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!
This is someone else’s post, but the information contained here is ever so relevant for us living with urban coyotes. Here Brittany talks about the behavior of a captive coyote: one who, through the circumstances of her life, regularly sees human beings.
This same behavior is very relevant for coyotes who live in highly dense urban areas: circumstances dictate that these coyotes also get used to humans simply by seeing them every single day. The two points I want folks to focus on are 1) the guarding behavior: this behavior is true of all coyotes. They might growl, or hiss, or try to escort a dog away from an area — often showing their teeth by raising their lip and wrinkling their nose — because there is something important there: maybe that item is a food source, maybe it’s a younger coyote, or maybe they feel defensive about their own space and boundaries. 2) Captive AND urban coyotes get used to seeing people and become comfortable around us: this is the definition of habituation. People believe coyotes should fear and flee humans, that this is their nature, but it is not. However, they seem to always retain their WARINESS of us — fear would be the wrong word to use. This is the communication they use towards dogs, even if a human is close by: they feel comfortable enough around us humans to do so.
This coyote in Brittany’s post is communicating her needs to Brittany. Although there is a fence between them, the coyote wants her to keep away. In a sanctuary situation, there is a need to get closer to the animals to care for them, but this is not the case in urban settings, where it should be everyone’s job to never approach them, especially if they have a dog. I’m hoping more people can start understanding this which is so well captured by Brittany’s video and her text — the two points about captive coyotes which also apply to urban coyotes.
Animals, too, are affected by fires. Many if not most animals are able to flee most fires if they aren’t aged or ill. And then they try coming back to their homes. I was made aware of this by photos sent to me by Erin Boydston years ago.
The fire in this video was nothing compared to the catastrophic fires occurring in Los Angeles right now, but it shows you a little of their behavior on a much smaller scale, and I think it’s a good time to share it.
Coyotes are very aware of even small changes in their environment. Here, something big has happened and they are checking it out, looking around, spooking, “tasting” it and marking it. It was not until several days after the fire that they would even approach the area. As time goes on, the change will be accepted as the way things are, but initially this is never the case where coyotes are concerned.
I was not there to see the fire as it occurred, and probably neither were these coyotes, or they might have tried putting it out in its early stages! Hope Ryden in her book, God’s Dog, on page 144 refers to an incident she witnessed whereby a coyote put out a small fire:
“Did you know that coyotes put out fires?” The man asking the question had been smoking a cigarette, which is what probably prompted the question to Hope as they observed a coyote. The man proceeded to set an envelope on fire with his cigarette and tossed it in the coyote’s direction. The coyote quickly “pounced on it, and began drumming the flames with her forefeet while bouncing on and off the blaze until only the edges still had sparks”. The fire wasn’t out yet, so the coyote, with its shoulder, pushed the scrap of paper with embers against the ground, then stood up to examine it, and repeated this again. The fire was now out. Apparently all coyotes put out fires — small fires. Wow!! [111008]
[I’ve reprinted this from a previous posting of mine because of the Los Angeles fires]
January 11, Saturday 3 to 4:30 pm Golden Gate Valley Branch Library 1801 Green Street, San Francisco 415 355-5666
January 22, Wednesday, 6:30 to 7:45 Glen Park Branch Library 2825 Diamond Street, San Francisco 415 355-2858
February 15, Saturday, 3 to 4:30, Bernal Heights Branch Library 500 Cortland Ave., San Francisco 415 355-2810
March 1, Saturday, 3 to 4:30 Presidio Branch Library 3150 Sacramento Street, San Francisco 415 355-2880
March 12, Wednesday at Noon, Presidio, [Private Group]
April 1, Tuesday, 6 to 7:30 pm North Beach Branch Library 350 Columbus Avenue, SF 415 355-5626
Pupping season is fast approaching in April: it might be a good idea to learn something more about our coyotes than the very preventable dog/coyote incidents you hear about in the news.
I’ll be explaining coyote population structure and distribution, family life and interactions, and how to understand and diminish dog encounters — all based on my own observations here in San Francisco. I’ll also talk briefly about the coyotes in the immediate neighborhood.
First come, first serve, so be sure to come early to claim your space!
