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!
10 Mar 2024 1 Comment
Tali wrote her own introduction to her study for this blog almost two months ago: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/01/20/using-dna-in-scat-to-study-coyote-diet-by-tali-caspi/
More photos of coyote eating habits in San Francisco: https://coyoteyipps.com/urbancoyotesquared-gallery-of-urban-coyote-life/coyote-eating-habits-in-san-francisco-gallery/
01 Mar 2024 6 Comments
in adaptations, coyotes and wolves, wolves
Hello Janet!
As winter ends and Spring is upon us, change is the theme of the season. Some areas already have spring blossoms. Some areas are locked in snow. We continue on.
Profound changes in local coyote admittedly bothered me some..but I’ve accepted the changes and will keep adapting just like coyote. They have adapted for millennia beyond sucessful.
The changes are both small and huge. Im sure I don’t even get a fraction of it usually.
My dogs and I patrol, inspect and check on vast properties and areas. We note anything worth noting. We scout, track, study and immerse ourselves in the land. This is the 1st late winter that local coyote…have been relatively silent. Not mute. But definitely low key and subdued.
The reason is…wolves. Wolves have very slowly…in trickles..resettled our region. Historically…my pack and I encountered coyote weekly especially in our pre dawn patrols. We developed strategies to counter coyote and give them options and room as we passed. The past 10 years the pack has grown very skillful in minimizing coyote encounters. It was par course to hear coyote concerts, insults and messages.
This has mostly…stopped. On ranch after ranch, range after range…we see changed coyote. They ARE NOT wiped out. But definelty reduced. Our area had a free flow of very vocal packs..sometimes numbering 4-7.
We are now experiencing duos or 3 maybe. And they are quick to call and disappear. They are here…and leave scats still proclaiming territory. But they aren’t advertising visually. If they see or sense canines…they literally disappear in silence. It’s profound for us who always heard some tips or calls or canoe defiance…and recognition.
Most people don’t realize the sheer influence and power of wolves. They are doing what coyote do…surviving. They are actually much shyer, and quieter, then coyote. Less daring. But….when it comes to canine hierarchy..wolves are top dogs in woods. A lone nomadic wolf trots thru and is gone. A territorial pack of wolves methodically, regularly, patrols vast vast areas. They need to eat. And they will run off…or dispatch, any strange wolf, coyote or dog they find in territory. We have 2 regional packs minimally..vying for vast areas. They travel further and faster then any coyote…rountinely.
The result is..after a few years..wolf wary coyote behaviors we’ve never known.
If we want wilderness and wildlife..this is the other side. Animals will establish themselves. They will survive. And some species are more direct about it.
The coyote aren’t wiped out..but no doubt…many have not survived once wolves claim the foothills to cascade circuits. It is nature.
I admit my own struggle with it. Areas the pack and I used to hear coyote neighbors…silent. Also..its humbling. My pack and local coyote established a specific..somewhat sloppy truce. A lot of growls and messages…and distance.
Wolves are inherently shy of humans. I’m not going to hear them yip to my pack. But..my pack also can’t counter wolves as they did coyote.
The Wolves are here and no canines can contest that.
The coyote get quieter and more low key. My dogs stick close to me and we go fwd. We are adapting to wolves. Acknowledging wolves. And amazed to live with Wolves. Real…horizon roaming wolves.
But I miss my noisy coyote.
Take care..
Lou
25 Feb 2024 4 Comments
in altruism, awareness, care for each other, siblings
Lapis has been limping. It’s not a hard limp, but a definite limp. It must hurt her because she stops her walking and lies down apparently to relieve the pain.
Brother then comes by and can sense why she’s lying exactly this way. He comes by, keenly focusing on her eyes — eye-to-eye communication, caringly reading every nuance of her reaction to himself as he gets closer. He’s looking to see if she might not want him to come closer. I know she trusts him because he has earned that trust.
