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!
Times in many ways have been hard for this young, two-and-a-half-years old female coyote whom I call Sis. Hard, because she was excluded from her family group by her mother and had to live her life apart from them, but within seeing range, for over a year. Only Dad would come over to console her now and then. I was sure she would disperse, but a fellow observer told me that this coyote was strong and would be sticking around. I was surprised that this is, indeed, how it worked out.
Dad visits her
Intruders came through the area several times during this year-long time-frame, and the family drove them out, with this young female right in there helping with that. I felt that she was trying to prove her worthiness to the family, but it didn’t seem to help regain her any acceptance. Eventually, a couple of months ago, the family left the territory entirely, leaving her all alone with one younger pup who now, too, seems to be gone. Dad returned regularly to visit at first, but not often. His visits, too, slowly waned and then ceased.
I often find her alone, as usual, lying on a little knoll with her chin to the ground. I gather that she looks forward to my appearances because she’s always there as though waiting for me. On this day, after the sirens sounded, she responded while lying down — not even bothering to get up! I recorded the entire howl session, her single voice filling the evening. It was just about dark outside causing the video to go out of focus right at the end of the recording.
Yes, coyotes can be very happy critters. Seeing is believing. “Blissful” only begins to describe this young gal’s elated wallowing on the old tennis ball she has just delighted in playing with for half an hour. May all coyotes, and you, find this much joy in the new year!
There was no siren this time — sirens are what often sets off coyote howling in the city, where they usually begin in tandem or pretty close together. This howling reflects their unity as a family, and possibly territorial separateness from any neighboring coyotes. For more about oral communication, see my post on Voicings.
But this time, it was SHE who vocalized alone: she was calling out to him repeatedly. Rather than answering in-kind and right-off, he apparently responded by actually coming. Then, once she was in his line-of-vision, he began his high-pitched, pup-like locutions, and then her calls morphed into the same type of little “hello there” whines and squeals. These are greetings.
These two coyotes are an old, mated pair. Their evening rendezvous, which this is, although joyous in its own way, was more a confirmation of each coyote’s status towards each other. The male is the dominant fellow in many ways, and you can see this when they finally come together: she crouches down and lets him stand over her: it’s their little ritual. But note that she is the one who did the calling. A more “conversational” back-and-forth communication over the distance can be heard here.
After the meeting/greeting they both went off hunting separately, but sticking close by to each other. Coyotes are social and enjoy each others’ company.
The injured coyote I wrote about in my last posting is doing great even though he does not have full use of his foot yet! He’s walking, running, and kicking up his heels for the fun of it, having a fantastic time with his mate. But it might not have been this way.
Apparently people on NextDoor had contacted a wildlife rehabilitator to actually trap this coyote — I was asked to participate by monitoring the trap. This “plan” came about based solely on visual reports, by well-meaning folks on that forum, that a coyote was injured — subject and situation unseen by the trapper who also didn’t know much about coyotes. I was not too happy about this because it was obvious to me that this was a step which should not be taken. It was almost four weeks after the injury and the animal was improving well on his own.
I explained the situation to them: That this coyote was healing beautifully, was able to run well on three legs, hunted wonderfully and could take care of himself. That he just needed to be left alone: the animal was very mobile and interference was not necessary. That the best thing that could be done for him was to give him space and to keep dogs from chasing him, because this was probably what caused the injury in the first place. The WORST thing in this case would be to “rescue” him — it was a short-sighted plan that neglected to look at the whole picture. This coyote is part of a very happy newly formed family unit, and trapping would absolutely disrupt what he had going for him. Coyotes are resilient and live beautifully in the wild even with huge handicaps. I sent videos to show the improvement over that last month. The day after the injury. Three weeks after the injury. And now, please take a look at the video above, six weeks after the injury.
When the coyote first showed up with a hefty limp, it appeared that the foot might be dislocated or broken. He could not use the leg at all and held it up. But within a day he had learned to run on three legs and continued to hunt well, so I didn’t want to interfere (see addendum below). Nonetheless, to cover all bases, I sent photos and videos to a veterinarian and I contacted Lou, my rancher friend who has had an intimate association with countless wild coyotes for 30 years.
