Comfort in Communicating: Protecting

13 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by yipps:janetkessler in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

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.

More on Mange in San Francisco

13 Jan 2025 1 Comment

by yipps:janetkessler in mange Tags: , ,

Video shows the progression of mange from none in June, and then the case progressing from September through December of 2024.

Just a few days ago, on January 9th, the Chronicle reported that: “Mange outbreak in S.F. coyotes poses risk to pet dogs, officials warn”. Please be informed that mange is transferred through contact, but it has to be through cozying-up or sharing bedding, which our dogs don’t do with coyotes because coyotes and dogs don’t intermingle. A chase, or a nip does not spread mange. I’m surprised that, yet again, both the Chronicle and our City departments have put out sensationalist and fear-mongering information without thoroughly vetting this. This is just more misinformation which will turn folks unnecessarily and wrongly against coyotes.

I’ve spoken to a number of veterinarians and rehabbers who have repeated the same thing to me over and over again. In other words, mange in coyotes poses little risk to dogs.

In addition IF perchance your dog gets mange, it’s easily treated because our pets have ready access to medication and care. This is not true of coyotes. However, I read in Wikipedia that “stressors influence severity and duration of the infection, and that most individuals recover from mange, which helps protect them from future mange infestations. For example, a lactating coyote may look terribly infected with mange, but will likely recover after the pups are weaned and the additional stressors on this coyote are decreased.” 

From my own observations: The early signs of mange might be hard to detect in individual coyotes right off. They include crusty eyes, hairless tails and ears, and a sort of splotchy appearance. This progresses fairly rapidly to more and more hairlessness and crusty patches on the skin unless it is arrested by a prescription drug called Bravecto — this is something that can be given them in the wild without intruding or interfering in their lives, without trapping them or bringing them in. If the case is too far along, even this won’t help, and the animal might need a stronger drug called Ivermectin which MUST be given in two doses and with the right timing to work and normally is administered in a rehab center. Few people know coyotes well enough to notice mange in its early stages, and even now, with extremely furless animals, most people are simply reporting that they see very small coyotes.

I’ve watched a number of cases improve over a six to eight week period of time: the biggest improvement is the healing of crusty eyes and a fuller coat. It seems it takes longer for tail and ear fur to grow back.

You can see an improvement and healing of the crusty skin around the eyes.

We have had few cases at all of mange here in San Francisco since 2002 when coyotes suddenly re-appeared in the city after many years of absence due to our having killed them off. Last year, 2024 there was a sudden surge in the condition. From what I’ve seen, the infected animals seem to have came in from south of the city where we saw the first few cases. One of these individuals made it to a park in the heart of the city where he attempted pairing up with an old female whose mate had left her — possibly because she was getting old — I posted this in mid-January. That guy hung around for several weeks and eventually was chased out, but he was there with the family long enough to spread the mite. In mid-January and mid-February I posted images of this mangy fellow on my Instagram account. Long after he left, come May, the female who he had hoped to pair up with had contracted the mite so severely that I could barely recognize her: see the lower photo on the left below and then pair it up to her healthy look months beforehand. It then spread to four more members of that family. I continued to post about mange through the end of last year — my last such posting was in October.

I noticed that mange almost always spreads to family members: it tends to run in families because these are individuals who indeed do cozy up and share their bedding areas. I know several families where every family member has it. I also have seen individuals spoke off from their families and live alone: I don’t know if these individuals have been excluded from their families because of the mange, or if they themselves, in their very uncomfortable situation, went off on their own to better cope with the condition. There’s also the possibility that their leaving had nothing to do with mange. Those that are off on their own are yearlings whose internal call to disperse may have pulled them away from those families. But these individuals are hanging around the periphery of their birth territories for longer than I have usually seen.

So I know of four families that have passed the mite between themselves. But there are families that, so far, knock-on-wood, seem to be totally unaffected by it. In the past we’ve rarely if ever seen mange here in Francisco. Of the individuals I saw, I did not know who they were (they were not members of the families I had mapped) and they were soon gone, leading me to believe that they were dispersing individuals that made it into the city from the south, and then left again once they could not find territories here. It never spread in the city until last year, 2024.

The above healthy coyote photos are the same individuals as the ones right below them with mange.