He is always attuned and responsive to her, whether when she’s ready for a chase or just wants to sit. He knows she has a painful leg. Fascinatingly, and I’ve seen this before a number of times, he SNIFFS her foreleg, not just to find out more about it, but also to let her know that he knows about it and that he is concerned. She trustingly watches his very careful and deliberate approach. I myself don’t know if pheromone markers of any type are produced by such an injury, or if simply the heat from the injury is what he detects, but he is able to detect what he needs to. I’ve seen this same type of awareness and detection several times: 1) In this photo, a female found out more about her mate’s injury by smelling it, and then prodded him to move out of the area where dogs might continue to chase him (see photo below from SPCAHSU Peninsula talk]; and here a sibling sniffed to find out about her brother’s injury and then tried channeling his movement to safer places: Cat prodding Sparks.
When Brother appears, he doesn’t poke or push, he simply sniffs and then slowly lowers himself to the ground next to her to lie by her side, as though he wanted to be a comforting presence. I was enthralled watching this: mostly the subtle eye to eye contact, keen mutual awareness, and caring responsiveness.
These two are highly intune, almost telepathically communicative with each other. Mostly, they are understanding and empathetic and warm towards each other in a way I think most of us humans are not aware of, or even, often, capable among ourselves unless it’s a very intimate relationship. When he looks at her, you can FEEL this understanding of her.
When he plays with her, he only plays as roughly as she plays. If you have a dog, you’ll know what I mean: my dog would play tug of war with me, but always only as roughly as I would. If I pulled gently, she would only use that same force to play with me.If I tugged much more roughly, she exerted that same force, in other words, playing at MY level of capability. I’ve seen this brother coyote play with his much larger and more developed brother, and that is a totally different, rough and tumble, competitive and even forceful interaction. In fact, this caring brother in the end always submits to that roughhouse brother in order to stop the rough play.
2-5
16 Feb 2024 4 Comments
in awareness, communication, Injuries
Recall that Lapis — the 10-month-old female who I’ve written about — has an eye condition which is either congenital, or possibly an early injury. According to the vet, her eye isn’t hurting her or she would be squinting it. But we don’t know if she can actually see out of it, though she appears to because she doesn’t turn her head to favor her *good* eye. We also don’t know if the eye itself, or the socket around it might be more sensitive than normal to the touch in any way.
Mom stares into her daughter’s compromised eye trying to figure out why it’s odd.
These photos above show her mother’s keen awareness of that eye. In other words, to us the eye stands out visually, and it does the same for her mother. This “staring into her eye” lasted many moments, probably trying to figure out what might be wrong, or figuring out if there is a way she might fix it. So for example, if there was a foreign object in that eye, Mom might be able to physically pull it out, but, of course, this is not the case here.
And here, to the right, is a photo of such an object lodged in another youngster’s eye: mostly goop around something the size of short fur. This is not Lapis’ situation. This is a coyote youngster from an entirely different family, just to show that grit and objects sometimes end up in eyes..
With Mom’s intense gaze, along with her body movements indicating she was about to approach that eye, Lapis pulls back her lip and bares her teeth with a snarl: a clear message that this kind of intrusion, even from her mother, would not be welcomed: “Please DON’T!” At the same time, Lapis emits a few high-pitched squeals of pain at her mother: “Please STOP!” emphasizing that anything the mother might try is going to hurt her.
Brother comes to sister’s rescue: sensitively and intelligently!
After Lapis emitted those short squeals of pain, BFF brother comes over to his sister’s defense. He seems to know she doesn’t want to be poked at, even by a well-meaning mother. In this family, he has spent the most time with his sister: he and his sister play constantly and I’ve watch them achieve a very nuanced and keen awareness and understanding of, and communication with, each other, and I’m sure it’s even deeper than anything I can see. So he is more intimately aware, even than his own mother, of what his sister’s feelings and needs are: I would say that he has a handle on her very essence.