From my previous talk at the Park branch library: “The Coyote Lady”, Janet Kessler is a self-taught naturalist who has spent nearly two decades conducting daily field research documenting urban coyote behavior and family life. In this presentation, Kessler will share her first-hand information, compassion and love for the animals, as she tells you what you need to know about them.
Kessler will discuss where they are, who they are and how to get along. She will also describe what to expect if you have a dog and you encounter a coyote.
Documenting her experiences with a camera, Kessler has come to know and identify most of the coyotes and their families here in San Francisco. She has been able to map the general extent of each of their territories and some of their dispersals here in the City. Kessler has collaborated with Dr. Benjamin Sacks’ genetic lab at UC Davis where the DNA from scat she collected is being analyzed.
Video posted on NextDoor (see below) taken by a bystander who claims the coyotes in this video followed and then cornered a dog and walker . The video repeats several times, giving you an opportunity to see what happens.
Reports of dog/coyote incidents this year seemed to be up, including three small dogs killed at Crissy Field by a coyote. But are there more such incidents? Whether there are or not, all could have been prevented had there been fuller education and effective signage.
Take Crissy Field. Coyotes have appeared on Crissy Field regularly for many years. Lack of adequate signage, along with only a few reported coyote sightings during doggie play time, probably contributed to folks feeling that, since it was a designated *off leash* area, it was safe for their little dogs. But an *off leash* area means nothing more than that dog-owners are not going to be ticketed here for having their dogs off-leash. It does not imply that the area is free of coyotes nor necessarily safe for little dogs. Even in off-leash areas, an owner must always stay vigilant and constantly supervise their pets for many reasons: including danger from larger dogs an yes, coyotes — and children notoriously get nipped by dogs. Coyotes and dogs don’t like each other and don’t get along. Coyotes live throughout the entirety of San Francisco, so small dogs especially should never be left unsupervised wherever they are.
Because of the loss of 3 small dogs to coyotes in Crissy Field, coyotes became a political issue with pressure put on the City to do something about the coyotes. The city bowed to the pressure and went out and shot the coyote culprit, and signs have finally been posted in the area.
For months afterwards, some of the dog owners wanted more done than this. They banned together, vowing to keep the Crissy Field issue alive. They wanted *something done* about the coyotes: they wanted them culled, relocated, neutered — anything to diminish or get rid of them. They claimed that, because of more reported sightings and more reported incidents, that we were being overrun by coyotes. But I haven’t found evidence of this in the territories I keep track of.
When I’ve asked specifically WHERE in the city someone has seen *more* coyotes, they list several different places in the city where they have seen one or several, and then rely on the sightings by other people to support their belief that we are being overrun by coyotes who, to them, have become a problem. I know most of the coyote families and their territories, and I can vouchsafe that there are not more in the seventeen territories I know well: just one family per territory. Yes, sometimes the coyotes become more visible, and there have been regular *hotspots* which they frequent for stretches of time during the long denning season, but this doesn’t equate to an increase in their population. The population for each family/territory is a routinely fluctuating one, expanding during the pupping season and then shrinking back down to the alpha parents with often several yearlings lingering to help with the following year’s pups before moving on. Territories are owned by an alpha breeding pair and their pups and yearlings (yearlings are pups born the previous year) who generally disperse sometime before two years of age. Those who survive cars appear to move south and out of the city because all territories are already taken within the city proper.
As part of the effort to keep the *dangerous coyote* story alive, the incidents of the three dogs killed at Crissy Field were reported in at least four different newspapers. On NextDoor, there have been many postings of simple sightings informing folks to “please watch your pets” — these are valuable notices to people with pets. But these postings inevitably attract doomsday comments and opinions, many of them fear-mongering from people who don’t want coyotes here.
In addition, some mere sightings have been spun into postings of tall tales — on the same level as the runner in Marin who claimed to have been attacked by a coyote which turned out to be fabricated [https://coyoteyipps.com/2022/08/21/attacker-or-attacked/]. Some of the postings about coyotes chasing dogs and their walkers, or coyotes killing dogs, are simply not true, and I now wonder how many of these stories have been *enhanced* or totally made up. Since these are reports I’m seeing on NextDoor, I can image that the same reports are sent to Animal Care and Control (ACC). ACC does not vet what they hear — I know this from personal first-hand experience. So their statistics are not reliable: garbage in = garbage out. [Vetted: critically reviewed and evaluated for official approval or acceptance]
Here is one such posting on NextDoor which attracted a slew of fearful comments and misinformed speculations. Fortunately, as many commentators saw through to the reality. I hope folks are aware of these for what they are.
Martha: Edited • Saw this at 7:40am this morning. They were chasing and trying to corner a man and his 50 lb dog (seen towards end of video in yellow shirt). I walk my 12 lb yorkie after 9am for this reason and avoid walks after sun down. This is not the first time they’ve approached humans here. There’s a daycare 100 ft away, too. Near 18th St and Carolina St., between two apartment buildings. Edit: I was at the gym and noticed the man run across the paseo with his dog first. He looked concerned and was looking over his shoulder. At that point I suspected a coyote would show up and I took out my phone since my neighbors also reported seeing coyotes here. I didn’t expect to see two hunting together. I stopped my workout to go scare the coyotes but by the time I got outside they all were gone. Edit 2: The man did not stumble upon the coyotes. They followed him. I have a newer post that shows from my building’s security footage that they were on his tail.
Take a careful look at the video to see what is actually going on. Here is a fearful commentator and then my reply to her: Gloria: This is very scary. Coyotes are out of control in San Francisco. These coyotes obviously wanted that man’s dog. My reply: Gloria, “Obviously”? I think you need to look at the video again: the coyotes in fact are obviously AVOIDING the dog. When they see what way the man is going, they go the other way.
Gayle: 10/24 at 1:00am on De Haro & 17th Street someone’s dog was killed by two coyote’s who chased it into a corner and mutilated the poor pup. The sounds were spine chilling. I ran outside with a broom to help but the dog was already dead and being carried away. How is this acceptable? This is a city, not a National Park. I am an animal person all the way, but living with wild animals is NOT OK. We must call the police and complain. There are now 4 dens on Potrero Hill. I see them weekly now.
This is a third person reporting on a supposition or presumption, without checking out the details — and it was posted at least three times. There was a *sound*. No one saw an incident. I myself have heard raccoons emit spine chilling sounds when they are attacked by a coyote. No dog owner has come forth saying their dog was mauled or missing — i.e., this would have been a first person account. Few dogs in fact are out at 1:00 am in the morning, especially running loose, whereas this is prime time for raccoons to be out. So I’m doubting the report and calling it “garbage in” barring further evidence. But it has generated a large number of comments and amplified existing fears.
Botanical Garden Incident of June 30, 2024: In addition to the Crissy Field coyote/dog incients, we’ve had several instances of bad news over the summer concerning the coyotes. In the Botanical Garden at the end of June a coyote bit a small child at a daycamp. The repercussion from the City was to shoot three coyotes from one coyote family indiscriminately. I knew about the den there: I had seen Mom coyote lactating and the rest of the family come out at dusk for their activities. But the City denied there was a den there, and said the bite had been caused by a rare “aggressive coyote”. In fact many people, including the City, knew there was a den there, so my question to them was: Why were not denning signs posted? Why weren’t the camp counselors educated adequately? Precautions could have been taken to prevent such an incident, but were not. Then in the aftermath, we learned that THREE coyotes were shot. Why three, I had to ask. In fact, one of those shot was a three-month old pup: what other proof does the city want that a den was there?, but the City never corrected their misinformation, even though they knew the facts.
Lastly, and impressively, The Chronicle on October 30, 2024 in their article by Nora Mishanec entitled “Reports of S.F. coyote encounters exploded this year. What should the city do about it?” The article was sensationalist and fear provoking more than anything else.