The veterinarian responded, saying that indeed the foot looked either dislocated or broken in some way, which potentially could lead to problems in the long run. She said that there was no really good way to address this in a wild animal other than complete capture and wildlife vet intervention to surgically fuse his ankle. And then likely a wildlife sanctuary life for him. Otherwise, she said, we let nature take its course: allow the foot to self-fuse (self-arthrodesis). Once it is “fused” more weight will be placed on it, but this process can take months. The veterinarian agreed that the best option was to allow the coyote to heal on his own.
San Francisco Animal Care and Control (ACC) agreed that this would be the best course of action, and I also contacted Lou, my rancher friend for his input:
I concur with leaving the injured coyote. A coyote is a finely tuned canine and capture along with captivity, then release surely changes them and likely not for better. Also, most people cannot comprehend how tough canines are, especially wild coyote. Many a coyote has lived long and well with serious, permanent injury or debilitating condition. If a coyote had a choice, he would rather heal slowly or partially in wild then quick in captivity.
Wounded but still wild and healing is how the coyote has developed into such a super canine. They have learned to survive and thrive in a dangerous, painful at times, world.
One of the local coyotes is instantly recognized by his permanent limp, and scarred body. He is unusally banged up and old yet has been a dad and leader for years. A bum leg or foot hasn’t stopped him in the very least.
Although the coyote may not recover to exactly how he was before the injury, I’m told he’ll recover enough to lead as full a life as ever. Capture and confinement, which is what medical aid would entail, would unnecessarily terrorize the coyote and alter his “wildness” forever. We don’t need to do this. And most importantly, the possibility of life in a sanctuary is not an acceptable option for this coyote who is happy with his newfound mate right where he is. There are always tradeoffs, and this time the scales were in favor of leaving the animal in his fantastic social situation to heal on his own over an immediate but disruptive and traumatizing “fix”.
Addendum: Ten years ago I looked on and watched another coyote heal from a much worse upper leg and hip injury — most likely a break. The leg was dragged for months on end. I could see that she was able to take care of herself, so I decided to watch her instead of opting for an immediate fix requiring removal. I’m glad I did, because unbeknownst to anyone, it turned out that she was a single mom with two pups (well hidden, obviously) who would have perished had she been interfered with. Anyway, this taught me that we humans can’t possibly know all contingencies. IF nature CAN heal a wound/injury, I learned, it should be allowed to do so.
Leg or paw injuries are very common in urban coyotes — I see them all the time. Most that I’ve seen are the result of dogs chasing them: legs get twisted, pulled, or even dislocated and broken as they try to get away in an urban environment. I’ve also seen several instances of this resulting from coyote/coyote interactions.
Before I even knew that this coyote was injured, I watched his caring mate investigate the severity of the leg injury. Coyotes apparently investigate through their noses more than their eyes: she sniffed the leg intently. We’ve all seen our canine companions sniff each other to find out about each other, and I’ve read about dogs who can actually sniff a two-degree temperature change in humans (which happens just before an epileptic episode), so this kind of investigative sniffing is very understandable. Their eye-to-eye gaze afterwards, in the photo below, appears to show that each understood what was going on.
Investigating the injury with her nose
Eye-to-eye contact seems to convey a mutual understanding of the leg injury
Then the female did her best to get the injured male coyote to follow her to a safer area. She tried her darnedest: she poked and prodded and pushed with her paw, her head, and her whole body. He complained and rebelled with a gaping show of teeth, but eventually he gave in a little and went with her, even if only for a short distance. I posted a similar instance of this type of prodding to get a mate to do something, see Coyote Communication: An Example.
