WHO are they?
I haven’t pulled together a comprehensive look at the coyotes for awhile, so here goes. This is the basic information I impart in my hour-long slide presentations.
Intro: First of all, we need to understand that coyotes are generalists, which is what we humans are. For practical purposes, this means that we are composed of individuals who can adapt to many different environmental situations and the result is that we are quite different from each other. It’s this variation and variety that defines us and coyotes.
Having said this, and keeping in mind that nothing is 100% when it comes to coyotes (quote from Lou), there indeed are general characteristics that define coyotes which I’ll outline here. ALL of my information here comes from my own first-hand observations over the last 18+ years unless otherwise stated. So, WHO are they?
Physical ability and size. Our western coyote weighs about 30 pounds. Fluffy winter coats measuring 3 to 4 inches long appear in August which they retain until the following summer — by July they look skinny because their winter coats are gone. The males tend to grow thicker “manes” around their necks and faces than the females, and these seem to become fuller with age on some of the coyotes. Their winter coats tend toward gray and golden tricoloring, with a chevron marking over their shoulders, reddish tinged ears and a black-tipped tail. Eyes in San Francisco have regularly run between brown, yellow/auburn, and clear/blue — these last are not rare here in San Francisco.
Smell is something that dominates their senses, just as vision is the sense that dominates ours. In fact, they almost see with their noses, but it’s much more far reaching than vision, both in distance and time. They can smell who passed by hours and days earlier, they can smell injuries and illnesses in their own species and others, and they use their urine to mark their territories knowing that other coyotes can smell this. Their lithe, light bodies can run 43 miles per hour in a spurt, they can jump a 6 foot fence from a standing position, they can fit through a 7” hole easily, and they have a GPS system that many animals have: they always know where they are. Coyotes are extremely intelligent and have strong feelings which you can easily see in their interactions with each other and they have incredible memories, for example, who each dog is that they’ve come across and where the raccoons live.
Population and lifecycle. Coyotes live in nuclear families and live on their own exclusively owned territories keeping other coyotes out. Each territory here in San Francisco is about 2 to 2.5 square miles and we have about 20 of them in the city [see https://coyoteyipps.com/2025/08/12/sf-coyote-territorial-map-and-family-situations-to-summer-2025/]. Some of these territories have been passed down generationally, as many as five generations that I’ve seen, within the same genetic family. Other territories have been abandoned by older coyote pairs and left open for a lucky newcomer to take over, or in several cases, the territory was ceded to one of their offspring. Older coyotes, and those who have lost their mates, become vulnerable for territorial takeovers which may involve a bloody battle. I’ve seen boundaries pushed and pushed back over the years — these boundaries are seldom crossed by a neighboring family. As I said, some territories are owned generationally by the same genetic family, but some change hands regularly. Very interestingly, I’ve seen a mother attempt driving out her two year old daughter who would not leave, so it is Mom and Dad who picked up and left, moving about 2 miles away. And I’ve seen one attempted territorial takeover fail: this included a a pursuit throughout the city, several bloody battles, and it lasted six months. These exclusive territories provide the security coyotes need for survival: resources and protection for their pups. Survival plummets without a territory.
Each family consists of an alpha male and alpha female who are the parents: that’s the basic and most essential family unit. If they had pups last year or the year before, some of those pups might have remained on the territory and are called yearlings. Those born the current year are called pups.
Pups are born just once a year at the end of March or in early April here in San Francisco. Litters range in size from one to seven, averaging about four. Dens are used for birthing and then nursing the youngsters, but these are soon outgrown, and coyote end up sleeping in the open for the rest of their lives. The same denning areas may be used year after year, or the female may decide to move it more than a mile away, but within her territorial limits. After about 6 weeks, she often moves the pups to another location where the pups can begin to explore safely. These areas are protected within a good 1/4th mile or more radius, so it’s less important to know exactly where a den is, than how to keep a dog away from coyotes in these high-conflict areas. More in coexistence below.
Yearlings disperse — leave home — sometime during their second year of life, though I’ve seen it occur as early as 9 months of age, and as late as 3 years of age. They either pick up and leave when their time clocks push them to do so, or either a parent or a sibling drive them out. The drive to push them out seems to stem from reproductive jealousy: it tends to be males who push other males out, and mothers who push daughters out. Although the population continues to grow slightly — over the last few years, several of the territories have pushed out their boundaries and even been divided — it appears that we pretty much reached our coyote population saturation point in the last five years.