The word *exploded* stands out, and implies a huge increase in both sightings and actual incidents., if not even an *explosion* in their population. The word *explosion* is most often associated with population numbers. Further reading shows there were 600 reports of encounters. C’mon everyone! This is less than two sightings/encounters a day in a population of 90 adult coyotes and a human population of 788K in 2024 and a dog population of over 200K. One has to question the newsworthiness of what the Chronicle writes, except to fan the flames of controversy and raise the level of fear. Here is the article for anyone interested: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/coyote-encounters-animal-control-19855206.php. There is also a map of the 690 sightings: https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2024/coyote-sightings-sf/. I want readers to beware that these sightings have very little to do with the coyotes and their population, and much more to do with the few humans who decide they need to report them: most people don’t report sightings, but people who are afraid have been encouraging everyone, on NextDoor, to report these. Where groups of individuals are pressing folks to report these, of course, there are more reports.
What I’m trying to point out is that coyote sightings, coyotes looking at you, coyotes walking in your same direction across the street or even 30 feet away, should not be *alarming incidents*, and neither should coyotes following or escorting dogs. These things happen regularly and should be expected in an urban environment. Dog owners can keep situations from escalating by keeping their dogs from barking at or lunging at coyotes: these things incite coyotes to react negatively: walking on and away from the coyotes — without running — almost always de-escalates tensions between dogs and coyotes.
I’m writing this in the wake of all the dog/coyote incidents that have recently been in the newspapers. I want people to know that there is more to coyotes than just that, that coyotes are fascinating as individuals and as a species because of their intelligence, personalities, family structures, and land management, among other things. Here I dive into some of my observations of them and share some telling photos.
Dad bantering with his pups: many if not most coyotes mate for life and both parents raise the young.
Coyotes are our fellow citizens here in San Francisco — a *citizen* being someone who lives in the city — a denizen of the city. They are living in and sharing the same neighborhoods we do. We share this urban environment with lots of wildlife, even if we humans want to predominate and dominate the scene. According to Brandon Keim [in “Meet the Neighbors”, page 13], in this setting, “what makes us human is not what makes us different from other animals, but what we have in common.” Brandon writes about the “personhood” (his term) of animals and indeed, it’s knowing and appreciating them as individuals that helps break through some thinking barriers we’ve been handed down through the ages, including through science.
Raising the young is a lot of work: this mom moved her pups three times for safety reasons: here she is carrying one of six pups, 1/2 mile, through the streets of San Francisco, to a safer location.
In this vein, my own view of coyotes is anchored in my hours of *focused observation* which has led to my feeling of commonality and empathy with these critters, in spite of the obvious superficial differences that we usually focus on. Animals, as we, in fact are thinking and feeling in a much deeper way than most people have imagined.
Coyotes communicate constantly through eye-to-eye contact and body language: including intentions and moods.
Through hours of observing them, I’ve come to see coyotes as living parallel lives to our own, similar to the Hobbits who are *over there* in the shire, mostly invisible to us humans, but living very equivalent lives to our own, within their territories and family structures, and functionally doing what we humans are doing: trying to survive and eke out a living in an often inhospitable outer world, but also within a an often rich social context that constitutes their/our closer inner circle. When that social context is broken or missing, it affects them no less than it affects us.
Coyotes’ basic social unit is the nuclear family: both parents work for a living by hunting and defending their turf, and both parents raise, defend, and provide for the young, while yearlings pitch-in with all of these duties. They live on their exclusively family owned territories, keeping all outsider coyotes out. We have about 20 of these family-owned territories that cover the entirety of San Francisco (see map]
Litter mates become best buddies or sometimes bullies: every family is unique and different.
Coyotes are highly social, highly interactive, and highly communicative, and many if not most famously mate for life, and they also engage in individual activities — hey, not different from ourselves: they play, they hunt, they have parties (most evenings the family congregates for its rendezvous), they celebrate (yes, I’ve seen it!), they tease, they defend, they go exploring. Their relationships vary from simple companions and like-minded buddies, to bullies and rivals, to peacekeepers, caregiver and comforters. Mom and Dad are always at the top of the hierarchy, and just as in our own families, there often is sibling rivalry and vying for superiority within litters and even between litters.
They communicate vocally, with sounds that vary from yipps to growls, squeals, hisses, grunts, purrs, moans and screeches — these range from barely audible to overpoweringly loud! And they communicate silently through odors and pheromones — for example, scent marking their boundaries — and silently through body language and subtle eye-to-eye-contact and expressions. And from what I’ve seen, it’s every bit as nuanced as our most carefully chosen words and the entonations we use, if not more so.