Poking with a paw
Moving in closer, almost hugging him with her chin
He stubbornly remains put
Prodding again
Pushing with her head and arm
Pushing with her neck
He resists as she again prods
She stands up to him as he complains
She prods him yet again
He moves along with her for a short distance
Shortly thereafter, always looking out for him, the female noticed active dogs nearby. She immediately hurried over towards the dogs to divert any potential pursuers (that’s her rushing off at the beginning of the video). None came his way. “Altruism, in the biological sense, refers to a behavior performed by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the one performing the behavior.”[Wikipedia] She was clearly placing herself at a greater risk for being pursued while reducing his risk.
Later on there was more intimate contact between the two coyotes, as seen below, but I couldn’t tell if she was still trying to move him away from the area, or simply nuzzling him: this contact lasted only a few seconds, so I think it was simply a nuzzling.
Grooming is a major social activity for coyotes. It is part and parcel of companionships, friendships and pair-bonding, as well as family-ties. Grooming also has health benefits: for example, it reduces ticks which often act as vectors for spreading disease and infection. It also, apparently, is a calming factor in many animals.
Here, only one of the pair engages in the grooming. Judging by this pair’s everyday behavior, the grooming is almost certainly an extension of her affection and caring for him. And, as though that weren’t profound enough on its own, notice how the groomed one actually ‘thanks’ the groomer with an affectionate lick to her paw: “I like you a whole lot, too!”
The owner and patriarch of this ranch was born here. He knows literally every inch, tree, range and spot of this vast property. He knows the sounds and smells. Only very old age limits his patrols and work.
He has children and grandchildren who also help, as well as hired hands. So it’s well cared for.
I went for my monthly visit and patrol of some distant fencelines when he mentioned he hasn’t heard the coyotes for 2 weeks and felt something was wrong or going on along one area and border. He knows nature. He said this is “especially the noisy time of year for the pack, and if they aren’t hollerin, somethin’s up”.
He asked for me to be especially watchful in one area, and I’m glad he did. I approached the spot, and my dogs alerted in every way. They casted and scented, circled, growled, and looked all over.
Eventually, I found the cause. It was a poachers camp, with illegally killed deer, elk and bear meat and parts being processed. They camped literally just inside his ranch, hidden in gully that joins BLM land and forests.
There also was a “dump” where scraps were tossed. I discreetly took pics and hurried back to inform rancher and make calls to authorities. I must admit I was pretty enraged. And we had to almost hold the old rancher from literally saddling up with his favorite horse and guns.
What we determined was a group of poachers were there and by their actions disrupted the coyotes. They were moving and hunting at night, not moving like ranchers and workers. Also, the coyotes were scavenging the poachers dump but were silent due to being cautious of new humans, and or being stuffed unusually every day. And who knows, perhaps poachers tried to hunt them too. Either way, the suspicions of the rancher were raised because his normally vocal coyote neighbors suddenly went silent for a long time.
That is really tied to the land. He says he won’t feel better until he hears ‘his’ coyotes again.
(The camp was destroyed, game and snares confiscated and cameras utilized in tracking down poachers. They will soon be apprehended and charged.)
Another reason to let coyotes remain. They can tell us alot…if we listen.
Although coyotes have nabbed raccoons and often work as a team to do so, our coyotes here in San Francisco usually forage individually because of the nature of their prey: small rodents, squirrels, voles, even birds, berries, etc. Even so, they often head out to hunt in pairs. They are social animals, so being together is as much fun for them as it is for us. They often become separated as they follow their noses to areas quite distant from the other, but eventually, they come together to “check-in”. When this happens, there is a little greeting and acknowledgement which consists of eye contact, nose touches, and sometimes some play.
These photos today are of a recently bonded pair of coyotes. Their relationship as a pair is new. Their regular “checking-in” involves more overt displays of joy than most: you can just hear them thinking: “I’m so happy to see you, I’m so happy that you are here with me!” Their interactions at this time are much more similar to what happens at an evening rendezvous, when coyotes come together after having been sleeping apart most of the daylight hours. The rendezvous is a very intense time of socialization between coyotes: there are wiggles and squiggles and joyous jumping over each other, chasing, lots of body contact, body hugs and love bites. Well, this pair greet each other in this manner after they’ve been apart for only 5-10 minutes! It appears that this new match was made in heaven!
