photo courtesy of ©janetkessler/coyoteyipps.com
Throughout quarantine, we heard lively stories of wildlife reclaiming spaces that humans had overtaken: A herd of goats trot through the town of Llandudno, North Wales, wild boars roaming through the streets of Haifa, Grey Langurs jumping along a deserted road in India. Wildlife has taken over cities when traffic was scarce and the streets went quiet, when crowds ceased and people withdrew, locked in their houses or fled the cities.
San Francisco had its own surge of a wildlife uprising when humans were forbidden to roam. A 50 lb mountain lion prowled the streets in the Portola and Bernal Heights neighborhoods, caught on Ring cameras planted at neighborhood houses. Wild turkeys were spotted roaming about in Potrero Hill and Oakland. Most noticeable though were the coyotes, who were seen nonchalantly trotting down the typically people-ridden pavement during the day. At night, they were heard haunting neighborhoods with their high-pitched howls.
Humans’ presence and traffic in the streets decreased significantly due to quarantine, allowing coyotes to reach parts of the city they would not normally venture into.
“Suddenly the human encroachment had pulled back from society and animals reacted by moving into human environments,” said Lila Travis, Director at the Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Center, in an interview with KRON4.
She explained how both our physical bodies were not present, and some of our effects, such as our litter, were also not as prevalent because of how much time we were spending at home rather than commuting. Fewer sandwiches or doughnuts discarded by humans meant that the wild animals who had grown to count on human’s refuse were forced “to spread out into our city to find food,” said Travis.
Were the wildlife sightings due to an actual spike in wildlife in the city though, or were people being more observant?
When people were cooped up inside their houses, unable to spend time at places like the movies or going out to dinner, the need to enjoy some fresh air increased. San Francisco is one of the best places to take advantage of the outdoors — with the surrounding bay and beaches, the large expanse of Golden Gate Park, the Presidio to the north, McLaren Park to the southeast, the San Bruno Mountain State and County Park to the south — and all the patches of greenery in between.
In the past decade, coyotes have roamed a majority of these parks, raising the possibility that the reason residents only recently noticed them is because of the spike in park use.
“The increase of human visitation rate of the parks meant more sightings,” said Dennis Kern, the Director of Operations at San Francisco Parks and Recreation.
Under quarantine, people needed to escape the physical inactivity and limitations of the indoors and stay safe by not gathering in crowds. This drove people to go out alone and in small pods to wander. They began to view their environment with a different lens.
“I think a lot of people during that 2020 lockdown kind of started to lose their minds from being cooped up so much,” Jonathan Young, the Wildlife Ecologist at the Presidio Trust, said. “And having access to these open spaces changed people’s perspective of the value of these resources.” People began to see wildlife, and coyotes in particular, as not only a privilege to witness in the city, but also a valuable species independent from humans.
The view of coyotes has changed throughout history. “The traditional relationship between humans and wildlife is more utilitarian, in that animals exist to serve a use for humans. But that relationship is changing to a more mutualistic one” said Young.
Residents of San Francisco mostly saw coyotes as threats. In the 1940s a campaign of poisoning and hunting them almost completely wiped out the coyote population in the city. Human inhabitants were determined to dominate and control the landscape.
Up until the early 2000s, when coyotes returned to the area, the local wildlife species were not accepted in urban areas. People privileged their domestic animals.
Things are still not perfect for the SF coyotes. Residents, especially those in the Presidio, view coyotes as threats to both themselves and their pets.
Human’s common misconceptions cause false narratives to spread about coyotes themselves and how to act when one encounters a coyote.
As with most wild animals, it is important to be as loud, big and scary as possible without harming the wildlife. Experts suggest throwing small, but harmless objects at the coyote and backing away slowly. As is advised by the signs posted at coyote sighting locations, pick up pets and never turn your back or run, and, most importantly, do not feed the coyotes.
