Since the pandemic, San Franciscans have increasingly found themselves face-to-face with their roughly one hundred coyote neighbors, sparking conversations about whether to control the population or continue the policy of coexistence with these vital, misunderstood canines.
Local community members have recently come into conflict with coyotes. Michelle Leighton, a Saint Francis Wood resident, described her recent run-ins with coyotes. “We have coyotes walking down the middle of our street and hanging out in backyards,” she said. While she has not run into conflict with coyotes this year, she stated that two years ago, a resident’s cat was killed by a coyote across the street from Leighton.
photo courtesy of Michelle Leighton
Manu Rapaport ’25 also discussed an incident he had with a coyote. Two years ago, he came across a coyote while walking his twelve-pound chihuahua in West Portal. From a bush, the coyote began growling at him, and he responded in the correct manner. He picked up his dog and began making loud noises toward the coyote. “Go away, Coyote! Go to hell and stay there!” he shouted. Luckily, he and his dog survived unscathed.
On the topic of what the city should do with regards to coyotes, Rapaport expressed that the city should begin a policy of relocation. “I walk up Mount Davidson all the time, see a coyote warning every time, and I’m terrified. I would never bring my dog there. And if you want public parks to be friendly to everyone, then part of that means getting rid of the coyote problem,” Rapaport said.
photo courtesy of Reddit
In the past months, there has been increased alarm about the supposed rise in human-coyote conflict: A September SFGate article discusses how San Franciscans have taken to armoring their small dogs with anti-coyote vests. There have also been a number of reports of dogs being killed by packs of coyotes throughout the city: during October, three were killed at Crissy Field, and coyotes killed one dog at Baker Beach last August.
Coyotes play a vital role in San Francisco’s ecosystem. Chistine Wilkinson, a postdoctoral urban ecology researcher at University of California, Berkeley, emphasized the ecological importance of coyotes. “Ecologically, without coyotes as urban apex predator,” she said, “we might not have as much regulation of some of the species that people consider to be pests.”
In terms of their behavior, coyotes are diurnal, meaning that they are naturally active during the day and night. “We get a lot of reports where people are [saying] ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing these coyotes during the day, something must be wrong with them,’ but actually, they may just reverting to their normal behavior,” Wilkinson said.
According to a 2019 study by Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor, increased levels of human interaction make all mammals behave more nocturnally, so coyotes being active during the day is not a red flag, but rather a result of a change in human-coyote interactions due to external factors.
Wilkinson stated that the rise in alarm is largely attributable to changes in human behavior, especially since the pandemic. Prior to lockdown, it is likely that coyotes saw quiet residential areas as safe during the day (their occupants at work) but as people spent more time at home, interactions increased. The rapid increase in dog ownership may also have contributed to a rise in conflict interactions.
Community-run data sets also contribute to the impression of a rise of human-coyote conflicts in a manner which may be misleading. “This is where a lot of reporters get it wrong,” Wilkinson said. Overall, the proportion of conflict sightings reported has increased in relation to total .sightings. The has occurred in data sets oriented around tracking coyotes for management efforts. However, on datasets run for the purpose of logging urban biodiversity and not management, there has not been the same increase of coyote frequency.
Tali Caspi, a doctoral candidate at University of California, Davis, studies coyote diets by collecting scat samples. Since processed food often leaves no physical evidence in scat, she uses DNA metabarcoding to extract DNA fragments from ingested items. “If a coyote ate a chicken nugget, you wouldn’t really see anything indicating its consumption in the scat by pulling it apart.” Caspi said.
According to Caspi, chicken is one of the most common food items found in coyote scat. “It’s obviously representative of human provided food, and it could be coming from garbage, compost or pet food, which is a big one,” she said. Both Wilkinson and Caspi state that attractants like outdoor pet food condition coyotes to see human spaces as reliable food sources, increasing the risk for conflict.
Intentional feeding of coyotes is another major driver of conflict, as it causes coyotes to see humans as another potential food source. “We hear a lot of ‘oh, [coyotes] are in cities because we’ve destroyed their natural habitat, and they’re being displaced, and so they’re starving, and they need our help,’” Caspi said. “They’re here in San Francisco because it’s an open, vacant habitat that works really well for them, and they don’t need our help to survive.” Coyotes returned to the city in 2002, and Wilkinson stated that any relocation would not only amount to a death sentence for coyotes, but would also only be temporary.
While no other city in the Bay Area has an agency responsible for managing coyotes, San Francisco currently has three agencies: San Francisco Animal Care and Control, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and the Presidio Trust. These agencies help maintain coexistence with coyotes, and both Wilkinson and Caspi stated that one of the most important measures to be taken for improving safety is increased education. They stated that people should keep their dogs on leash and should refrain from leaving attractants outside.
Wilkinson also stated that during pup rearing season, coyotes may engage in a behavior called escorting when people near their dens. “They’re just making sure that you stay from their dens, just like you would for your kids,” Wilkinson said.
Caspi also emphasized that relocation would be incredibly challenging, and only a temporary solution. In the 1920s, coyotes were wiped out from San Francisco, but this policy was only maintained through the laying of poison traps and shooting the coyotes on site. According to Caspi, “Our only option is learning how to live with them.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours