Coyotes sometimes visit Forest Knolls – I’ve seen them here myself. So this message is important: Please don’t feed them.
Here is a public service message from Janet Kessler, who has been watching and documenting San Francisco’s coyotes for many years. Her observations may be found at the website CoyoteYipps.com
I love that I can walk late at night in Forest Knolls. I’ve always enjoyed these magical (though infrequent walks). Now, with social distancing, they’re better than ever; there’s hardly anyone around.
Last week, I was out a couple of times. The first night was as still and quiet as if someone had turned off the world’s sound. On my way home I saw a dark shape on the sidewalk ahead. At first, it was so still that I thought it was a small abandoned suitcase or something. But as I came closer, it moved, and the light from the street-lamp showed me a raccoon. It looked at me and dived into the roadside shrubs. I went out to the middle of the road to give it enough room. Though I was pleased to see it. With all the precautions people (including us) take with their trashcans, I thought raccoons had abandoned our neighborhood for lack of food.
Another night, the quiet was broken by one of my favorite sounds: a Great Horned Owl up in Sutro Forest. It sounded like a lone owl, and stopped after a few hoots. Later in the year, perhaps I’ll hear the duets of a pair talking to each other.
And the same night, the best sighting of all: a coyote, out on Oak Park Drive near the staircase called Glenhaven Lane. When it saw me, it retreated up the staircase, and then onto the hillside so it could escape into the bushes if I pursued it. I didn’t, of course. I gave it a wide berth, and took a few blurry pictures with my cellphone.
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Glen Canyon Park — both the canyon itself and the flat “Safeway Park” above it and adjacent to the Diamond Heights Safeway parking lot — is many things to many folk. Kids play on the grass and the play structure, there’s a ball-field, I’ve seen police cadets training by running around the paved trail of the Safeway Park. It’s a gopher haven — and a de facto dog play area where off-leash dogs run around and socialize and chase each other in circles.
It’s also part of the territory of a pair of coyotes. I’d posted about an encounter I saw between a dog and the coyotes recently. (This picture is from that event.)
DOG CHASED OFF
Yesterday’s encounter didn’t go so well. I wasn’t there, but heard about it from someone who was. Around 10 in the morning, two dogs being walked in the park spotted the coyotes. The “dogs chased after the coyotes — who then turned around and chased back. The dogs ran off and away.” Spectators helped hunt for the dogs; one was found, but the other is still missing as of this post. [ETA: Found!] Quoting from a message we received from Avrum Shepard of the West of Twin Peaks Council:
Xena is all-black, smooth coat, about 25 lb., pointy ears. She was last seen at the edge of Safeway Park in Diamond Heights. She’s very, very shy and won’t come near you, so please just call … [ETA: Phone number removed, not needed now].
I really hope Xena gets back unscathed and in good shape. [Edited to Add: She was found the following morning, around 3 a.m., according to Avrum.]
KEEPING YOUR DOG SAFE
Coyotes don’t have much interest in people, unless someone is feeding them — and that, thankfully, doesn’t appear to be happening in San Francisco. I actually saw a coyote one night in the park. It was hunting gophers. I was taking a walk. I caught it in the beam of my flashlight, and yelled. I needn’t have bothered yelling; the moment I flashed my light on it, it was gone.
However, coyotes are very aware of dogs, which are from the same animal family. (They’re canis latrans, dogs are canis lupus familiaris.) Dogs are potential rivals, potential enemies, even potential friends (though it’s probably not a good idea to permit or encourage such friendships).
What this means is, Glen Park shouldn’t be treated as an off-leash area, even in the day time. The easiest way to keep a dog safe is to keep it leashed; it won’t be tempted to chase after the coyote pair even if it spots them, and a coyote is not going to chase a dog that’s up close to a person.
Rec and Park have put notices everywhere, saying there are coyotes around. They’ve put big notices saying it’s not meant to be an off-leash area for dogs. I can see why people ignore the signs. Dogs need a place to play, and this is convenient and friendly. It’s a delight to watch them romp, and one of the reasons I like to walk there.
But it’s not a good idea. If it goes on, it’s only a matter of time before it ends badly for the dogs or the coyotes or both.
(Clicking on the notices will enlarge them.)
Out for a walk around 7 p.m. this foggy evening, I heard someone urgently calling his dog. I looked round, and saw a coyote bounding uphill above the trail. Another coyote lay low in the bushes, observing the situation below.
The dog followed along the trail after the coyote, happy tail and curious nose; it was in an investigative and playful mood. Fortunately, it obeyed the summons and rather reluctantly returned to its people, who promptly leashed it. The coyote watched it leave.
The people with the dog stood on the steps a little, watching the coyotes, then left. A jogger came up the trail; I stopped him and told him about the pair of coyotes. He nodded, turned around and went back the way he’d come.
I also retraced my path to avoid disturbing them, and found a place where I could watch them from the road above. It felt amazing — here I was, in the middle of a city, watching coyotes in the same way as I’ve watched the Deccan Dhole in a sanctuary in India, or a hyena in the Masai Mara. The coyote hung around the path for a while, sniffing and marking, probably to reclaim its turf from the dog. (Coyotes really notice dogs; they recognize them and react to them.)