See my previous posting in October: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/10/03/mange-cases-are-growing-in-san-francisco/

Article describing mange: https://dfwurbanwildlife.com/2019/11/07/chris-jacksons-dfw-urban-wildlife/why-its-challenging-to-treat-coyotes-with-mange/

Instagram posting on mange: [https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5EFQSRhhB/?img_index=1]

Online Treatment of Mange (check your local area for protocol and guidelines): https://owl-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Treating-Sarcoptic-Mange-in-Coyotes-and-Foxes.pdf

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

F I R E !!

10 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in Wildfires Tags: , , , ,

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]

Come Learn WHO Our Coyotes Are: Upcoming 2025 Winter Presentations by Janet

12 Dec 2024 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

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.

Misrepresenting *Incidents*

10 Dec 2024 9 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in misrepresenting incidents Tags: , , , ,

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.

1. Here is a link to one of the *incidents*, the one associated with the above posted video: [https://nextdoor.com/p/bpt5DR4Pd2Rr?utm_source=share&slp=&share_platform=1&extras=NTM1NzAw]

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.

2 .Here’s the link to another: [https://nextdoor.com/p/JyWwxSYCFFK8?utm_source=share&slp=&share_platform=1&extras=NTM1NzAw]

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.

“Personhood”: Profoundly Social, Feeling, and Individual

16 Nov 2024 7 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in Brandon Keim, individuality, personhood Tags: , , , ,

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.

Presentation Again!

01 Oct 2024 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in presentation, slide presentation Tags: , , , ,

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.

Neighbors In The Night, by Vanitha Sankaran at Pacifica Magazine

02 Nov 2018 7 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in newsprint Tags: , , ,

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

On Being Alone: My Observations

27 Jun 2017 1 Comment

by yipps:janetkessler in "toying" with prey, coexisting with coyotes, coyote behavior, feeding, playing Tags: , , , , ,

Summary/Abstract: Coyotes are highly social. They mate for life and have families. Interacting, including playing with each other, is a mainstay of their existence. But when they disperse they may find themselves alone in the world with no one (of their own species) to socialize with. They become bored and lonely. Here one rekindles some fun and interactions for herself.*

Coyotes are very social animals: they have an intense family life and interact constantly with one another within their families. But youngsters grow up and must leave home due to their territorial imperative, so they either *disperse* on their own, or are *dispersed* by the parents. This keeps the population down in any particular area, ensuring that there are enough resources for those who remain — for the mated pair who claim that territory and for their future offspring.

So dispersed individuals head off on their own: they may remain *loners* for a while. Dispersal can be a treacherous time for them. Some have made it all the way to Los Gatos from San Francisco, as discovered by Ecologist Jonathan Young, but many if not most get killed by cars. A few have been able to find vacated territorial niches right here in the city. In my ten years of observations, I’ve only seen two youngsters, whose birth locations I knew, find locations in the city, including this one. Others, of course, must have, but I don’t know which of the parks they dispersed from. The previous coyote who lived where this one now lives, remained a loner for many years until he was killed by a car. It is his vacated territorial niche which this coyote now occupies. Will she ever find a mate, will she ever move on? Each coyote is a unique individual, so we’ll only find out with time.

Being the social animals that they are, but without a social group to interact with, loner coyotes can become excruciatingly bored and lonely. I say this based on my own observations and based on comments from other people who have observed the same coyotes. The time normally directed at family interactions — including playing or hunting together, figuring out and maintaining their relationships and hierarchy in the family, and even the sheer entertainment of living in a family unit — are simply not there for the loner. They must figure out how to fill in with some substitute activities. Each coyote is a unique individual with a unique personality: not all coyotes will follow the patterns of behavior I’m describing here. In fact, I’ll describe quite a contrasting loner coyote in a future posting.

Boredom: To fill her time, this loner coyotes often engages in innovative play using her creative imagination. This is no different from the coyote youngsters I’ve watched who are still connected to their families. I’ve watched this particular little gal play with a ball and with many other objects, including poop-bags, crackling water-bottles or boxes, sticks, torn-up shrubbery, almost anything! I’ve seen her pester bees and then chase them around trying to catch them and interact with them. I’ve seen her run away from a cat she approached in a playful manner — the cat rejected her advances by hissing at her, and the coyote ran off. Her play can be very intense, as though she’s battling some dangerous prey, or very mild, as when she just rolls a ball around and rubs on it caressingly — small prey is often treated this way.