Of course he has to be very diplomatic and careful how he “tells” mom to back off: this is hard, because naturally Mom is top dog here and everyone falls in line under her. Since she is the dominant one and he has to submit to her, he messages Mom gently to move away by offering himself to be groomed instead. What a brilliant move!
Above: brother inserts himself in front of Mom to be groomed, and she obliges.
Well, that solved the problem! Sister moves off, and brother becomes the object of Mom’s attention! (2-8)
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in presentation, slide presentation
The coyote pupping season is fast approaching. It’s a good time to find out more about our San Francisco coyotes. I’ll be giving a packed 55 minute talk which includes 175 slides and 8 short video clips! It is, after all, a slide presentation, and I’ll have a lot to say, using the slides to illustrate my points. I’ll be covering 1) their population structure, distribution and life cycle, 2) their family life and interactions, and I’ll wind down with 3) stewardship and guidelines for coexistence. In addition, I’ll cover a little about myself and my methods, and at the end I’ll tack on a little about our coyotes in the Randall Museum neighborhood area.
From the Randall: This is “a presentation to accompany the Pops & Pups exhibition. Join us for a special slide presentation and talk by Janet Kessler, AKA “The Coyote Lady.” Janet has been studying, documenting and educating the public with her first-hand information about San Francisco’s wild coyote population for the past 17 years. Learn where they are, who they are and guidelines for coexistence.”
The Pops & Pups: Perpetual Motion” display will be going up on February 20th in this location.
For more about the Randall Museum here in San Francisco, and their announcement, visit them at randallmuseum.org.
02 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in exhibit, photo gallery, Photos
Some of you received a calendar I put together of coyote family life at the end of last year. This exhibit is extracted from that calendar so that more people would have an opportunity to peek into the family life of coyotes.
As many of you know, fathers are important in coyote families: in fact, both parents raise the young, which is unusual in the mammal world. This exhibit mostly displays the helter skelter fun and games between fathers and pups. This behavior is not something seen by most people, the reason being, not only that coyotes are highly secretive, especially with their pups, but most of their activity occurs at night when we aren’t around to see it and when it’s too dark to see it.
The point I want to make is that coyotes are hugely wrapped up in their own family lives. Any of our or our dogs’ interactions with them are peripheral to their family life and are only likely to occur if we impinge on their families and themselves in some way, including through territorial intrusions. The only way to avoid coyote/dog interactions in the city is to stay away from them and walk away the minute you see them. Please note that the display opens around the 20th of February, and I’ll give a general talk on February 24th at noon in the Randall Museum theater. See: https://randallmuseum.org/
28 Jan 2024 2 Comments
This series of photos shows Mom on the right letting Dad on the left know what she feels about what he’s doing. One of their youngsters is there, in the middle, looking on, and obviously anxious about how their “conversation” is going. Coyotes communicate constantly through eye-to-eye contact, facial expressions and body language. They are always aware of each other’s moods and intentions, and most of their communication is silent like this, though sometimes these might include quieter grunts and growls.
Top row: Dad had been lazily relaxing in the aftermath of a rain, when Mom approaches from the right. He’s taking it in stride, with his ears pulled back and focused eye-contact which shows he’s really listening. Notice how intently pup, in the middle, listens to it all and is upset about it’s intensity as shown by the anxiety in his face. He shows his nervousness by licking his lips.
Middle row left, pup is kept quiet and out of the conversation — or maybe even calmed down — by Mom who grabs his snout: this is usually a disciplinary move and reasserts her status and will over his. At this point, pup steps back but continues to be totally focused and absorbed in his parent’s “conversation”.
Bottom row: On the left is when they become aware of me: “Oh, hi over there!” But they’ve come to know me as a benign fixture in the distance, so their conversation resumes. It appears that Mom wanted Dad to get moving because she beckons him to follow and leads him away. Dad complies, and pup trotted along in back of them.