They display the same full range of emotions that we display, from joy, enthusiasm, affection, excitement, to boredom, pain, rejection, sadness, jealousy, anger, oneupmanship and even deception (even though that’s not exactly an emotion). They love to tease each other.
This coyote is acting sad and rejected: she’s been taunted, shunned and excluded. Their emotions seem to be extremely intense, and are very obvious when watching them (which is why it’s so much fun to watch them, if they allow you to)
Their bodies respond to the environment no different than ours. There is physical pain from thorns and bugs, and from bigger injuries from lost eyes and tails and broken legs and crippling diseases such as mange. Some of these are accidents and illnesses that weaken and compromise their ability to live. This is all the stuff I’ve observed repeatedly through hours of first-hand observations and then written about on my blog, but besides observing this stuff, isn’t it just plain logical that this would be so?
Here one sibling is removing ticks from her brother: family members take care of each other through mutual grooming.
They deal with death and they deal with birth, their own and others’.
*Science* is only now agreeing more and more with the view that animals are much more intelligent and feeling than science admitted in the past. Brandon Keim’s book talks about the intelligence of bees, the friendship of snakes, puzzle-solving turtles, etc, and science is indeed confirming these. One has to wonder why *science* is just now *getting* this, when focused observations by anyone makes it all so obvious. Science upholds a hierarchical order of things passed down from ages past, putting humans at the top. We don’t like to see our characteristics shared with others.
Science is rooted in observation. Repeat observations allow us to form generalities. However, science itself has had to reverse some of its proclaimed truths. We drank milk when I was growing up because we needed calcium. Now we know that milk actually leeches out the calcium from your bones. Long established underlying scientific principles should always be questioned. I’ve approached studying coyote behavior not with the idea that *they aren’t like us until proven otherwise*, but rather with the idea that *they ARE like us until proven otherwise*.
Sometimes life can be as much fun while being alone as being together: here a good rubbing on something smelly — I call it a perfume bath — seemed to create overwhelming joy for this coyote!
Galileo applied mathematics to experimental physics. His mathematical methods were the standard ones of the day, but he was condemned for pointing out that the sun, and not the earth, was the center of the universe because that broke long established conventions about where man stood in the world: that we humans weren’t at the center of the universe with everything revolving around ourselves and our religion. This was anathema!! I think we’re still grappling with this hubrustic concept. I don’t see much difference between this and the idea of anthropomorphizing — a concept where we attribute human characteristics — including intelligence and emotion — to animals, as if humans were the only ones with such characteristics.
Coyotes tease and horse around all the time: here one slipped under another and lifted her on his back where he left her to dangle for a moment. They can indeed be very funny — and they themselves think this is funny!
In sum, having empathy for, and being able to relate to other animals, grows connections and understanding whereas dehumanizing or objectifying these animals [it has been argued that these are one and the same: https://blog.apaonline.org/2018/08/02/is-dehumanizing-animals-possible/] — makes it easier for us humans to dominate and persecute coyotes and other animals as dangerous or mindless/stupid enemies without feeling bad or guilty about it. What we don’t know engenders fears in us, and we destroy what we fear and what we relegate to a status below ourselves. People end up filling in what they don’t know with rumors, hearsay, unvetted conventional thinking, or a single experience from which they generalize. There’s more to learn about coyotes than simply the issues of dog/coyote encounters that have hit the newsstands.
More sharing of overwhelming fun and silliness, contact, and togetherness.
On an ending note, in THEIR contexts, in fact, they are smarter than we are: try sniffing out WHO passed through your turf yesterday, or simply REMEMBERING everything you need to without writing it down, like elephants do!
On the left, siblings who used to be best buddies have become arch-rivals. On the right, a father coyote uses scare tactics to get a dog to leave: these tactics can often be intense, insistent, and persistent, especially during the denning seasons, which is what makes them so scary. If it weren’t so intense, we would not listen. And herein lies a problem with humans and their dogs: humans want to always control situations, not be controlled by other species. We get around it by calling them aggressive, but they aren’t, they are simply demanding what they need.
