupy.

Back in Territory #3, Lapis now rules alongside her littermate-turned-mate Bold. The pair became parents this spring, marking the fifth generation of the Territory #1 line — the same lineage that produced Bibs and Chevy in Territory #1. And, as with Scowl in Territory #2, there is regular visiting between some of the individuals in Territory #3 and Territory #2.

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In territory #6, change has been constant. [For their earlier history, see: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/01/10/family-interrupted-update]. Since I first began observing this territory in 2014, one family after another has taken over. In 2024, Clipped and Tubetail and their yearlings all showed up with mange. Nevertheless, Clipped was lactating heavily this spring, showing that she had given birth to pups this year. However, in June of this year, 2025, when their pups would have been only 2 months old — a new family of coyotes suddenly moved in and this family is no longer there. I wonder if the pups got mange and might not have survived? This is a family I keep track of with only a field camera at a hole in the fence which has been frequented daily by all family members, allowing me to see the changes and growth of families without being there.

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Territory #7 has been far more stable. Alpha parents Pipa and Blondie have been in place here since 2019, raising litters every year. I watched Pipa grow up in Territory #8 where she was born in 2017, and I watched Blondie grow up in Territory #9 where he also was born in 2017. This year, in 2025, four of their yearlings have stuck around to help raise the newest litter of three pups. It’s one of the larger families.

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In territory #8, Wired and Sparks have ruled since 2021, after Wired’s first mate, Puff disappeared. Less than two years before this, when Puff was Wired’s mate, Puff and Wired battled the old, widowed previous owner of the territory, Petra, driving her out and replacing her. This year the family consists of Wired, her mate Sparks of 4 years, one yearling, Cricket, and Wired had SEVEN pups this year! Cricket’s brother, Spider, is the coyote who was tragically shot in Crissy Field in September 2024 for grabbing three small unleashed dogs. An earlier write-up of this territory can be found here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2023/07/08/sparks-update/, and an update to that can be found here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/01/catching-up-on-sparks/.

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Territory #9 saw an abrupt change in 2025 when long-time alphas Cai2 and Stumpf disappeared early in the year, leaving four yearlings and one two-year old behind. These five youngsters are holding down the fort well without any alphas over them. Galileo, the yearling female, very well might become the next alpha female there unless the territory is invaded and taken over by a stronger pair. The story is a continuing one, as are they all.

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Territories #10 and #11 share an arrangement: two families whose borders actually overlap. Mango & Heart had pups this year as revealed by Heart’s swollen mammary glands in the spring, while Scrub & Cactus along with their yearling, Sand, own the territory right next to AND overlapping theirs. For now, they manage to coexist and share some of their corridors.

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*Monte was killed in 2021, his grand-offspring are still on Territory #12, but not as alpha parents*, *and Territory #13.*

The once wide-ranging “gypsy” bloodline that anchored territory #12 is gone. Its most notable member, Monte (aka Carl), is gone (see photo), but the lineage continues elsewhere through their offspring, in Territory #13, and in Territory #12. You can read their story and see photos here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/05/15/till-death-do-us-part/. Monte was shot by the City in 2021 for bearing his teeth to a child in his denning area. His and Ma’am’s son, Cape, remained there with his young mate Vida (born in Territory #1), but both parents were killed by cars within a few months of each other in 2022, leaving 7 month old pups behind who indeed remained there for a while. The daughter, Bonus, in fact paired up with Scowl (after he divorced Chert) and raised one litter of pups on this territory in 2024. The territory has been vacant since Bonus and Scowl returned to Territory #1 in 2025. But we are beginning again to see occupants here this summer!

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Territory #13. Fille and Flick are the alpha parents here, with two yearlings. They had four pups this year. Last year, three members of this family were tragically shot by the City in the Botanical Garden when a young day-camper was nipped by one of them. For years this had been a denning area, yet there were no signs, education, or precautions in place. Denning areas are notoriously protected by all members of a coyote family. In this case, a child in a butterfly costume went into the bushes where a coyote was resting, as she hurried away upon seeing the coyote, she tripped and fell, and that’s when she was nipped “on the bum” as her mother said. Three coyotes were shot for this, including a three month old pup. Fille was shot, but managed to survive the ordeal. Both Fille and Flick were born on this territory from a line that extends back in time through Tarn & Monte, and Pink & OM, so this territory is another one encompassing a family saga. https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/10/30/catastrophic-handling-of-the-botanical-garden-coyote-incident-is-examined-by-dan-noyes-of-abc-news-october-29-2024-with-sound/

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Territory #14. The alpha parents Amber and Scarf controlled the territory as of April, along with their two yearlings, Splash and Dew. In fact, Amber has held the territory for many years, shuffling through males fairly regularly. Amber’s two-year-old son, Archer, has kept to himself at the very western end of the park over the last two years — could this be because he and only he became afflicted with mange? I don’t know. Amber and Scarf had four pups this year, however, sometime in April Scarf seems to have disappeared. Am I just not seeing him, or is he really gone? I don’t know. New fellow, Polo, is hardly ever seen, but he was at the densite guarding, so he seems to have taken over the alpha male role. Also, one pup was found dead in July and I’m hoping the loud and crowded summer concerts are not behind his death.

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Territory #15. Brick who has been the alpha dad for a number of years (along with him previous mate, Eyes), has a new mate this year, Poppy; both have been afflicted with mange and Poppy is encumbered with a continuing limp. I don’t know what happened to Eyes or to her offspring who are no longer around. And I’ve not seen any pups this year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I will update as I find out more.