 

chewing on a stick while relaxing
tossing up a mouse
caressing a ball
pogo-stick-style jumping
examining some bees
tossing and then catching a doggie bag
the “zoomies”
battling another poop bag
wrestling with a stick

Stressed out? Turid Rugaas wrote me about her observations of wildlife when I sent her several videos of this coyote playing exuberantly, which a dog-walker, based on her own knowledge of dogs, claimed showed the coyote displaying “displacement behavior”. Turid disagreed with the dog-walker. She said that in the USA (as opposed to other places where she has taught), there is a high demand from owners for a dog’s obedience and following commands which often creates stress in the dog:

“So among dogs in USA I will agree that doing these things might often be a result of stress and nervousness, simply because they are never allowed to be natural. But start observing wild animals and learn how they behave – and their natural curiosity will, when there is nothing more interesting to do, come out in creative playing and doing other things. And because they develop naturally, they also become very smart and creative. 

Of course the coyotes play ! and wolves – and dogs – and all animals – they will find things to do for fun, and especially if they have no big family they live together with they will activate themselves, – they do not need to be nervous to do that ! They need an outlet for their curiosity and active brain, which is so important . Observing wild animals could teach the trainers something instead of getting hung up in theoretical and scientific blabbering.

Playing means activating the brain, and getting mental stimulation, and that is completely necessary for humans and animals for the development of the brain. It creates curiosity which is necessary, and the mental stimulation makes the growth of new brain cells, which in its turn helps them cope with problems and difficult situations in daily life.”

So, according to Turid, dogs’ nervousness and anxiety (the displacement behavior) is caused by them being forced to do something unnatural — there is no escape from the demands of their owners for them — so they calm themselves with repeat behaviors that don’t fit the situation. Coyotes are not constrained by the same circumstances of needing to please a demanding owner.

Another advisor, a 40-year-veteran wildlife behaviorist from one of the large wildlife organizations here in the city, also confirmed that *fight or flight* still rules supreme, and a little coyote will not put herself into a stressful situation if she can avoid it. Certainly an urban environment will create stresses for a little coyote — it does for all of us. I’m suggesting that this coyote’s playful behavior is driven much more by being lonely and bored than by stresses from the urban environment, based on my observations over many months.

Loneliness: In addition, coyotes often watch the world around them — maybe it’s entertaining: to sit in the distance and just watch. They get used to the goings-on, and to the dogs and people seen daily — habituated to it all — and then, again because loners are social animal, they may seek interactions and even action. They may attempt to actually *participate* on some level, say by approaching a dog simply to get noticed and to get a reaction.  Some people have noted that they seemingly enjoy attention from onlookers — could it be that they actually might be *performing*? It must be very frustrating for them to be alone. These coyotes may feel a push-pull towards, and away from *the madding crowd*.

It is often hard for folks to stand back from such a situation, as has happened to this coyote. For a while, when she first appeared in the neighborhood, some dogs were allowed to interact with her, some people approached closer and closer, and some even fed her — some even throwing food from their car windows so that this coyote grew attracted to cars and to chasing cars in the street in hopes for a handout. By educating everyone about the need to stay aloof and apart — to *love her wildness* at a distance — and by stopping the feeding, I, with the help of most walkers in the area, lessened these interactions immeasurably. But it takes a village, and not everyone is on-board.

A period of increased energy. Last week, this little coyote’s playful activity suddenly picked-up. Her bouts of play with objects increased, she approached more dogs either with her play-bows or by dashing in-and-out around them. Chasing birds became a regular activity. And her chasing cars increased to several times a day (up from *zero to at-most a couple of times a week*).  Her activity often begins with her excited pogo-stick-like leaping and then she sometimes takes off after a car, or towards a dog who has piqued her interest. Dog owners have been advised to simply keep walking on, and, if needed, to toss a small stone angrily towards her (not at her). It should be emphasized that everyone has noted that this coyote is not at all aggressive — she is just plain playful. In the case of the cars, she mostly has been running parallel to the road and not on it, but also she has been in the street, even reaching for the cars’ tires as if to bite them. A couple of onlookers informed me that chasing cars is seen commonly in South America by stray dogs and by dogs on farms, dogs who also are bored and looking for entertainment — they do it for thrills. The onlookers suggested that this might be an explanation for why the coyote was re-engaging with cars suddenly after she had stopped for a while — i.e., for the fun and thrill of it due to boredom! It’s worth considering because it sure looks like this to me, and these observations have been seconded by a veterinary behaviorists who knows canine body-language.