I’ve been invited to give my presentation again by the prestigious Telegraph Hill Dwellers, so if you missed it the first time and wanted to come, please come! It will be the same presentation I gave at the Park Branch Library on August 31st, but this one will encompass a bit about the North Beach coyote family.
I’ll be explaining their population structure and distribution, family life and interactions, and how to understand and diminish dog encounters — all based on my own observations here in San Francisco. I’ll also talk briefly about the coyotes in North Beach.
*WHERE: North Beach Library Meeting Room 850 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA WHEN: Tuesday, November 12th 5:30 to 7:30 pm
First come, first serve, so be sure to come early to claim your space!
Janet “The Coyote Lady” Kessler is a self-taught naturalist who has spent nearly two decades conducting daily field research documenting urban coyote behavior and family life. In this presentation, Kessler will share her first-hand information, compassion and love for the animals, as she tells you what you need to know about them.
Kessler will discuss where they are, who they are and how to get along. She will also describe what to expect if you have a dog and you encounter a coyote. This talk will talk a little about the North Beach coyotes.
Documenting her experiences with a camera, Kessler has come to know and identify most of the coyotes and their families here in San Francisco. Recently, she has been able to map the general extent of each of their territories and some of their dispersal here in the City. Kessler has collaborated with Dr. Benjamin Sacks’ genetic lab at UC Davis where the DNA from scat she collected is being analyzed.
Kudos from my August 31st talk:
I really enjoyed your presentation – and so did many others who attended it who I got to talk to as we were walking out/hanging out in front afterwards. I have seen a number of presentations on coyotes over the past few years – and your’s, of course, was very personal, unique and incredibly sincere. I was very touched by it – and I could tell others were as well.
Janet, your talk at the Park branch was flat out brilliant as far as I’m concerned. I could say more, and likely will down the line.
I enjoyed your presentation at the Park Library branch yesterday – very informative.
Thank you for the LOVELY presentation about Coyote in San Francisco. We thoroughly enjoyed your talk and were duly impressed with the organization, confidence, and sense of humor you brought to it. We learned a lot. We can’t think of anything we’d like to see differently. It was a good length, and the photography (of course, as we know) was fantastic. I liked that you mentioned at a couple of points about how much time was left; it was a nice touch.We were impressed with your delivery and the experience as a whole. Loved the coyote calls and sound aspects!! It warmed our hearts walking up to the library and seeing such a good turnout! What? Look at that all these folks here for Janet! So awesome. We spoke to folks in line who were big fans but never met you, and [we] both felt so lucky to know you for the years we have and on a friendly level. You’re a local celebrity and we have an inside scoop. A big congratulations. Seriously, we can’t think of a thing to make it better. This is a labor of love, and it shows.
It was really good! And what a turnout!!! Pithy, instructive, humorous and concise, delivered with calm authority and a type of reverence that was palpable and contagious. Thank you for your dedication, spine, and passion. Our urban nature experience is richer for it.
This coyote spends a lot of her time sitting and observing what’s going on, but recently she has been plagued by fleas — she’s been overwhelmed by them. Many of her behaviors reflect this: scratching them, darting away from them (as though this would help!), running in circles after her itchy tail, curling in a little ball to be able to reach the flees on her back and her tail with her snout, and discovering that she could “roll” when she did this. You can actually see the flea bites all over her face. It must be excruciatingly uncomfortable. I’ve had a couple of flea bites and it was awful. Dogs get fleas and it drives them crazy!
And why does the coyote jump up and down, bouncing a little like a pogo-stick? Coyotes do this when they get excited and when they want a better view. This coyote, judging from the direction of her gaze, has seen something on the other side of the hill which we can’t see. I would guess it’s a dog that simply caught her attention. I’ve seen this reaction to a dog in the distance many times.