A joyous game of chase and catch-me-if-you-can
Playful jumping all over each other
Hugs and togetherness in midair
Body contact even as they run off together
A provokingly affectionate teasing nip to the leg
Contact again, with a paw on his back
Background on these two coyotes: This pair of coyotes came together only several months ago. In her birth family, the three-and-a-half years old female had been an “only child” where her parents left her by herself hours on end, so she was used to being all alone. She dispersed early and became the resident coyote in her new claimed territory which had been left vacant by a coyote hit by a car several years earlier. Here, she remained a loner, and over time, began focusing on cars, humans and dogs for entertainment: coyotes are social animals, and with no other coyotes around, she made do with what there was in sort-of the form of virtual interactions. I worked with the community to discourage interactions in order to preserve her wary and wily wildness as much as possible. Education of this sort worked because most people wanted to do what was best for her. It appears that this coyote didn’t know what she had been missing in the form of “real” interactions until the male showed up. Suddenly, she was overjoyed to finally have a real companion! She is the one who displays the most exuberance and joy when they “check-in”.
The younger newcomer male arrived after having been dispersed — driven out — from his birth family in August by his own siblings who had formed an alliance or bond between themselves: there was no room for him there as an adult. Once youngsters disperse, I usually don’t see them again, but I have been privileged to reconnect with three of them after they dispersed. Once I get to know coyotes, they become easily identifiable through their very distinct appearances and behaviors. Of interest to many people might be that there happen to be “family resemblances” in some coyote families, no different from family resemblances in human families. This male came from a family of four siblings who used to play endlessly together through a year-and-a-half of age.
The play gets more rough and tumble, but is always affectionate
Jumping all over each other with hugs
“Ha ha, gotcha!” Teasing is how they display their connectiveness
Pulling him by his fur has got to be high on the list of tolerances between bonded coyotes
Only a good friend would allow you to grab him by the scruff of the neck with your teeth!
Sibling rivalry and discord are part-and-parcel of coyote families, just as are the formation of tight and everlasting bonds and friendships.
Here a younger sibling continues to harasses his sister (see Yearling Taunts) through body blows/bangs/punches or smacks. He seems to have a need to egg-her-on, whereas she just wants to be left alone atop the mound. This younger brother followed her there explicitly to taunt her and dives into his activity the minute she tries lying down. This is now an established behavior between these two.
No other coyote in this family engages in the type of body blows he performs at the beginning of this video except his mother. Mom is an expert at this, and this 8-month old pup watched and learned from her, and now uses his sister as his punching bag to practice his technique. Coyotes are keen observers: they learn by watching and copying. It’s fascinating to watch.
After the body bangs, the younger sibling continues to be “in his sister’s face” by yanking up dried sticks disruptively right next to her. He’s purposefully making himself into an utter nuisance and is probably hoping for a rise from her.
Eventually, a third older sibling comes to check out the activity, but he soon leaves because the disruptive behavior is not enough to warrant interference. This older sibling is very mild, peace-loving, and generally aloof from the first two, but he has occasionally been a disciplinarian when their behavior became too disruptive, and he also has approached the female to comfort her after some of the youngster’s harassment sessions, which lately are growing in number and intensity.
Coyote families are orderly, so growing disruptive behavior is not tolerated for long. This behavior will eventually lead to someone’s dispersal.
For variety, occasionally I write about other animals than just coyotes. This post here was simply going to address what kind of coyote/goat encounters existed when goats were allowed to weed-by-grazing where coyotes lived. Although I touch on this, the post became one about citygrazing.com
It all began when I was asked if I had seen “THE goats”. WHAT goats? I love goats! I went to look. It was in the area where I watch coyotes and I wondered how the coyotes and goats fared in the same area. I spoke with Doug there, the goatherd. He gave me the contact for his boss, Genevieve. Well, I found out a lot more than just how the goats and coyotes got along, and it was hugely interesting!More
This video depicts a yearling male taunting his two-year-old sister with an unusual technique he picked up from his mother. Coyotes learn by observing and imitating, which is definitely what went on here. The only coyote I know who regularly uses this body-blow method for discipline or fighting, is these coyotes’ mother who has used it at various times towards her daughter, this same two-year-old sister. The yearling male obviously picked it up from her by watching and imitating her, and in this video he bangs his sister tauntingly and mercilessly with this new-found skill. He is doing it simply to bully and harass her.