This coyote also has been engaging in more bouts of what we call *the zoomies*. Anyone who has a dog knows this crazy behavior: the dog races around, sometimes jumping on the furniture and sometimes in circles, full of energy, defiantly, daringly, a bit naughtily, as though testing you. Well, coyotes do this, too. I’ve repeatedly observed youngster coyotes do it, especially in the presence of their parents, exactly the way your dog does it! In the case of this lonely coyote, it was happening in-between other energetic activities, be it car chases, attempts to engage dogs, or gleeful play, as with a ball.

Coincidentally, during this sudden phase of increased playful and exuberant activity, a new coyote was sighted in the neighborhood — the first new coyote seen since our loner coyote appeared there over a year-and-a-half ago. Are these two things related? Let’s see! It could just be a coincidence. Another explanation comes from my wildlife behaviorist contact who told me that if you stop reinforcing a behavior with food, or ignore the behavior, the behavior will eventually extinguish, but that *extinction bursts* may occur before behaviors are totally extinguished — this is when the animal will try a little harder to get the reward she’s been given in the past by, say, running more after cars, or play-bowing more intensely to get the attention of dogs. Could this be what is going on?

approaching a dog
chasing a car

This increased activity level lasted several days, and then it plummeted during the next three days of almost full-time hunting, which pleased all of us no end. We’ll just have to keep a watch to see how this story develops. It might be of interest to everyone that her scat these days is loaded with fur (indicating she’s hunting) and/or is liquidy-dark (indicating high protein) and/or full of seeds (indicating she’s eating fruit). And I’ve documented her with apples, dead lizards, mice, gophers, a bird (yes, she even caught a bird and ate it) and even an opossum! Yay! Last November, when she spent most of her time panhandling, we almost never saw her hunt, and her scat was grainy and dog-like, instead of being twisted and rope-like and full of fur or seeds as it is these days!

Generally, in all the parks where I observe here in San Francisco, be they loners or family groups, the coyotes are doing well. There was a fearful reaction to a coyote in the Presidio recently that was in the news. Trails were closed around the den where the incident happened to all dogs for the remainder of the pupping season: this protects coyotes, dogs, and people from having to deal with a similar encounter: it’s a perfect solution!

People are, on the whole, slowly learning about our coyotes. They are learning to live with, and to accept, them — and, best of all, to love them. My request to everyone is to love them at a distance — love their *wildness*. Don’t ever feed them, don’t be overtly friendly towards them, don’t approach them, and please keep your dogs away from them. If a coyote approaches you and your dog, simply tighten your leash and keep walking away without running — and keep walking away, dragging your dog if you have to. If needed, you should pick up a small stone and heave it angrily towards (again, not AT) the coyote to dissuade it from continuing to approach. It’s pupping season, and they have a job to do as family protectors. Their method of choice, if you’ve encroached on their space, is through *messaging*.  Their message towards your dog could become very insistent: it could begin with little in-and-out darts towards your dog in an attempt to move the dog away, as cattle-dogs do, or standing their ground and displaying a menacing-looking Halloween-Cat pose — indeed scary looking — or even nipping your dog’s haunches to get it to leave. Please, just heed the message and move away from them quickly without running. As you leave, they may even follow: please just keep walking away.

For additional pertinent information, please see my presentation video, Coyotes As Neighbors:  And visit other postings on this blog — it is full of information about coyote behavior here in San Francisco, which I’m sure is no different from elsewhere.

 [*My postings are based on my own dedicated observations, as stated in the introduction to my blog].

Managing Urban Coyotes: False Advertising about Hazing and Habituation Can Lead To A Coyote’s Death Sentence (Updated and Revised)

19 Nov 2014 15 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in coexisting with coyotes, coyote behavior Tags: , , , , , , ,

2014-11-15 (4)

Managing Coyotes:

Most cities seem to leave it to individuals — not even larger neighborhood groups — to trap and kill coyotes as they see fit. Folks have long been taught that killing them is the way to manage them, even though it has been proven that this results in higher and younger populations, and fewer stable families to keep other coyotes away. In some places a permit might be required at certain times of the year, but usually not, and sometimes a reason is required to get the permit — including that the coyote was a “nuisance”. In one community, coyote yipping sounds were deemed a “nuisance”. These protocols seem to be the norm. There is no education behind them.