Another conversation that might interest you is this one: Coyote Conversation: An Example. These communications are very directed in their messages: they have a specific intent and planned outcome by the coyote delivering the message, and the message is understood absolutely by the recipient.
Besides eye-to-eye contact and all sorts of body language including physical arm pokes, coyotes also use smells to communicate: this is a whole different channel of communication that we “mere” humans do not have access to except in academic studies. In fact, in our terms, coyotes almost “see” with their noses. They produce and detect pheromones which convey all sorts of specific information, including territorial boundaries through urine scent marking, the presence of outsider coyotes including their meekness or boldness, reproductive status and gender, they can identify specific coyotes who have passed by even days beforehand, and they can smell injuries in each other. And, of course, much more.
In this photo here, it’s interesting to see how a parental communication to one youngster so thoroughly affects an onlooker pup. They, of course, can identify with the situation they are watching.
© All information and photos in my postings come from my own original and first-hand observations and documentation work which I am happy to share, with permission and with properly displayed credit: ©janetkessler/coyoteyipps.com.
20 Jan 2024 7 Comments
in diet, DNA metabarcoding, scat reveals diet
Traditionally, ecologists study diet either by directly observing what animals are eating, or by dissecting animal scat and looking for prey remains. However, these methods have some challenges and limitations. For one, it takes a lot of time and effort to observe wild animals, and though we may be able to observe them foraging, it can be hard to see everything they eat and estimate the relative amounts of different foods consumed by different individuals. Regarding dissection, this method relies on there being undigested parts in the scat left behind – for example fur or bones which are used to identify the species consumed. However, in cities, animals have access to a lot of foods that may not leave anything visual behind in the scat for us to identify. For example, a chicken nugget won’t leave any chicken bones or feathers behind! However, it will leave some chicken DNA behind. This is where a more recent technology for studying diet, known as DNA metabarcoding, is very useful. This method allows scientists to quantify and characterize the diet of animals by first amplifying the DNA present in the scat and then identifying which species that DNA belongs to.
As part of my dissertation research for my PhD in ecology at UC Davis, I am using DNA metabarcoding to identify the species that coyotes in San Francisco consume, estimate which food items are the most frequently eaten, and consider how the diets of coyotes differ depending on where in the city they live. I’m still completing my data analysis, but I have some tidbits to share!
First, coyotes in San Francisco eat a lot of food provided by people, such as domestic chicken and pig – this could be coming from pet foods, garbage, or meat people intentionally put out for coyotes. As Janet has described in her blog many times, this isn’t good. Not only can these foods lack the nutritional content that coyotes need to thrive, but the presence of these foods brings coyotes into closer contact with people, which can lead to interactions between people and coyotes that are undesirable. Securing garbage, not leaving out attractants like fallen fruit and pet food, and making sure to never feed wildlife help decrease the quantity of these foods in coyote diets.
Second, coyotes in San Francisco eat a lot of pocket gophers—they are experts at hunting gophers, which are present throughout most of the city. Other frequently consumed natural prey includes raccoons, voles, and rats.
Finally, although coyotes in San Francisco do eat domestic cats, it’s not as common as many people think: I’m only detecting cats in <5% of the scats I’ve collected. Still, from the standpoint of cat welfare, it’s always a good idea to keep pet cats indoors. Not only does this keep your cats safer, but it protects wildlife and is better for human health and the environment. More to come!
31 Dec 2023 10 Comments
in snares, traps, Wildlife Services
It’s a good time to bring what Wildlife Services does into everyone’s consciousness if it isn’t there already.
A new fence has gone up in Southern Oregon with this sign on it, warning of animal capture devices. The devices are snares and traps meant to capture wolves, foxes, bears, bobcats, coyotes, etc. A rancher that has experienced losses from any suspected predator can request federal assistance or solutions. By partnering with the feds, it is the government that sanctions and maintains the traps, and the federal government that does the killings.