What led to this is that older sister for a while attempted dominating younger brother and got rather aggressive in doing so. This may be because younger brother had the habit of following big sister around and imitating her, and as he did so, he would get in her way. So Sister reacted. Soon, Mom interfered and forbade daughter from any aggression towards her younger brother. If Sister showed any aggression towards younger brother, Mom would interfere with an aggressive put-down towards the daughter. The result was that younger brother became more and more taunting, and the daughter had no recourse except to put up with it, which she is doing here, as he practices and perfects his body-blow technique on her.
Interestingly, he’s the one who ended up dispersing, of his own volition, at a year-and-a-half of age, whereas she is still part of her birth family.
In this posting, I want to show the amazingly joyous tuned-in camaraderie, if you will, that is displayed between these two coyotes. The rapport is fascinating, with the coyotes not only walking side-by-side, constantly looking at each other, and even hunting alongside each other, but in addition, you can see that they are blatantly thrilled with each other’s company! They are in-tune to each other’s moods and intentions, and they both are on the same wavelength as far as their “togetherness” is concerned.
I don’t remember ever watching two adult coyotes getting to know each other like this. In all the pairs I’ve been observing, I either came to an established pair, or siblings became a pair, or a youngster moved into a vacated adult position caused by a death — yes, there is a lot of inbreeding in coyotes, at least in San Francisco. But now I have an opportunity to document coyotes getting to know each other from the word “go”.
The pair just met a couple of months ago when the dispersing 1.5 year-old male appeared on the doorstep (footpath?) of the 3.5 year-old loner female’s territory: she had been living all alone there for three years, so this has been a huge change for her. She welcomed him right from the start. From the beginning there was a lot of eye-contact, and snout-touches, but initially there was also tentativeness and carefulness which over the weeks has morphed into uninhibited displays of “oneness” and affection as trust has grown.
Eye-to-eye contact as they walk along: there’s rapport, harmony and they are in-tune
The photos show the magnetic draw between these two through their warmth and enthusiastic reaching out for contact and even play-bites: these are “I like you” gestures. As an observer, I actually feel their affectionate engagement between them.
Eye to eye joy and zeroing in on each other
Meeting “that special friend” is something most of us can relate to! My next posting about these two will be about their “checking in” with each other after a short period of being apart, with teasing and fun between them, which are what coyotes use to show each other how much they like each other, and how at-ease they are with one another.
Reaching towards the other with a little snout hug
Almost walking arm-in-arm
An affectionate gentle snout-bite as they walk along
Stopping for a short grooming — he’s picking a bug off her coat
Allowing him to share her “find”.
Leaning into each other for an affectionate face rub
Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, Getting to hope you like me.
Coyotes communicate constantly through eye-contact, as I’ve written about many times. The communication can become stronger with an intense gaze or stare, and the communication can turn physical, for emphasis. I’ve seen females prod or poke their mates either with a paw or their snouts, or even push with their forelegs and entire bodies, to get the other coyote to do something. I’ve given some “proding” examples previously in Intruder: Territorial Fighting (slide #30), and Pestering.
The injured male insisted on remaining out in the open and visible (he has been primed by human feeders and befrienders to hang around — note we are working on eliminating this human behavior), whereas it appears that his mate’s instincts were telling her that being exposed out in the open wasn’t such a good idea. Coyotes do watch out for each other. HE did not seem to agree with her wisdom and resisted her. She persisted in upping her communication intensity, causing him a lot of anguish and uneasiness which can be read in his tense body stance and movements.
This series of photos shows a progression in intensity of communication between a protective female mate and her resistant, injured male “better-half”.