Survival rate is not the greatest for pups or yearlings. Natural causes take lives: possibly viruses, deformities caused by viruses or accidents, a litter which is too large to feed, etc. But the biggest cause of death here in the city appears to be cars, which kill about 25 to 30 coyotes a year (per ACC). Cars can be considered their greatest predator here in the city. I myself come across about three of these roadkills every year.
San Francisco’s coyote population includes a fluctuating number of individuals who have left their territories for good, but have not yet found a territory of their own: these are usually dispersing yearlings or displaced oldsters and are referred to as interlopers or intruders. These individuals may spend several weeks wandering in search of a territory. If they are able to hook up with a mate, both may fight for a territory within the city if they find weak or aged alphas. And a lucky one just might find a vacated territory. But it appears that most end up moving south and out of the city because all territories are already taken in the city (per Presidio). In 2015, the Presidio radio-collared 15 coyotes. Of those, all but one was killed by a car, mostly moving south and out of the city. BTW, these dispersing interlopers don’t have anything to defend except themselves — they are the least likely individuals to approach or message any dogs.
Injuries and ailments notoriously affect coyotes. Interestingly, rabies is not widespread, even though people fear this. Most injuries seem to occur to their legs, and sometimes to their snouts. However, I’ve seen a coyote also who lost his tail and several who lost eyes — I know not how. Their bones are thin and sinewy, they are not muscularly thick: I’ve seen broken arms and legs, crushed elbows and ankles. They take care of their feet — I’ve watched them take thorns out of their footpads. I’ve seen wounds and lacerations from the environment and also from territorial battles. And I’ve seen skin ailments, usually local sores, but also mange became an epidemic last year with 25 coyotes affected by the mite. Rehabbers and private individuals have tried helping the situation. Leg injuries are left to heal on their own. We can all help by always giving coyotes plenty of space. And, BTW, dogs chasing them cause a good many of these leg injuries. When nature is unable to help the healing, please know that coyotes get along very well on three legs, as do many of our dogs. Having a leg injury is not a reason to put them down.
Their natural lifespan in captivity has been measured at 14 to 16 years. In rural areas, I’ve heard, they live only 3-5 years due to human predation on them. However, in the city, I’ve seen adults reach the age of 12: by this time they are very old and suffering from old-age symptoms, such as bad vision, arthritis, waning energy — you can actually see these things in a coyote. When these symptoms kick in, it’s only a short time afterwards that they disappear and I never see them again. But I’ve only seen a very few reach the old-age milestone — those that happen to remain on their territory until the very end.
History: Coyotes are native to San Francisco (Malcolm Margolin), but since westerners arrived in the mid 1700s with their cattle economy, westerners have labeled them as *vermin*: they have been shot on sight ever since that time and still are in most places today. San Francisco, as most cities, exterminated them: they were considered vermin, on the same level as rats. One man told me that the city paid him $4.00 in the 1950s for every set of ears he brought in. Fast forward to 2002: we are more educated and more humane these days, AND shooting is not allowed in the city. On top of that, our city has adopted a policy of coexistence. The reason for this is that it really is easy to coexist with coyotes and they are not harmful to humans.
The first coyotes to reappear in SF did so in 2002 in the Presidio. A blood sample was taken by Erin Boydston who sent that sample to Dr. Benjamin Sacks at UC Davis. Dr. Sacks had studied a population of coyotes north of San Francisco, and he determined that this coyote had the same genetic markers as the group he had studied. Hence, it came from the north. He speculated that it had come over the Golden Gate Bridge. I posted this on my blog, but got KICKBACK from several sources stating that wasn’t the case: their information came from rangers. Eventually I got the story: that a USDA ranger had brought them in. So I added this as a possibility to my story about how they re-appeared in SF after many years of absence. And then I got a response from *an intimate associate* of the ranger involved. I wrote that up on my blog: https://coyoteyipps.com/2013/04/26/history-for-the-record-how-coyotes-arrived-in-san-francisco/. That posting of mine was used by coyote detractors to refute that they are native to this area, but indeed, fossil records show that they are.
Although not specifically about San Francisco coyotes, I highly recommend a historical and social look at coyotes which can be found in Dan Flores’ fascinating book: “Coyote America”.
Family life, interactions, communication. THE defining characteristic of coyotes is their family life. They are highly social, highly interactive, and highly communicative, just like we are: finding their similarities to humans will help you better understand and relate to them. This is not *anthropomorphising*: it is simply stating that animals besides humans share some of the same drives and feelings we do behind their behaviors: hunger, sleep, pain, joy, protectiveness, anger, discipline, rivalry, jealousies, hierarchy, family life (see Carl Safina). The family is the very basis for their existence, and this is what my bog and Instagram accounts attempt to show. Yes, there are some coyotes without families: I have found that they are either too old or sick to maintain a territory, or they are dispersing youngsters who indeed aspire to owning a territory, finding a mate, and raising a family.