In other words, you and I are paying taxes so that our government can set tortuous traps and snares, causing horrendous deaths to our wildlife. Any canine trapped or snared is legal. Coyote, wolves, dogs. Of course, dogs shouldn’t be roaming alone on sheep or cattle ranches. And ironically . . . they are caught the most. Last year this very fence sector caught 6 coyotes and 15 dogs. And of the coyotes, they were probably attracted to the tall grasses under the fence where rodents a plenty can be found — few are after sheep.
IN ADDITION, you cannot interfere with any canid caught: that would be a federal crime. Can you imagine what it might be like to come across a snared dog or coyote and not be able to help it?
This type of *predator control* is both *law* AND *culture* in these western areas, so it’s almost impossible to voice the wrong of it without dire consequences from the landowners. It’s not only the sheep and cattle industry that’s involved, but also the very powerful and politically connected livestock associations and communities. It’s almost a religion: most people simply cannot conceive of any anti-predator feelings, especially since wolves are growing in numbers. If wolves kill livestock or dogs, the persecution ripples to all predators. So it’s not just the government laws that need to be addressed and changed, but an entire culture that needs to be infiltrated and supplanted with ideas and policies that are all-embracing rather than exclusive to the interests of ranching.
Shouldn’t our government be PROTECTING our wildlife against exploitation and moneyed business interests? As it stands now, ranching and farming as industries are subsidized by our taxes. Maybe our subsidies should be made contingent on a change. Non-lethal methods of limiting predators on ranches have been tested and they work.
A summary of Wildlife Services can be found here, along with the organization that fights against their atrocities: https://www.predatordefense.org/USDA.htm.
And here is the story of a dog caught in a snare set out by Wildlife Services: imagine a wolf, fox, or coyote going through the same trauma, but without the savior that Bella had. In fact, any potential “savior” to such an ensnared and suffering animal would be prosecuted for a federal crime: https://www.predatordefense.org/features/snares_Bella_Husky.htm#:~:text=Stuck%20for%209%2D10%20hours,for%20the%20U.S.%20Forest%20Service.
You all know from this blog and my Instagram account that coyotes are not *vermin*. They are highly sentient, and some of the most intelligent and feeling of animals. They are extremely social and family minded. They deserve our respect, not our hatred. Please become aware of the situation, and please add your voice to their defense. Our public outcry should be resounding: let’s make it louder in 2024. Happy New Year.
23 Dec 2023 2 Comments
in mother coyote behavior, mother/pup learning, parenting
This morning the sirens began blaring, and Mama coyote began howling back at them. This type of response to sirens is an everyday occurrence with coyotes. Two of her 8-month-old male youngsters were close by. Youngsters are always happy to see Mom, and they are energized by anything she does, often taking their cue from her. They both ran excitedly in her direction after hearing her, but only one of them joined in the howling. The howling continued for a few moments as a duet and then petered out slowly before it stopped entirely.
I love watching these interactions which show the warp and woof of an interactive family life. And there were other interactions to be seen if you looked hard enough through the tall grasses which screened what was happening, but I was able to focus enough between those tall grass leaves to pick up a little of it.
Mom normally lets the pups do what they have to do to get along, and she stays out of their interactions. That is, unless and until they get too close to her. As they’ve gotten older, she’s become even more intolerant of boisterous or excessive activity that occurs close to her. These photos show her reacting to them as they begin interacting with each other: she seems to need to calm them down or to move the activity away from her. Her body-language message has to carry weight so that she’ll be listened to, so it is intense: she bares her teeth and wrinkles her nose threateningly to show her disgust.
Mom’s expressions relay her message to them: “Calm down around me!”
Coyote youngsters are always particularly ecstatic to see each other — it always looks as though they haven’t seen each other in weeks, even though it’s only been an hour since they crossed paths! Here, there were the usual wiggles and squiggles and licking and bumping that go along with greetings — all more than Mom wanted to put up with.