[Click on each series-of-four to enlarge and run through them as a slide-show]
He just wants to bask in human attention
His mate focuses on him
He bolts up when he knows she’s coming
Here she’s coming at him
The female begins her communication to the injured male (above) by simply making him aware that she’s there: she walks over and lies down close by under the bushes where she is somewhat hidden but “present”. He must have sensed her gaze from that distance. I missed the signal, but before she even gets up to approach him, he bolts up guardedly and looks in her direction: has she emitted a sound that has alerted him to her intentions?
Eye to eye glare
Eye to eye glare with a lick
Eye to eye glare with a nose-nip
She has his full attention now
Next (above) she approaches him decisively, places herself directly in front of him, only inches away, and looks at him razor-sharply in the eye. She holds that gaze for many seconds. The gaze breaks for a second, but then recommences closer and more intense than before, and she gives him a little tweak of the nose — first with a nose-lick and then a nose-nip. He squeals in pain and moves away from her mouth, standing erectly and guardedly.
She growls at him
He prepares for her next move
He flinches and side-steps when she turns to face him
His look and stance reveal his annoyance
When she begins turning her head in his direction again, he lunges away. When she looks at him again he returns a pained and uneasy look — it’s his muzzle that has been injured (above).
She now pokes him with a paw
She now pushes as he tries to stop her
He distances himself
But she again places herself in his path and in his face
She seems to understand and now uses her paws to push/prod him to get going, and then gives him a whole body push. He responds by distancing himself from her. She approaches him again (above).
She stands in front of him to direct his movement
He becomes resigned
Once more, nose touches
He walks off with her obediently.
After more of the same, he relents, and she finally is able to lead him away, reluctantly at first, but he does follow, tarrying a little and resisting by sniffing as they move along, and eventually stepping in line with her, until they both disappear into the underbrush.
[I spend my time observing and documenting coyote behavior and then writing and posting about them, in order to show people what they are really like. Mine are all first-hand observations, made on my own, usually about family life, which you can’t find much about beyond a few photos of pups on the internet. I get into what is actually going on. I’m a self-taught naturalist who is in the field many hours every day. I don’t know of any academics who are doing this, so this information is not available elsewhere. Hope you enjoy it, learn from it, and then embrace coyotes for who they really are! Janet]
When asked about the personality of coyotes, Kessler lights up. “Your average coyote is intelligent, curious, playful, protective, adventurous, cunning, independent, self-reliant, has family values and a frontier spirit, and strong individuality. Those are the same rugged frontier characteristics we value in ourselves.”
Writer Vanitha Sankaran from Pacifica Magazine recently contacted me requesting an interview and photos of coyotes for an article she wanted to do. Coyotes were being sighted more frequently in Pacifica, so it was an opportune time to get some information out to the public. I was, of course, happy to do this.
Here is her article, capturing how and why my passion began and grew as I discovered the extent of individual coyote personalities and the profusion of family interactive behaviors, along with the simplest basic guidelines for coexistence. Reproduction of the photos appear a little grainy in these online versions, but that several depict strong social interactions is very clear.
Hopefully the article will help open the door to recognizing that there are commonalities between species vs. “denying these similarities because we’ve been told that animals couldn’t possibly have qualities or social drives that humans have”. Recognizing a kind of parallelism will help you relate to them better, and help you possibly appreciate who they really are.
Feedback I’ve been getting: The writeup is fun and informative! :)) I’ve included the above embedded copy of the article from Pacifica’s website, and a link to a PDF version, below, which might be easier to read.
PDF version: P_NOV2018-web
Novelty, again, attracts a coyote’s interest! There was a bubble machine spewing out streams of bubbles in one of the parks during twilight hours. Bubbles were everywhere. Some travelled far enough to catch this fellow’s attention. He carefully kept his eyes on several as they floated by, sank, and then popped. Where did they go? I don’t know what he ended up thinking, but eventually he moved on to other, more important things! After all, you can’t eat something that disappears!
[Click on one of these six photos above to enlarge them and flip through 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.
