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!
2) A VIDEO ON COYOTE BEHAVIORS, GUIDELINES & DOGS: a one-stop video, by me, on urban coyote behavior and how to coexist with them, how to handle encounters, and why culling doesn’t solve issues:
*A protocol clarification for when walking a dog (not addressed in the video): Your safest option always is flat-out, absolute AVOIDANCE: Whether you see a coyote in the distance, approaching you, or at close range, leash your dog and walk away from it, thus minimizing any potential dog/coyote confrontation or engagement. If you choose to shoo it away, follow the guidelines in the videos, but know that what’s safest is proactive, preventative unmitigated avoidance: i.e., walk away.
2) MORE LINKS TO COYOTE BEHAVIOR & DOGS:
Press on image above for another crash course on coyotes
For more information on dogs and coyotes, type DOG or DOGS (plural) into the “search” box at the top right of the blog to bring up many dog/coyote related postings with a lot of information to increase understanding of dogs and coyotes. I don’t know why using plural brings up different articles, but it does!
“If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears one destroys.” Chief Dan George
Charles Wood, a frequent contributor to Coyote Yipps, adds: “I want to try and express Chief Dan George’s words a little differently, though I believe the meaning is the same: ‘If you talk to the animals they will talk to you and you will come to know them. When you come to know them, you will love them, with respect, without fear. What one fears one destroys. What one loves one defends.'”
Photo taken by a tourist on Saturday, January 24th
This Alcatraz Coyote update comes not from my own observations, but from what friends have sent me. This photo was taken by a tourist on January 24th, just about two weeks after the coyote made its swim, so he not only survived, but he is well and thriving.
Rangers apparently have come across a bird carcass which they are certain was harvested by the coyote.
I’ve heard that authorities are thinking of removing the coyote because of all the visitors. In my experience, the coyote should be left alone. He expended a huge amount of effort to reach the island. If he can survive there, we should allow him to, allowed to live the life he has chosen. We all know that relocation is detrimental to coyotes and many don’t survive. This coyote poses absolute no danger to people — he will stay away from them.
In addition, since he was born and raised in the dense urban area of San Francisco, you can be sure that he already is very used to people. Coyotes pass folks constantly in our parks, and often at close range: but they have no interest in interacting with us. They are wary of people and keep their distance, even if they don’t flee lickety split as some people might want them to.
So on Alcatraz, folks just need to be asked to keep their distance and NOT feed the animal, which would cause him to hang around closely to where the tourists are. The only thing we humans might consider doing is making sure there is fresh water when and if the rain puddles dry up.
Alcatraz is only about 22 acres in size, and basically a rock, only about .3 miles long from end to end. Territories in the wild wild tend to be 4 to 8 square miles each; in the city, territories are about 2.5 square miles each. Several tenths of a square mile is not big enough for the coyote to stay indefinitely. He’ll probably want to return to where he came from and then continue he dispersal journey from there.
Lets stand back, watch, learn, and be awed by our wildlife and their amazing survival skills. We don’t need to always control and interfere.
PS: If we can get a good facial shot, I might be able to tell what family he came from! I can identify most of the adult coyotes by their faces, which is what has allowed me to study their family life, and to map their territories here in San Francisco.
Hope you are wintering well. It’s been a very mild winter here. Hardly any snow.
We did fenceline checks and found the scraps of an older dead buck. The landowners knew of him via trail cams and sightings. He came to this property about a month ago. He had been shot on public land, escaped here, and was healing, but very weak.
Trail cams and sightings also verified he was followed by local coyote pair, especially the male. These coyote scavenge deer who make woods after vehicle collisions. OR…they have also taken deer injured by cars or hunters. It’s just another facet of Coyote.
There is NEVER a situation really where one can say Coyote never or Coyote always do this or that. They vary in behaviors widely. It’s very situational. So…this buck was taken. The ground showed his last struggles. And the Coyote pair and pup feasted.