Suddenly, it bounded from the path into the brush, and I knew someone must be coming. Sure enough, a jogger ran past on the same trail. Not sure whether he noticed them or not, but he kept going, and nothing happened. (He was dogless.)
I was surprised the coyotes were out so early and stayed so visible. Before this, I’d only ever seen them late at night, and people have reported seeing them early in the morning. (I posted about that, with guidelines for Coyote Caution.)
COYOTE CAUTIONS
I guess what this means is — if you’re taking your dog into coyote terrain (which is pretty much all the Natural Areas around here, as well as Golden Gate Park) — it makes sense to keep it leashed, even if it’s not early morning or late at night. This dog was sensible and obedient and returned when called. Some dogs would want to engage with the coyote, which could end badly for one or both.
Janet Kessler, who is the Jane Goodall of San Francisco’s coyotes, has recommendations for dog-walkers in coyote territory:
IF COYOTES FASCINATE YOU…
If you’re interested in coyotes, I highly recommend Janet Kessler’s brilliant blog, Coyote Yipps. Scroll down for some neat video; I loved the one of the coyote hunting some underground critter — a gopher? It has a surprise ending.
We live in coyote country, and it’s that time of the year… pupping season. We don’t know if the coyotes around here have pups. They’ll still be too small to come out just yet.
What we do know is that the mom and dad coyotes will be very protective of the pups, if any. Janet Kessler has a detailed post on her Coyote Yipps blog about this, and what precautions people should take. Especially if they’re out with their dogs.
Coyotes are feeling particularly edgy and protective of their space right now. When the pups are brought out of the dens, and when they begin to explore further afield, the coyote parents will defend a much wider area around the pups and they will do so more fiercely than usual. We need to give them plenty of girth so that they feel safe…
She goes on to recommend:
If you have a dog, keep walking on, away from the coyote. Try not to stop and stare because this sets up an opportunity for the dog and coyote to communicate through body language and eye contact — it almost always involves mutual dislike. If the coyote feels threatened, he/she may stand his/her ground with a warning display which includes what I call the “Halloween Cat” display: arched back, hackles up, snarly face with teeth bared, head down, pacing or bouncing: this is a message — it is the only way a coyote can make you understand what its needs are.
HOW TO RETREAT FROM AN UPSET COYOTE
And here are some specific suggestions from her blog-post:
Charles Wood, who watches a coyote family in Los Angeles, guest-blogs on Coyote Yipps. He has a description of parental behavior that’s interesting to read:
Dad is still looking a bit thin. I came across them both as I was leaving their field. Mom was partially in cover. I moved about twenty feet away from my leashed dog to get a less obscured picture of her. Seeing an opportunity, Dad quickly approached my dog Holtz. Dad disregarded Holtz’s barking and then charged. I snapped a quick picture and then moved to stand between him and Holtz. His opportunity blocked, Dad broke off his charge, moved back, calmed down and did some investigatory sniffing. Throughout the event, Mom stood at the ready.
Again, the point to note is that coyotes react much more to dogs than they do to humans. Usually, they avoid humans. Janet Kessler notes:
I’ve never had a negative encounter with a coyote. But I have watched other people have them. Every incident I have seen has been caused by a human with their dog who inadvertently or purposefully refused to respect a coyote’s space.
Some of you already know there are coyotes living in the area: one, maybe two families are somewhere around in the Twin Peaks/Glen Canyon/Golden Gate Park habitats. We’d posted about it on the Sutro Forest website, here.
Today, someone on our neighborhood group described an encounter with a coyote on Twin Peaks while out running with their dogs, early in the morning… in which the coyote chased them off the hill:
I spotted a coyote running up the street… I would stop and yell at him and tell him to go away (as if), and he would briefly stop but continued coming…..we finally got away…must be protecting his cubs.
It ended with a warning to people going up there with small unleashed dogs. (The coyote picture here isn’t of that coyote; it’s a public domain photograph.)
[ETA 25 May 2011: I personally saw a coyote a couple of days or rather, nights, later. It was around midnight, on the other side of Twin Peaks, near Panorama. Possibly the same animal.]
I’d like to refer everyone to the brilliant Coyote Yipps blog. It’s kept by Janet Kessler, the “Jane Goodall of San Francisco’s coyotes.” It minutely observes and documents the behaviour of a family of coyotes she watches (and also another family of coyotes in Los Angeles, observed by Charles Wood).
However: It also posts a warning.
More importantly, if you go with dogs into coyote areas (most open parkland in San Francisco or its surroundings): What concerns coyotes is dogs. Here are the special guidelines for dog-walkers. (Note that the person who originated this warning did the right thing by yelling at the coyote.)
[ETA: However, Janet Kessler added in a private communication: “…it is best never to run away from a coyote, but rather to walk away slowly. Running away sparks an instinct to chase.”]
Here’s a link to a Coyote Yipps post with more detailed pointers for dog-walkers. I’d recommend them to everyone. Janet Kessler’s been watching coyotes and their interactions with people and dogs for some years now. She’s deeply knowledgeable.
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FOREST KNOLLS NEIGHBORHOOD 