But pups have a need to interact visually and physically. Note their eye contact, one flops to the ground unchallengingly, there is grooming, and the guy on the ground jumps up to affectionately grab his brother’s ear.
Even after conveying her displeasure to the pups, Mom ended up distancing herself from them to accommodate the situation because their interactions continue. Pups, of course, HAVE to interact — the need to do so is uncontrollable!
Notice from the pup behavior in the photos that there is a rank between them. Their ranks are something they work out and choose between themselves. If these happen to be conflicting, well, there’s a conflicting relationship that may grow in intensity over time. In this case, the more submissive youngster, I’ll call him *Pow*, adoringly approached the more dominant *Bold*, keeping his body low, and extending affectionate muzzle touches, and even twisting himself so he could affectionately grab Bold’s ear! Bold returned the affection by grooming Pow.
THAT was too rowdy for Mom who decides to distance herself; the pups continue their affectionate interaction with her gone.
Coyote interactions are often short, yet they are intense and full of meaning. The interactions often are longer at the evening rendezvous.
© 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.
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in Blue eyes in coyotes, coyote eyes, coyote injuries, Injuries, urban coyote ailments
I want to make folks aware that injuries and ailments abound in the coyote world. Here are three youngster coyotes, all 8 months old, who have conditions to contend with which will impact them moving forwards.
Probable Glaucoma from an Injury:
I’ve recently posted about Lapis’ condition, above. Her right eye, from the time I first noticed it when she was about two months old, was blue. It remained this way for many months, but about a month ago that eye suddenly looked quite different: I don’t know if this is a developing condition, or if it is the result of trauma, so I contacted an animal veterinarian eye specialist who diagnosed her condition through photos as follows: “From what I can tell from the picture, the right eye likely has glaucoma (increased internal eye pressure. The lens within the eye is probably shifted rearward (posterior lens luxation). The right eye is probably blind, but appears to be comfortable as there is no squinting evident. Could be from a traumatic injury.”
The eye indeed looks glassy and blind, and from her behavior, it doesn’t seem to be painful. Without a second eye, she would have no depth of field, so this definitely will impact her survival skills. However, coyotes are resilient survivalists, and I expect her to live as full a life as any of the other coyotes. At this point in time, she plays with her siblings and hunts, but she is not adventurous when it comes to exploring new places: she prefers the safety of her immediate area. Then again, a sister of hers from last year’s litter behaved in this exact same way without such an affliction, so the eye may be having no effect at all on her life, so far.
Probable Corneal Edema from a Virus:
This youngster visits a backyard about once a day, so a human was able to take these concerning photos. The cloudy eyes are alarming, so we sent these photos to the same eye specialist as before. His response:
“The clouding of the eyes could be due to corneal edema. Since this is a youngster, I would suspect some sort of systemic infection caused inflammation of the cells lining the interior of the cornea (endothelial cells). One possibly is canine adenovirus type 1, which causes a viral hepatitis. This can cause corneal edema due to endothelial cell inflammation. Vision is present, but it is going to be hazy.”
A friend and colleague of mine who knows coyotes well tells me that generalities are always broken by coyotes. I.E., there are exceptions always. My own take is that this fella is compromised which will affect the quality of his life, but then again, he might be the exception. I can’t imagine an easy life with hazy vision. However, he has a safe-haven in someone’s backyard which he can retreat to. He is welcome there whenever he wants. Nonetheless, he’s a male and males have strong drives: he’ll want to find a mate and claim his own territory at some point. But let’s see how his story develops. As long as he returns to his backyard safety zone, we’ll be able to get updates.
