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!
These are many of the mange cases here in San Francisco that blossomed beginning in 2024. Before this date we had no substantial cases at all.
Someone asked me how I knew that our mange cases picked up in 2024 and spread so quickly and only recently. About half the coyote population here in San Francisco has been affected. And I’m told by my rehabber contact, that it’s about this same percentage in other parts of the state of California. The reason I know that the phenomenon is new here, is because I’ve photographed almost all, if not all the coyotes in San Francisco since 2007. In 2015 I began posting a MAP of their territories, and mange was not an issue at that time. The malady just wasn’t here on any measurable scale until 2024, when over the course of the next two years it seemed to have spread everywhere. Again, I have my thousands of photos as a testament.
Mange has become an epidemic in San Francisco’s coyotes, approaching close to half of our population. CA Fish & Wildlife technically “owns” these animals in trust for the public, but isn’t outright helping them.
CDFW prohibits feeding/harassing wildlife, a law I support. But it allows no exceptions, even for treating mange. Coyotes with mange can be safely treated in the field by placing medication in food and monitoring until the targeted animal eats it. Even licensed rehabbers would be breaking the law here in California, though it is allowed in other states. Can CDFW please fix the policy gap so that these animals can be helped?
As a result, private individuals have stepped in to help, because it is the right thing to do. It is wrong to watch animals suffer and die when the remedy is simple. I support these people, though it would be far better if their efforts didn’t have to happen quietly.
Some claim the coyote population is “exploding.” I’ve been monitoring multiple territories and have not seen this. Some territories have split, and there are temporary interlopers, but there is no population boom.
Coyotes are highly social individuals who live in nuclear families which *own* their own exclusive territories. The population naturally increases during pupping season, then returns to the basic two breeding parents and a few yearlings who help raise the next litter. About 30 coyotes are killed by cars each year — cars are effectively their main urban predators — and they are dying from mange.
More sightings don’t mean more coyotes. Rather, people have become more aware and are looking for them. Social media amplifies the perception of sightings. Some coyotes are more active during the day because they’ve habituated to people and dogs. AND, mangy coyotes stand out: without fur, they can’t thermoregulate and THEY SEEK SUNLIGHT DURING THE DAY. **NOTICE HOW MANY SIGHTINGS INVOLVE MANGY ANIMALS.**
At the same time, stress seems to be involved when it comes to mange. “Mange is still an issue with Yellowstone wolves, during stressful times of year, and it’s entirely possible for them to naturally heal if it doesn’t overtake more than 40% of their body.” My rehabber friend continues, “We see it here with squirrels during the spring/summer when the stress of breeding/having babies/finding food taxes their immune system. They too can naturally heal.” Since mange didn’t become an issue until 2024 here in San Francisco, I’m wondering if the *stress* from population pressure that has reached its saturation point might be involved in the outbreak.
Another study suggested that we have mange outbreaks cyclically every 30 to 45 years. Is this true? Here is the source for that quote: “In North America, populations of red foxes, coyotes, and gray wolves appear to experience epizootics every thirty to forty-five years (Pence and Windberg, 1994 (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6599944/#bib147)).”
I was horrified to read this posting on NextDoor only two days ago, posted by Richard Drury on January 20th: “Dog poison at Stern Grove! Someone left a large box of raw meat at Stern Grove dog park — on the hill near Vale Street and Palos Place. My dog ate a bunch of the meat before we could reach him. We took him to the vet and found that the meat was laced with rat poison. The vet pumped his stomach and gave him medications. I think he will be okay. But beware.” Apparently pest companies have access to rat poison which has been banned from sales in stores here in San Francisco EXCEPT to these pest companies that use it profusely at institutions that hire them: old age home facilities, schools, apartment buildings, even the VA. The pest companies will tell you they are using milder forms of the poison so that other animals aren’t hurt. My rehabber contact says, “BS, poison is poison.”
Below is an explanatory poster from the National Park Service about mange. While individuals can’t buy rat poison in the city, pest control companies use it extensively in apartments, schools, nursing homes, and other facilities.
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.
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.