Coyotes famously mate for life, with usually the female choosing her mate, but not always. She also chooses the territory, but not always, and she chooses the densite. She appears to be the kingpin in the family. Both parents raise the young, the bulk being carried out by Mom in very early life and then Dad AND the yearlings take on more as the pups grow older. In fact yearlings play a huge role in feeding, protecting, teaching and playing with their younger siblings. Highly interesting is the observation that, in spite of famously being known for mating for life, there are divorces based on incompatibility and lack of attention!!
Hunting and Diet: Coyotes’ main source of nutrition comes from gophers — this can be confirmed through visual observation and DNA testing, with lesser consumption of rodents of all types, including voles, rats, mice, squirrels, though they don’t appear to love moles. Their diet is supplemented opportunistically with what is available around them and what they as individuals have become good at catching: these include skunks, raccoons, cats, ducks, ravens, opossums, snakes. Seasonally they fill up on all types of vegetation, including blackberries, kumquats, apples, pears, persimmon. Tali Caspi conducted a diet study on a little over half the population over a two year span. Interestingly, in this urban environment, she found that about 50% of their diet comes from human refuse. We’ve all seen coyotes head for garbage in grocery store parking lots, around restaurants, in picnic areas — but I think it was a surprise to find out that human food comprised so much of their diet. This makes sense, and is highly likely why they’ve chose to live in urban areas in such close proximity to humans.
Some coyote hunting techniques are interesting. For example, they’ll come out when it’s raining because gophers tend to rise in their tunnels to keep from drowning. Whether raining or not, coyotes stand where they have heard critters underground, waiting for that critter to come closer to the surface. You’ll see them cock their heads from side to side as they do so. And then, when the timing is right, they’ll leap up high in the air and come down with a hard punch from either their nose or forepaws, in order to stun the critter below: often they come up empty handed. They can leap up the branches of trees to grab fruit. They’ll wait at trash bins for squirrels: BUT they aren’t actually waiting to grab the squirrel, rather, they are waiting to steal what the squirrels pull out of the trash bins! Or they’ll hang around when squirrels are fed, as often to grab the free handouts as to nab a squirrel. Same where raccoons or ducks are being fed.
They indeed eat cats, so please keep your cats indoors if you don’t want them to become part of the food chain. Whereas I used to see coyotes with cats as regularly as several times a week, it’s much less so in the last several years because people are now keeping their cats indoors. So, although coyotes will try to nab a cat when they see one, there are fewer cats that can now be grabbed by them. Although they have reduced the feral cat population, I don’t believe this is true for gophers, rats, and mice. In fact, after hunting in the same place for a period of time, I’ve seen coyotes move on to new places for awhile before returning, and I’ve wondered if this might be to allow time for the population underground to replenish itself. I don’t know this, it’s just a logical explanation for this observation.
Many coyotes have very regular routines, while others seem to have almost no routine at all — or not one I could figure out. Coyotes regularly visit the same places where they have found food in the past — they are smart and revisit the same spots repeatedly. We, too, have our favorite feeding spots! Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?! Unfortunately, humans feed them vast amounts of food in some places. The fear is that this will cause them to approach humans, but in fact it does not do so except minimally in the area where the coyote is being fed. Feeding should be stopped, but contrary to what the city has taught, feeding them does NOT make them aggressive: to the contrary, they become meek and mellow and hang around more, but not aggressive. They might very well aggressively protect a particular food source from, say a dog, but that’s quite a different situation.
In fact, the areas where I have seen the most profuse blatant daily feeding of coyotes — in North Beach, Lake Merced, Buena Vista, and Laguna Honda — didn’t produce a single aggressive coyote. On the other hand, protecting a den area is where all coyote/dog antagonism occurs repeatedly, and where one child was nipped. More on that below.
Oh, and coyotes don’t howl at a kill — that’s a myth. They are secretive when they hunt, not wanting to advertise this to the area.
Understanding dog/coyote interactions and aggressive episodes, and aiming for coexistence. It’s really important to know that coyotes and dogs do not like each other and do not get along. This is a given, so we have to act accordingly. Coyotes just want to be left alone. At the same time, they will attempt driving out intruders if they get in the way, and given the opportunity they’ll grab a small dog: you can easily prevent these eventualities by following simple guidelines. Many dog/coyote encounters could be prevented by keeping dogs from chasing coyotes in the first place. Leashing also keeps dogs calmer which is less likely to raise a coyote’s ire than a really active dog. Coyote protective aggressive episodes occur most frequently during pupping season — not only in the immediate denning area, but as far away from it as 1/4th mile. This is the area the pups will eventually be exploring. And since dens are frequently moved and we don’t know where most are, a general rule of thumb for coexistence, is to stay vigilant, stay away from them and walk away from them the minute you see one, especially if you have a dog. Pick up a small dog as you go. And, BTW, we have about 100 coyotes in the city, and about 150,000 dogs — more dogs than children!