Caudectormy from an accident or injury:
And then this shocking injury occurred within the last month: a completely severed tail. We have no idea how this happened, but when it was first observed, the cartilage was exposed and the wound was furious red. However, as we all know, coyotes are resilient, and the little female seems to be recovering and is functional, and hopefully out of pain at this point. If you see her, please leave her alone: her tail cannot be restored, and she already is healing. Remember that what is most important to these coyotes is their families and relationships within those families. Allowing them to remain with their families until they are ready to disperse is crucial for their well being. Unless a wild animal is immobile, or has mange, we leave most alone, allowing nature to follow its course.
For more urban coyote injuries and ailments, see Injuries and Ailments: a coyote’s life is hard and short.
04 Dec 2023 9 Comments
in Blue eyes in coyotes, bonds, coyote behavior, siblings
You might recall that Lapis is the one-blue-eyed coyote pup I wrote about several months ago. I saw her a few days ago at almost 8 months of age: an update is in order. The change that struck hard is that the bright blue right eye of hers is no longer blue. The iris of that blue eye is now double the size of a regular eye — it almost looks like a glass eye. The iris is the colored structure in the front of the eye that regulates the amount of light that can enter the retina by controlling the size and diameter of the pupil. I don’t know how much light her eye lets in, but I would assume it is affected by the iris’s size. It seems obviously damaged or diseased, but it doesn’t seem to impact her activity.
Health issue in urban coyotes can develop at any time, but it’s sad when they develop early, as with this eye condition. I hope it’s not something that impacts her life too much. Last year pups in several of the coyote families developed neurological walking problems which they were either born with, or they developed very early after birth, possibly due to distemper. Other ailments I’ve encountered can be found HERE.
The day I saw Lapis, she was with one of her brothers and demanded that he interact with her: it was almost sparring behavior without the need to win. She’s comparatively petite compared to him but that didn’t stop her from engaging with him as an equal. He, on the other hand, I could tell, was careful not to overpower her. The roughhousing and wrestling he engages in with his brothers did not occur here.
I don’t know if he knows that something is wrong with her eye, but I would guess he does: coyotes are super aware of temperature differences, smells and visuals. For instance, they seem to know exactly where the hidden ticks are on each other. In another instance, I watched the mate of a young fellow sniff his broken ankle when that happened, and I knew that she knew it was injured and hurt him.
Below is a gallery of photos I took that day showing the sparring and interactions between these two siblings. The strong bond between them encompasses caring, playing, teasing, provoking, patience, and affection, in addition to warm companionship. Coyotes are hugely social and it is obvious that this relationship is important to both of them, and possibly is the highlight of their day. Things to notice: their communication through intense eye-to-eye contact, her jabbing him with her forepaws, affectionately biting his ear, biting his neck, grabbing his hindquarters, grabbing his head, putting her head over his shoulder, as she incited him to react to her. Notice he calmly allowed her to poke and flit as she pleased, and then gently and affectionately — almost protectively — reacted companionably more than anything else! [You can click on one of the photos to then scroll through them].
24 Nov 2023 6 Comments
in coyotes and human behavior, home alone
Fun with her found tetherball
Three postings back, on the third of this month, I wrote a post about the unusual frenzied behavior of a young loner male and his brief “tangential breaching”, if that’s the right wording, of the species-divide which is a cornerstone for coexistence between humans and coyotes in urban areas. I described him as *full of beans* more than anything else. The behavior appears to be related to what I’m describing in this posting.
This current posting — based on what I observed several years ago — is also about the overly exuberant, energetic behavior of a young loner, in this instance a female, who for a while also purposefully flirted with the accepted species-divide between wild coyotes and humans. With this young female, the behavior occurred time and again over a three year span. With few exceptions, this female did stay away from humans in terms of distance and not physically engaging — but at times it was as though she were “flaunting” it on some level. Easy coexistence is of course based on firmly maintaining a wall of separation. Note that “dogs and coyotes”, as opposed to “humans and coyotes”, breach the divide all the time: they constantly communicate visually and interact with threats and defenses — lunging, barking, chases and even nipping. This posting is about humans and coyotes, not dogs and coyotes.