Few cities have actual written “coyote management plans”, such as the plans in Vancouver and Denver. More cities have informational websites offering the standard guidelines and explaining that killing coyotes doesn’t work — again, folks are free to trap and kill if they want to in these communities.

Here in San Francisco trapping and killing are not permitted, but we do not have a written coyote management plan per se, because it was deemed unnecessary. A coyote organization attempted to push its plan through in San Francisco — a plan that included extensive hazing — which the San Francisco Animal Commission wisely turned down. Coyotes do not need to be “hazed” whenever they’re seen — it can be counterproductive. See below.

What works here in San Francisco is educating the public about coyotes and their behavior and giving folks guidelines which will prevent conflicts and other issues.  I’ve helped convert many folks to a positive mindset just by telling them a little about coyote family life and iterating the guidelines with some one-on-one help on knowing how to shoo one off. Coyotes do not approach people unless taught to do so with food, so feeding of coyotes is forbidden, and folks are taught not to leave food attractants out in their yards.

As everyone should know, pets are the main issue of concern, but this is an issue which can be easily managed by not allowing pets to roam free, and by leashing and walking away from a coyote the minute you see it. Basically, what the authorities have been saying here in San Francisco is, that if a dog is bitten by a coyote because the dog was not leashed, or if a cat is taken because it was allowed to roam free, it’s really the owner’s fault and could have been prevented by following the guidelines — please take better care of your pet. This protocol is the only way to make coexistence work: it’s easy, it’s effective, it’s responsible, and the burden of responsibility is on the pet owner to guard his/her pets.

Habituation and Hazing:

I would like to add something here. . . . In my opinion, some of the “expert” information out there is counterproductive and remiss — it’s actually hurting coyotes and increasing fears in humans. For instance, “hazing” — mostly noise and erratic movement such as arm waving — is promoted as a cure-all which will cause coyotes to flee. But as I’ve seen here in San Francisco, and as we’ve seen in several cities which have now returned to trapping, for example in Seal Beach in Southern California, coyotes can get used to this and begin responding to it more slowly or even ignoring it.

The big problem then is what this does to people’s perceptions about coyotes: folks are under the impression that if a coyote doesn’t flee quickly when hazed, that it is therefore “habituated” and that it now poses a danger to the community. This is not so. Folks have been taught that a “habituated” animal is a dangerous one. This, also, is not true. Because of what has been taught incorrectly about habituation, folks feel that if they simply see a coyote, or if it doesn’t flee quickly upon seeing a person, it must be habituated, or on its way to becoming habituated, and, therefore, to becoming dangerous. Where does this come from? There is no science at all behind it. Telling folks this is increasing their fears. So teaching that “hazing” is a solution has actually backfired.

Coyote Behavior:

We all need to become aware of coyote behaviors so that we can know how to prevent issues. Yes, coyotes don’t like canine intruders in their territories: they even don’t allow non-family coyotes in. All canines, be they wolves, dogs, foxes or coyotes, don’t really like each other and all will exclude the others, as well as members of their same species who are non-family members, from their territories. This is instinctive behavior. We can’t really change their instincts for survival, but we can learn about them and understand them, and modify our own behaviors, so that all of us — human, cat, dog, coyote — can coexist. The guidelines are few and simple.

The other instinct driving coyote behavior is a food drive. We all need to eat. Coyotes normally hunt small rodents, but they will look for free food which they may find on their wanderings, and they may grab a small pet if the opportunity arises — it happens very infrequently, but it has happened. So, hey, let’s not let those opportunities arise! Keeping your cat or dog away from coyotes is easy.

Roaming through their territories as they visit their hunting spaces is another instinctive behavior. Everyone should know that, by doing so, coyotes in fact are preventing other coyotes from moving in. By the same token, you may sight them now and then in your neighborhood.

Most importantly, coyotes avoid humans. In most urban areas they’ve altered their schedules to avoid us: they are active mostly at night when we are not, even though they are not nocturnal animals.