A dog walker suggested that, from what she knows about dog behavior, that the coyote’s behavior in this video might be anxious behavior due to the photographer because her own dog freaks out when “a lens is shoved in her face”. I took the suggestion to Turid Rugaas, who studies wildlife to know what is *natural* behavior in order to understand stressed-out dogs. She assured me that this is not what is going on here. First of all, this is not an inbred little domestic dog, it is a wild coyote. Secondly, no lens is being shoved in this coyote’s face — this video was taken well over 100 feet away. Thirdly, this coyote has her freedom to move, and would do so in order to avoid a stressful situation, unlike a dog who feels constrained by it’s owner’s *unnatural* demands: it’s this latter which causes anxiety in dogs. Fourthly, loner coyotes without families invariably become inventive in their play to fill the time that normally would be devoted to family interactions. Coyotes are social animals, so when there are no family members to interact and play with, and because they need to expend their pent-up energy, they invent all sorts of play activities for themselves.
I peeked through an opening in the bushes into coyote family life during the hour before their active life begins in the evening at dusk. This entire family was together: mother, father, uncle and one pup. There is only one pup in the family. The pup is super-well protected and superbly indulged by the three adults in the family: the third adult is a male from a previous litter who I will call Uncle, even though that’s not exactly what he really is.
The hour was spent in constant interpersonal interactions — there was not a moment when something was not going on or when some interaction was not taking place. Coyotes are some of the most social of animals, and their social life takes place via their intense family life.
The activities during this hour included Mom grooming Dad and vice-versa, Mom grooming Pup and vice-versa, affectionate play between Mother and Pup, all four coyotes aware of me and glancing at me in the far distance, Dad dominating Uncle — this happened continuously, Pup dominating Uncle who is low man on the totem pole, Uncle standing off to the side alone with ears airplaned out submissively, Pup hopping and jumping around trying to get others to play — as any only child might. And, most interesting, a sequence where Pup jumped on Dad (oops) with unexpected consequences and confusion.
Grooming, playing, cuddling and general interacting were constant activities (below).
Mom grooms Dad
Pup plays with Uncle
Pup plays adoringly with Mom
Mom (on ground in front) banters with Dad and Pup
This sequence (below) was pretty interesting because Dad ended up disciplining Mom instead of the Pup who caused the disturbance! Pup had jumped over — or onto — his parents who were lying next to each other. Dad either got confused and disciplined Mom — she’s the one lying on her back as he stands over her — OR, Mom’s growl at the Pup may be what Dad was reacting to. Dad coyote does not tolerate any aggression in his family, even from Mom. At the first sign of any antagonism or dissent, he squelches it. Dad is the oldest and wisest in this family, and the ultimate authority. In another family I know, Mom is the ultimate authority: every family is different.
Pup jumps over Dad
Dad needs to stop the distrubance
He actually disciplines Mom — is it by mistake?
Pup comforts Mom after she was disciplined by Dad
Rigid status preserves order, but sometimes it’s hard to watch. Uncle is low man on the totem pole, and he’s made aware of this constantly: what is Dad’s “order” is Uncle’s strife and oppression. There seemed not to be a minute that went by when Uncle was not reminded of it. It happened with physical put-downs three times in this hour, and in a more subtle manner, with glances, many more times.
Uncle being chased away and put down by Dad
Uncle sits apart with ears airplaned out submissively
Dad again puts Uncle down and Pup seems to be helping him
Uncle tolerates Pup’s mouthing him, only, probably, because Dad is standing over him
Dad stretched, which meant it was time to go.
As it got darker, the time came for the family to trek on. The move was signaled by Dad’s signature stretching. Dusk had settled in and their day was beginning. And my viewing time had come to an end because as they slithered away into the night, I could no longer see them.
A COYOTE WHISPERER FOR URBAN COYOTES: For seven years, 64-year-old Janet Kessler has been voluntarily observing and photographing urban coyote behavior throughout San Francisco’s parks. She regularly logs six hours a day, taking up to 600 pictures. “People think coyotes are vermin, dangerous or the big bad wolf,” Kessler said. “But they’re wonderful animals we can live with if we treat them with respect and take the right precautions.”