We all know that coyotes are highly social: they normally mate for life and live in families. The few exceptions that I’ve seen include the death of a mate, some rare *divorces* thought they normally pair up again, and transients who have not been able to secure a territory or mate for themselves. Coyotes in families interact and communicate constantly with one another. But what if such interaction is out of reach for one of them because there is no bonded companion or family around and therefore no opportunity to socialize with any members of their own species — this is a question I’ve asked myself to try and explain her behavior. It seems that a loner under these circumstances for an extended length of time — in her case it was three years — might seek it from another species, even if only psychologically and even if at a distance — i.e., virtually? It appeared to me, after many observations, that this loner coyote was starved for social interaction: and she appears to have picked humans (often with their dogs) for connecting with in this way. Interestingly, once she found a mate, she dropped this behavior absolutely and totally, which supports my speculated explanation.
Coyotes by nature are secretive in their behaviors and wary enough of us humans to avoid us almost always. However, over time in an urban environment, with constant human presence, they often begin to ignore us as benign beings rather than as “risks to be avoided”. And we humans normally think of their proximity to us as a “risk” to ourselves, so we label it as “brazen” or “bold”. Some people consider simply seeing coyotes in an urban setting as unacceptable and risky. In ranching communities, seeing coyotes on ranching properties is cause for killing them. So there’s avoidance on both sides which is very mutual. But over time, we, too, learn that they are pretty benign and we begin to accept them at closer range than we used to, especially if we don’t have a dog with us.
The young female’s behavior consisted of regularly sitting on a high knoll in plain view during daylight hours at the height of dog/human activity which she was there to watch, and of course, she in turn was watched back: there appeared to be mutual fascination between her and the human world. She seemed to know that she was being admired — coyotes, like the rest of us, can sense this sort of thing. She would then suddenly get excited and “perform” as in the video. She could easily have remained quietly observing or retreated to the bushes where she would not have been visible by anyone, but she chose not to do so. She chose to draw attention to herself, creating a visual interaction of sorts.
Coyotes feel they must respond to dogs chasing them or even passing through their territories. Hunting is another must which often takes place in the visual presence of humans, though normally at some distance from us and predominantly during the darker hours. On the other hand, in the two instances I’ve described in this and the previous posting, the flirtingly marginal interactions or visual engagements of coyotes with humans were purely a matter of choice on their part — no need was involved.
Each coyote is an individual with a unique personality. I don’t know if individual characteristics contributed to the behavior: some coyotes tend to be innately much more gregarious while others are more shy — you can see this in their interactions with each other, and in their reactions to approaching people or dogs. Although humans deliberately feeding her or even just leaving out food, might have initiated a gradual suppression of her natural wariness for awhile, neither she nor the male in my previous post were at all approaching humans for food — that is a separate type of behavior..
On the other side of the spectrum of this hyperactive attempt at interaction and attention-seeking are the coyotes who remain relaxed within close proximity of calm human presence, unobtrusively, out-of-the-way, quietly and without any fanfare: I’ve seen this in areas where no dogs are around. They actually aren’t interacting with humans, rather, they are simply there, mostly ignoring people only 20 feet away — a nod of acceptance might be exchanged, but that’s it — they aren’t seeking attention or performing. This happens in some community gardens where coyotes have been seen napping regularly in some of the planter boxes, in spite of there being plenty of gardeners close by working their plots. The gardeners respect them and leave them alone. Again, the one issue has been when dogs — who are not allowed in the gardens but enter anyway — come through and go after them. So here, coexistence in a very small space is not at all a problem for anyone, coyote or human, unless dogs appear.
With an ever-present and large urban human community, it seems logical that intelligent and curious coyotes might explore options beyond strict avoidance of humans. Maybe the examples I have given are simply manifestations of this.
Napping in a planter box with a beehive of gardeners quietly at work close by
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