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Territory #16. Alphas Mak & Mari own this territory alone, without any yearlings. Both of them have different degrees of mange, with HER case being the worst of the two. I assume there are pups, but I have not seen them. Mari continues with her long-time limp.

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Territory #17. Pico, the alpha female on this territory was nursing pups through May, but no pups or yearlings have been sighted and I’ve not seen (or even been able to identify) Dad — he appears not to be around any longer. I’ll update as I find out more.

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Territory #18 A thriving family with pups continues to claim this territory, but my observations have been minimal at this location. I will update with photos soon.

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?? Unnumbered question marks: Coyotes are seen here pretty regularly, but I haven’t had time to confirm who those coyotes are or their relationships.

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Taken together, these territories each have elements of stability and change, with the two weighted differently for each territory — some families appear to be deeply rooted and entrenched on their territories while others may last only a couple of seasons before changes are seen — all are part of the quiet, ongoing family life of the city’s wild residents of which few people are aware beyond the encounters they report.

These are the alpha parents in the city this year (2025) — a summary of images seen throughout this posting. NOT depicted are about the same number of yearlings who will soon disperse. The new crop of pups born this year number close to the total number of adults (yearlings and alphas).

© All information, maps, and photos in my postings come from my own original and first-hand documentation work which I am happy to share, with permission and with properly displayed credit: ©janetkessler/coyoteyipps.com.

An Increase of Interlopers in SF

27 Apr 2025 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in territorial changes, territoriality, territories in SF Tags: coyote interlopers in San Francisco

Hello Readers! Please be aware that I do most of my postings on Instagram lately. That is the better place to find updated photos and information generally about our San Francisco coyotes. It turns out that I’m using a *theme* on this blog which is no longer supported by WordPress. I will continue to write longer articles on this blog and I will work on transferring my materials to a new theme or new location, but I’m not a techy and this may take me awhile. Please email me directly if you have suggestions for an easy transfer of this site. Thanks, and I hope you will continue learning through my Instagram account. Janet

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Territories in SF, Spring 2024

11 Sep 2024 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in territories in SF

San Francisco Coyote Territories, Spring 2024: update. This map needs my permission for reproduction, including for content. It’s based entirely on my own first-hand and original field observations. The underlying map is a ©GoogleMap.

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.

And I’ve written about the changes that have been occurring in Golden Gate Park: how the Western family has been pushing their boundary eastward, squeezing and pushing the Eastern family farther east.

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

LostEye and Brick

Recent Territorial Shift in Golden Gate Park

22 May 2024 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in territories in SF

*Golden Gate Park recent territory shift*

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco stretches about 3.5 miles in length and .5 miles in width, and occupies a space of about 1.5 square miles. Over the past five years, we’ve had as many as three coyote families using portions of the park — the westernmost tip of the park was actually a small extension of another territory, but doesn’t seem to be that anymore. Note that these families live on exclusively owned territories and keep other coyotes out, which is why it’s easy to know their territories.

For years, the Eastern Family occupied the territory from the eastern area of the park to all the way past Crossover Drive, while the Western Family kept to the very western part of the park. The territories, of course, extended far beyond the northern and southern boundaries of the park, deep into the surrounding neighborhoods which are patrolled and marked mostly at night, but the park area has been their main hub with their denning areas. The average urban coyote territory of 2.5 square miles is epitomized by the Presidio.

In 2022 the Eastern Family was actually a *double family*: both an alpha mother coyote AND her two-year-old daughter became pregnant and were nursing, and the families co-mingled, but just for one season. This situation was probably caused by the City’s killing of the alpha male in 2021. After that, a new male entered the picture and fathered pups to both the alpha female and her daughter. Maybe it’s because they were related that they all lived in harmony. The next year, in 2023, we were back to ONE family in the area with the daughter-turned-mother and her brother becoming the new alphas. The older alphas had disappeared: I’ve witnessed this almost *ceding* the territory to the younger generation a number of times, and the older pair then appear to disperse forever, never to be seen again, like any other dispersing yearling unable to claim a territory within the city.

The Eastern Family at the moment consists of four individuals: Mom, Dad, a one-year-old male yearling and a three-year-old male offspring who has not left yet. Mom and Dad produced a new litter of pups this year — I haven’t seen them yet, but Mom is lactating.

The Western Family consists of five adult-size individuals: Mom, Dad and three sons, aged one, two and three years of age. They too have produced a new litter of pups this year as evidenced by the lactating Mom. Last year this Western Family denned openly right off a field used by dogs. It was not a good situation for either dogs or coyotes. But, as they say, *practice makes perfect* and this family had a lot of practice running off dogs. This practice may have given them the confidence to close-in on the other coyote family — or maybe even vice versa!

In 2021 I had seen forays by the Western Family into the edges of the Eastern Territory at night. This *pushing the envelope* continued, with that Western Family now adding a 1/2 to 3/4ths mile section of the park to their territory, taken over from the Eastern Family.

What’s interesting is that the Western family now travels as a large family unit — 3 to 5 of them together most of the time. I’m wondering if the sheer nightly appearance of this group is what has allowed their slow encroachment east.

In short, we have two coyote families in Golden Gate Park, with one seemingly interested in claiming more of the other’s, if not the whole park. The Eastern Family, on the other hand, is hanging on to what they inherited from their parents — they did not fight for their territory, whereas I believe the Western Family displaced the last family in the West about 5 years ago — the few photos I took of that family do not resemble anyone in the current family. As I’ve pointed out before, there are uncanny family resemblances in coyote nuclear families that have helped me make associations between them.

Here are some very general photos from throughout the park: Dog issues. Hunting, eating, sleeping, howling and thirst quenching: major coyote occupations! Some other wildlife. Human food is everywhere.