Another aspect of uniqueness-2 other coyote packs eventually came and ate. The coyote here maintain territory…but if a large prize dies, (deer or cow) surrounding packs or pairs or nomads DO come in temporarily. The landowner says sometimes it’s deceptive-locals swear there is a mega pack, but no. It’s local packs disputing.
Among the trespassers were Kinky Tail and her Mate and 2 large pups. [Readers, please type “Kinky Tail” into the search box of this blog for a handful of stories about this small intrepid female coyote!]
So…a local pair that take down compromised deer. And local packs converging on each other’s territory if a large feast is on the ground.
Take care,
Lou
PS-the youngsters tend to seek other youngsters during parents forays into other’s areas. The landowner thinks this is how many meet future partners.
Fenceline checksDogs find the killSeveral coyote packs & wolves clean it up
The deer, coyote, wolves, cougar, and working dogs, all use same trails. Thus all the local dogs and coyote and passing wolves, know each other’s scent. After 2 days and several packs of local coyote, very little left. Wolves leave NOTHING but rumen and hair. Coyote take longer and leave skeletal remains bit longer.
Jaws and Skull landowner keeping for biologist. Older buck, but his main handicaps were age but primarily, long term injury from bullet wound. The coyote trailed him off and on weeks. Then harvested him. The dogs detect and find the local going ons.But this is the coyotes and wolves homes and areas. We document and share info with local landowners trying to spread knowledge.
PS-The landowner contests many of the different packs in the 8,000 acre property, are related to degrees and sometimes can tell..who is related. He feels this has effect on behaviors…sometimes. [from Janet: I know this is true, because I can often tell when two coyotes are related, based on their looks!]
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.
This video is not mine; rather I want to give a shout out to Aidan and Dan in Alcatraz City Tours, AND Jonathan Lemon who shared it with me. This video was taken about January 11th, and there haven’t been any sightings since. My fear is that this daring and intrepid coyote will (has) probably not survived.
We don’t know how long he might have been swimming in those frigid waters — it’s not something he, nor we humans, are equipped to do for very long. The distance is a little over a mile as the crow flies, but this doesn’t account for the frigidity of the water, nor the strong current that the Bay is known for. The water conducts heat away from our bodies and drains life-sustaining heat out of us if we aren’t able to bring up our body temperature quickly. So you see this coyote shivering and barely able to walk when he gets to the shore.
To live, and even more so, to turn back, he has to hydrate himself, nourish himself, and warm himself up. But there is no running water available on Alcatraz, unless the big storage tanks where imported water is kept, leak. BUT, water can also be obtained from seasonal rains and there has been plenty of heavy rain recently. Birds drink rain directly as it falls, or from puddles that collect in the rocks. Jonathan let me know that there are puddles now that are six inches deep. Fish and marine mammals such as seals and sea lions also may provide food-based hydration, but catching one is a long shot for a coyote, and a coyote, whose energy, warmth, hydration is completely depleted, might not have the energy for finding this stuff.
The Island is full of rats, mice, banana slugs and birds, so if, if, if, he/she survived the first few nights, he/she has a good chance of surviving.
We don’t yet know the outcome of this migration, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this one, after all that effort, will be sighted soon. Please let me know if you hear any updates!
As Jonathan suggested to me, maybe it’s time to expand my map! We indeed already have a family living on Angel Island!
Coyote completes his trip! We’ll have to wait and see if he recovers from the effort required to make the crossing, and then if he’s able to reap the resources that exist there: rain water, rodents, birds, and banana slugs!
Emily texted me: “sick coyote”. I hurried over. He was lying in the rain, barely moving, a young fellow, 9 months old. He didn’t notice me or any of the dog walkers nor their dogs. This would be the end of the road for him.
He had severe mange: the fur he retained was as dried out as his skin. He was emaciated: under 20 pounds. His tail looked like that of an opossum from the distance — compare this to the fluffy full tail of a healthy coyote. He had a number of deep, open wounds. I’m not sure if these came from scratching or wounds inflicted by dogs or even his own family. I’ve never seen family members attack a sick family member, rather, I’ve seen them allow the individual to remain — alone — in a protected area, and I’ve watched them visit on a regular basis, checking up on the individual.