I’m seeing big fat ticks these days, and I’ve suspected that fleas also are rampant because of all the scratching and the resulting loss of fur. But, it turns out that all the scratching may have less to do with bugs than I thought!
constant scratching causes hair loss
The veterinarian suspects the loss of fur may be due not only to the pesky bugs which cause a lot of itching and therefore scratching, but also may be due to the coyote’s helping with the seasonal shed — it appears that coyotes have been using their hind paws — scratching often — in order to get all that itchy dead fur out.
it’s not mange; note pattern of hair loss where hind leg can reach
Coyotes are approaching the time of year when their coats are at their thinnest. But the fur is exceptionally sparse just where those hind legs can reach on the back at the shoulder blades and behind the ears. That is where almost all the scratching is occurring! The rest of the fur is coming off more naturally and at its own pace.
hair loss behind ears
The scratched spots looks mangy, but I’m told that mange is systemic and would not appear just where they can reach with their hind legs. So it’s other things: ticks, fleas and seasonal shed, but no mange. That was a relief to find out!
I decided to post a gallery of six photos to celebrate the longest day of the year — the Summer Solstice — and the coming of Summer. No story is attached, except I like these photos taken yesterday! Click on any one to enlarge it, and then scroll through them. For more photos without stories, visit Urbanwildness.com.
Nope, no birds involved, sorry. At Ridgefield yesterday I watched a pair of coyotes try to take down a nutria and fail miserably. I thought I was about to vomit my lunch while watching a nutria get torn in half, but nope. He made a run for it down into the slough. But it was still cool to watch.
From Janet: I want to point out that coyotes often hunt in pairs like this, especially when there is larger prey than a gopher involved. Also, coyotes, like the rest of us, don’t always have the same skill sets, most of which have to be learned through practice and through watching other coyotes. All the bites by the coyotes were to the nutria’s back: I wonder if they were trying to break its back to incapacitate it? Or, might they have been trying to pick it up to carry it off, but unable to do so? It looks like the nutria endured several puncture wounds — I hope its injuries were not too severe. Nutrias were “eradicated” from California, but they still inhabit Oregon. Thanks, Jen, for sharing your posting and superb photos!
This posting and photographs were republished, with permission, from Jen’s site i used to hate birds.
Sirens set this coyote off, with long drawn-out howls and barking, and pauses in-between. I’ve only included part of the recording here. During one of the last pauses you will hear, unusually, a dog’s response, which surprises the coyote who stops to carefully listen. “What the. . . . . who does he think he is?” Anyway, the interruption seems to tick off the coyote who throws herself into the next howl with a spirited leap, howls some more, and then hurries off to a place where she might get a view of her competitor. I don’t think she saw anyone. The coyote continued to howl, but the dog did not, and the siren had long since ceased, so things quieted down fairly quickly.
Here is a little drama during mating season. The neat thing is that I sense a lot of respect and understanding between these coyotes — a respect and understanding that comes from affection, and also from a rigidly established hierarchy. In the photos, you see the male approach the female who has been observing the world go by in a very relaxed manner. Affection is often displayed between these two — kisses and nuzzling, often with the use of a paw, as here. Here, the affection begins no differently than usual: he puts his paw on her face and caresses her, nuzzling her affectionately.
Then he shifts around and tries mounting. He gives it a try, but after a short time she breaks away from his hold, barring her teeth: the answer is “no.” She is not receptive to his advances at the moment. To emphasize her “no”, she then lifts herself and puts both her paws on his back and keeps them there in a display of dominance. When she walks away, thinking his advances are over, he runs after her — his intentions must have been obvious to her, because she now wraps her jaws around his, and he allows this. Her statement is stronger this time, and he accepts her command. There is clear communication between them. They continue hunting for a long time. Several times he became interested in her odor, and sniffed her intently, but he never tried mounting again during this observation.
I have read that mating in coyotes actually makes them very vulnerable to dangers. The reason is that there is a “tie” which occurs which prevents them from separating for an extended period. If a predator or danger of any sort were to arise, they wouldn’t be able to do much about it. Please see the following post with a video I found on youtube which shows this.
I arrived at one of my parks earlier than I had anticipated. It was before dawn, but I didn’t want to wait in the car, so I headed into the park. A coyote was sleeping out in an open field — a mound of fur on the ground. She was really well camouflaged — I don’t think anyone else would have detected her there. I took out my camera to videotape the stillness — the video function works wonderfully in bad lighting. The coyote casually lifted her head and looked around, and then looked at me. She hadn’t had her fill of sleep: “Need more sleep.” Okay! She put her head back down, and I went on.
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.