 Simple Guidelines Are What Is Needed:

What actually needs to be taught is that habituation is normal: all animals become habituated to sounds and movements in their environments. It’s okay, and even fun, to see a coyote. This should not cause fear. We should be shaping the overall mindset of folks to think more positively about coyotes. And we need to teach that coyotes are wary — not fearful — of people: they’ll do their best to avoid us, even if they might not flee as quickly as someone might want them to. All habituated coyotes retain their wariness of humans.

It is feeding coyotes which should not be allowed. This attracts coyotes to yards and brings them closer to people — they could become demanding. Attractants of any sort should be eliminated from yards: you don’t want to invite them to visit, and you might even want to discourage them by shooing them off if you happen to be there. Shooing off a coyote should probably be reserved for when one has entered your yard, or if, for example, you need to get to your car and it happens to be standing too close. Avoidance however, is always the safest strategy: this goes for whether you see a coyote in the distance, coming towards you or if it’s already underfoot — leash your dog and go the other way without running.

The elderly, children and those who are afraid should not feel they need to haze or harass a coyote. Walking away accomplishes what is needed: the coyote’s entire intention in approaching is to move your dog and you away. So, do it! Vulnerable smaller dogs which might be viewed as prey should be picked up and walk away. 

Everyone should be taught to respect a coyote’s space and keep away from it. It is normal to see coyotes in parks, but dogs have to be kept far away from them. Please see this flyer for detailed information on how to handle coyote encounters: PRESS HERE.

Because of territoriality and because small pets are often seen as prey, but also because pets may be seen as an annoyance to coyotes — the presence and activity of small pets can be interpreted by coyotes as harassing or challenging them, so it’s not always about predation — it’s really important that folks guard their pets: keep pets from roaming free, leash pets in coyote areas and especially after spotting a coyote, don’t let pets chase coyotes, don’t leave food and other attractants out in your yards, know how to handle encounters. So, guard your pets carefully! Remove food attractants from your yard.  Notwithstanding, on occasion, you may see a coyote pass through the area — but that this should not be cause for alarm.

Examples of Misinformation or Misbehavior by Humans:

One of the problems in some communities is that the only option they are taught to use to deter coyotes is “hazing.” In some instances, when “hazing” may no longer be effective, because coyotes have become “habituated” to people and/or hazing, residents may see coyotes linger longer in their yards. When this happens, the coyotes are sometimes, incorrectly, perceived as “aggressive and dangerous”, as they have been in Seal Beach, California. Of course, those who have an informed understanding of “normal” coyote behavior know that habituation does not mean aggression — it just means that the coyote has become accustomed to seeing humans — and does not in any way indicate that the animal will react “aggressively” or that it is in any way a danger.

Another problem is when people are so fearful of the “mere presence” of coyotes that they overreact to seeing one — sometimes leading to coyotes being killed unnecessarily. For example, a coyote was shot and killed a week ago in Mamaroneck, NY after a resident called the police simply because they saw a coyote in their backyard — one that didn’t run off which is a sign of “habituation” and therefore “danger” some folks think. The responding officers, instead of providing an escape route for the coyote to walk away, surrounded the coyote and it responded defensively, as any animal would when it felt surrounded and trapped — and, therefore, was deemed “aggressive.”

Here is an example of irresponsible and counterproductive behavior by humans. I’ve been keeping track of a particular group of dogs in one of our parks in San Francisco whose owners don’t leash-up and who allow their dogs to chase after coyotes. Fascinatingly, it’s this group of dogs — almost certainly because of their hostile and antagonistic behavior towards coyotes — that the coyotes watch and monitor.  These dog owners feel that coyotes are a nuisance, but it is their non-compliance with leashing guidelines and allowing their dogs to chase coyotes which makes these dogs subjects of interest for the coyotes. The owners have, in effect, been allowing their dogs and the coyotes to engage and interact. It’s our responsibility not to allow any such engagement: the repetitive cycle can be broken by leashing the dogs. Other dogs in this park are leashed-up and walk on, and, not surprisingly, these dogs and coyotes leave each other alone.

2014-11-15 (3)

[revised for clarity 12/9/2014]

Coyote Night Vision and What Coyotes Know About Human Vision

23 Sep 2014 6 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in coyote behavior, coyote eyes, coyote night vision, coyote vision Tags: , , ,

coyote eyes

coyote eyes

Coyotes may be seen at any time of the day — they are diurnal animals, however for convenience in urban areas they have arranged their daily schedules to avoid human activity, so in cities they are active mostly at night when we are not. They can do this because their eyes have many more rod receptors than the human eye has, so they can see in the dark: they have night-vision.

Coyotes, like dogs and cats, have retinas that are almost entirely composed of rods. They have a superabundance of rods with only few cones.  Rods require less light to activate than cones, but they only allow you to see black and white; having lots of rods means great night vision. Humans, on the other hand, have predominantly cones and fewer rods. Cones require a lot of light to be fired up, but they allow color vision in bright daylight and they produce a very sharp vision. Cones do not respond to low light: under low light, humans rely on their lower number of rods. Note that for us, at dawn, dusk and nighttime, everything looks black and white, and not very clear or sharp, and we can’t see far.

Rods have a photosensitive pigment called rhodopsin which is particularly sensitive to low light. This pigment actually breaks down in strong light rendering it ineffective during the day, but at night, and when there is a superabundance of the rods as is the case with coyotes, the pigment is created faster than it breaks down. So these animals, out at night, can see pretty well even though you can’t, but they cannot see as sharply as those of us who use cones in daylight.

In addition to more rods, there is another factor which aids coyotes and other critters in their night vision. Have you ever noticed that if you take a photo of animals at night, their eyes shine? This is because they have a sort of “mirror”, called a tapetum lucidum, beneath their retina. This collects and re-emits light back into the retina, giving the rods a second chance to absorb visual information, enhancing their ability to see clearly in low light conditions.

Other  adaptions allow a number of animals to function at night and during the daytime, such as slit-eye pupils which cats and foxes have. Their pupils can open completely during the night, yet the slit protects their eyes from bright daytime light. One of the adaptations of owl eyes — owls only function at night — is the huge size of their eyes: their eyes often take up a full half of the room in their skulls. The increased retinal surface of large eyes permits even more rods which can collect even more ambient light. Since owl eyes are so large and must fit tightly into their sockets, owls cannot swivel their eyes in their sockets like we can. Instead, they rotate their heads at the neck to focus on different things. They can rotate their necks a full 270º!

So, coyotes are diurnal and can see well at any time, whereas humans see best when there is plenty of light.

The interesting thing is that coyotes seem to know where human perception lies, that we can’t see well at night — I saw an example of this just a few days ago. As I watched this older coyote in the photo below, he became aware that I was watching, and he curled up in a ball to watch back. Coyotes do this often — they’ll watch back and be just as entertained as you are! It got darker and darker and pretty soon I could no longer make out any details about this fella lying in the grass — in my eyes, he became a barely perceptible colorless bump in the grass.

As he lay there, a group of five young women began approaching. They were not quiet and sedate, but animated and active. It was a Friday night and they were headed-out excitedly together. You would have thought the coyote would move — he was only 8 or so feet off the path. But as I watched, fascinated, the coyote remained exactly where he was, and the girls walked by without even seeing the coyote right next to them. The coyote didn’t move because he knew from experience that he would not be detected at all. I’m not sure whether the girls thought he was just a pile of dirt or a rock, or if they even noticed that. I approached them afterwards, and asked, and they said they had had no idea.

 

Profile by Joel Engardio for the San Francisco Examiner

09 Jun 2014 2 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in coexisting with coyotes, newsprint Tags: , , , ,

2014-01-10 at 16-16-29

get-attachmentA 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.”

Read full essay: http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/woman-on-first-name-basis-with-sf-coyotes/Content?oid=2815528

Pups Spied: Dad Minds The Youngsters!

26 Jun 2013 2 Comments

by yipps:janetkessler in coyote behavior, family interactions, father coyote behavior, pupping Tags: , , , ,

What a fantastic surprise to see this sight a few days ago on one of my extended treks through our various Bay Area parks! It looks like, true to reputation, coyote fathers spend their fair share of time minding the kids. Look hard, and you can see it’s the father. Here you see a papa coyote in charge of four youngsters.

Papa minds the youngsters

Papa minds the youngsters

Youngster sticks snout into Papa's mouth

Youngster sticks snout into Papa’s mouth

But fathers’ jobs include much more than childcare. Fathers keep pups fed by bringing them regurgitated food and small whole prey. And they also will help train them to hunt. Note in this second photo how one of the youngsters is pushing its snout into Papa’s: that is what normally elicits the reflux in the father — but it’s just play here.