I don’t know how long he had been there, but he obviously had gotten there on his own. It was a mulch pile which generates heat. Did he go there to warm himself up and possibly save himself, or did he know this was the end of the road, and opt for the most comfortable exit possible for himself? OR, since it was out in the open, might he have placed himself at the mercy of dogs and people who might have quickened the process?
I don’t know the answers, but while he was there, he must have realized at some point that this was the end. He was not aware of his surroundings, as attested to by his ignoring my close presence. I hurried away when he raised his head a couple of times — that’s when I took these first two photos. As he slowly put his head down, his head shivered because of the cold rain. It was a soft rain as I watched, but earlier it had come down hard. His head soon folded over onto his body with closed eyes. He twitched an ear occasionally, and then he started moving his limbs, as if running. I counted his breaths — once every 40 seconds.
During this entire time, I was in contact with two rehabbers. As I described the situation and coyote, we concluded this coyote was beyond help. Did we want to allow him a natural death out in the environment? We decided, because of the dogs, and because the coyote had already entered a delirium state — as indicated by his dream “running” behavior — that removal and euthenasia was the best choice. They aren’t allowed to euthanize in the field, so we asked if he could be sedated before being carried off, and we were told yes.
However, the crew came with no medications. But they were gentle, picked him up with a couple of towels over his body and that’s when I left. A rainbow came out, and then the drizzle continued. If he had not been picked up, I would have guarded him until he took his last breath, but that might have been several more hours.
Mange has been big in San Francisco for the last couple of years. We are told that rat poison is the cause: that ingestion of rat poison weakens immune systems and allows the mange to spread. Mange apparently is present in all canids, but is held in check by healthy immune systems. We are trying to get folks to stop the use of rodenticides in the city. Unfortunately, it’s institutions that continue to use the poison supplied to them by pest management firms. Although the sale of rodenticides has been banned in the city, these pest management firms use it profusely.
The law actually forbids rehabbers from helping mange infested coyotes. The law, created by CAFW, states that you cannot “feed” coyotes. Although there is an easy medication that can be administered in the field without interfering with a coyote — Bravecto — because of this law, rehabbers have to be careful, for their own existence, in administering this kind of medication. We have only one rehabber in California who is licenced to administer medication in the field. We are fortunate to have Good Samaritans — willing to take a chance — no different from our underground railroads or the resistance in helping families escape from the Nazis — to help out. I support these people. It’s the morally right thing to do. Unfortunately, the little fellow in this posting was not reached in time.
Collage showing coyotes feeling at home in San Francisco. Cities have become natural habitats for them, along with mountains, beaches, deserts, ranches, farms, riparian corridors.
Many people assume “coyotes in their natural environment” means anywhere far from humans. But when not persecuted, coyotes have long lived near people — and benefited from it. As anthropologist Malcolm Margolin notes in The Ohlone Way, Indigenous peoples coexisted with coyotes well before Westerners arrived in America.
Coyotes are extraordinary opportunists. They’ve adapted to nearly every habitat and climate — from scorching deserts to frozen tundra, from ranches and farms to beaches, mountains, riparian corridors and cities. All of these are natural habitats for them.
Their troubles began with Western expansion and the cattle industry, when humans started slaughtering both wolves and coyotes. Wolves were wiped out, and coyotes expanded their range — but were branded as vermin and hunted relentlessly. Even today, they’re often shot on sight or killed in contests. Ironically, hunters blame coyotes for deer loss, though humans take far more deer, including the healthiest bucks, while coyotes mostly target the weak or sick (among others, see Coyote America by Dan Flores).
As ecological awareness and humane thinking have grown, people began questioning this persecution. In cities — where guns are now banned — coyotes have found relative safety. Food prey is abundant in the form of rodents of all types, particularly gophers, birds, opossums, skunks, raccoons, vegetation of all types, bugs and lizards, and about half their diet here in San Francisco comes from human refuse (see Tali Caspi). For coyotes, as for us, city life is about convenience.