A myth that has been passed around is that coyotes are out on purpose hunting for dogs: that they’ll *lure* a dog into a trap and then eat them. This is absolute nonsense. Dogs routinely chase coyotes, and coyotes run away from them to where other families are. Those family members then suddenly appear help drive that dog away, not to lure them closer.
A word about increasing coyote visibility. What factors are contributing to supposed increased sightings of coyotes in recent years? One factor is social media: people read other people’s postings. I’ve asked many people if they themselves actually have seen more coyotes. Yes, a few have — these tend to be people who walk the regular routes that coyotes take. But most people I’ve asked have told me that they themselves haven’t seen more, but they were reading more on social media such as NextDoor or Facebook, giving them the impression that there were more. Sightings actually did increase during the COVID shutdown, but this was caused more by more human eyes out in the parks: the parks are one of the few places people were allowed to go for much of the shutdown. Also, increased sightings occurred in their neighborhoods because, for a change, people were home to see these. More sightings or reports of sightings do not translate into more coyotes.
But there’s another factor that needs to be considered. Coyotes over time have become more habituated to human presence. They feel more comfortable being seen and in closer proximity to humans. Part of this is due simply to repeated observations of people who actually just leave them alone. But another factor is that coyote youngsters learn from their parents by looking at them and imitating them. Parents who have become blazé about the presence of humans pass this on to their youngsters: you can actually see when this happens. A youngsters sees a human and immediately looks to Mom to see what her reaction is for guidance. She doesn’t react, so the pup relaxes.
I continue to do informal opinion polling about coyotes here in SF. My poll is conducted exclusively in the parks where coyotes can be found, where people have had a chance to actually observe them and their behaviors towards people and pets. I’ve noticed that people who don’t frequent the parks often base their opinions simply on hearsay, and not on actual experience. The overwhelming majority of people, with or without dogs, whether those dogs are small or large, are happy to have the coyotes here in the city. Many specifically go to the parks in hopes of seeing a coyote and are thrilled when they do see one. These people have learned through observation and experience that coyotes basically want to be left alone — they make an effort to keep their dogs away from the coyotes and they walk away from them. As proven by so many positive responses in the parks, coexistence is entirely possible with minimal effort. In any given week, I speak to between 30 and 100 people. Of those, every couple of weeks I’ll come across one or two individuals “who are not a fan of coyotes”, are “neutral towards them” or think “they are dangerous and don’t belong in a city”. Few of these people want to learn. They’ve made up their minds and it’s how they want to think.
I want to address their “danger” and “not belonging here” by putting coyote danger in perspective. Dog bites send 1000 people *every single day of the year* to emergency rooms, whereas bites and scratches from a coyote to a human number 17 a year for all of North America, almost all caused by hand-feeding a coyote, separating a dog from a coyote, or to a small child close to a denning area or food source.
Raccoon bites account for over 1300 hospital emergency room visits a year.
Other dangers in the city, of course, come from cars which are huge killers, but also bikes have run into and killed people, falling tree limbs have killed people right here in San Francisco and a RPD truck ran over and killed someone sunbathing on a park lawn. Flying champagne corks kill about 17 people a year in the US. On the other hand, there have only been two deaths of humans by coyotes ever reported in all time.
The one nip to a child here in SF — one nip in 23 years — was in a denning area where there should have been signage and education: it was a five year old child who ran into the bushes where a coyote was resting. Spooked, it nipped her as she ran away. Education would have taught her not to run.
Dogs have to be kept away from coyotes — which is easy to do: you need to walk away from them the minute you see a coyote. But, by the same token, dogs often have to be kept apart from each other because of not-infrequent fighting which may result in injuries resulting in visits to the vet: my son’s dog landed with a $2,000 vet bill because of another dog.
As for “not belonging here”: this is simply someone’s idea of how they want it to be. There is no natural basis, no scientific basis, no scientific paper, and no law saying a coyote does “not belong” in a city. Coyotes opportunistically move into areas that are optimal for survival, just as we humans do. We humans displace a lot of wildlife and the environment in the process, whereas coyotes seem to add balance wherever they go.
© All information, maps, 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.