The kids here were pretty calm, while Papa sat there, ever so proud of his large brood. He saw me in the distance, and stayed there only long enough for me to get a few nice shots. Then he headed them into hiding and away from view.

Playing and observing

Playing and observing

Coyotes and Dogs, Coyotes and Humans, and How To Shoo Off A Coyote

18 Jun 2013 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in coexisting with coyotes Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The updated presentation — updated on June 13th — is at the top of the page in the second posting on this blog: It’s called Coyotes As Neighbors: Focus on Facts.

The version I’m posting today, here, in this posting, is called Coyotes As Neighbors: How To Shoo Off A Coyote. It is a shorter version of that first one: I’ve cut out some of the coyote behavior slides and the section on killing coyotes, and I’m concentrating on human and dog relationships to coyotes, and how to shoo them off in each instance. This version here is 20 minutes long, versus 30 for the one at the top of the Yipps blog. Otherwise, they are exactly the same.

**PLEASE NOTE A PROTOCOL CLARIFICATION FOR WHEN WALKING A DOG (not addressed in the video): Your safest option always is all-out absolute AVOIDANCE: Whether you see a coyote in the distance, approaching you, or at close range, leash your dog and walk away from it, thus minimizing any potential dog/coyote confrontation or engagement. If you choose to shoo it away, follow the guidelines in the videos, but know that what’s safest is unmitigated avoidance. Shooing off a coyote should really only be used if a coyote is in your yard or if you do not have a pet with you and the coyote has come into your personal space.

I don’t think a lot of the information in these videos can be found anywhere else — I don’t think much of this detailed urban coyote/dog behavior has been observed or documented — at least at the time I made this. Except for some statistics and the section from F. F. Knowlton that killing coyotes increases their populations, most of the coyote information in these videos comes from my own years of first-hand observations. I spend 3-5 hours daily in our parks, engaging in my “pioneering photo documentation” (that’s what one journalist called it!) and research of coyote behavior and their interactions with people and pets. I believe these are the first such presentations which concentrate on the urban coyote himself! I’ve been told by coyote specialist professors that the dog/coyote observations are new.

Anyway, I would like to to get the information out there now because we’re in the middle of pupping season — there might be more coyote encounters coming up.  This information will be useful especially to dog owners. If you have time for the longer version, I recommend that one. If you don’t, try this shorter version. They are both pretty long, but they contain most information that you’ll need, especially if you are a dog walker.

Following Behavior: Territoriality, Curiosity, AND Evading

31 May 2013 1 Comment

by yipps:janetkessler in coexisting with coyotes, evading, following Tags: , ,

2013-04-20

A coyote may follow you and your dog — the dog is the issue — out of curiosity or to monitor it, the same way you yourself might follow a “suspect” prowling through your neighborhood, to find out where they were going and what they were doing.

If you find that you are being followed by a coyote, walk away from the coyote — and don’t run, running invites chasing. Keep aware of the coyote and shoo it off effectively if it gets too close, and move on. And keep your dog leashed. Pick up a small dog.

The leashing is to keep your dog from being distracted by the coyote and going after it. You want to avoid engagement between the two.

I’ve seen this same following-behavior used for a purpose totally different from either curiosity or monitoring. It was used effectively by a coyote to avoid detection, as a human and his dog passed by. The dog had a history of chasing the coyote, and the man had a history of pursuing the coyote aggressively with his camera.  So this coyote had a particular interest in avoiding this duo. The dog and person passed while the coyote stood absolutely still and remained hidden and undetected in a dark wooded area. Then, to my great surprise, the coyote came out of hiding and followed them at a close 30 feet. The coyote did so carefully, on high alert and prepared to bolt  if necessary. This went on for about 200 feet before the coyote veered off to where the brush picked up again and it could continue undetected through the bushes. Neither the man nor his dog ever looked back!

In this case, what seems to be going on is that, by following in the duo’s “wake”, the coyote was continuing to avoid detection. Animals and people tend to look around themselves, but much less frequently  directly in back of themselves. We all tend to concentrate on sounds, smells and sights which are in front of us or to the sides. Coyotes know this, and “follow” as a method to avoid being seen.

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