Some argue coyotes don’t belong in cities, citing car strikes, mange, or dog conflicts. Yet outside cities, life can be harsher, with predators like mountain lions and humans adding to the risks. There’s no law — or scientific reason — saying coyotes don’t belong here: that’s simply wishful thinking on their part. In truth, they’ve always belonged wherever they can survive.
A mated pair cuddle, horse around, and tease each other
[Note: This is a highly shortened version of the more detailed posting with photos that can be found here: WHO are they?https://coyoteyipps.com/who-are-they/]
In a nutshell, WHO are the coyotes? Well, it’s a little like asking, WHO are we as people: there is tremendous variety manifested in our/their individuality, situations, histories, and locations, because we’re each nurtured slightly differently by the culture, environment, happenings, opportunities and individuals immediately around us. But within that variety, there also are unifying generalities.
Coyotes are highly social, highly communicative and highly interactive animals that live in nuclear family units headed by the alpha-parent pair, several yearlings born the previous year, and new pups born this year. They live on their exclusive, claimed territories that are about 2 to 2.5 square miles in size, and they keep other coyotes out: this results in a natural population control. We have 20 such territories covering all of SF. Size of territories are smaller in cities because of the abundance of food: 50% of their diet comes from human refuse (Tali Caspi), and in fact this might be why they’ve moved into urban areas.
Family life is very similar to human family life which should make it easy to relate to them: parents have the ultimate say. They interact and communicate constantly, either visually, through odor, or through vocalizations. They hunt, play, cuddle, explore (often in pairs) have disputes, have besties and sibling rivalry. There is usually a *rendezvous* of all family members at dusk which begins their more active part of their day. Nonetheless, they are diurnal and can be active at any time. The yearlings usually disperse some during their second year of life.
Coyotes’ main source of nutrition comes from rodents, especially gophers. Their diet is supplemented opportunistically with what is available around them and what they as individuals have become good at catching: such as skunks, raccoons, cats, ducks, ravens, opossums, snakes. Seasonally they fill up on all types of vegetation, including blackberries, kumquats, apples, pears, persimmon. They have all sorts of hunting techniques, including coming out in the rain when gophers are more likely to be driven higher in their underground tunnels, and waiting for squirrels to enter trash bins and bring out refuse left by humans, which the coyotes then grab!
Their visibility has increased in recent years due to a number of factors, including the growth of social media postings and the COVID shutdown which sent more people to the parks or kept them at home where they were more likely to see coyotes (than in downtown office buildings). In addition, coyotes over time have indeed become more habituated to human presence. Constant benign human presence has made them more comfortable being seen and in closer proximity to humans. In addition, coyote 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.
The primary issue with coyotes is dogs. Dogs and coyotes do not like each other: this is a given. Coyotes keep non-family coyotes away, and by the same token they try keeping dogs away, especially during pupping season — so they’ll message dogs with scary postures or charging at them, and might even nip to get the message across. It’s easy to abide by their needs: stay vigilant when you walk your dog and always walk away from them. For more on dogs see: https://www.instagram.com/p/DLqI5dKhlKh/. And if you are worried about “danger” from a coyote, please remember that dogs are much more likely to bite you or maul your dog than is a coyote: per year we have 17 coyote bites and scratches to humans for all of North America, whereas dog bites send 1000 people a day to emergency rooms.
I’m proud to have my work included in a new textbook! “Animal Welfare Science: An Interdisciplinary Guide”, by Emily Patterson-Kane and Tina Rich. Until this book, there has been no generalist textbook bridging traditional animal science and advocacy. Here you can find foundational knowledge and fresh perspectives, written in very accessible language. [This posting is extracted and quoted from an interview, the whole of which can be found here: https://www.routledge.com/rsc/downloads/CRC_Press_AW_2025_Rights_Guide.pdf]
The book examines the field’s complexity, weaving together not just the supposed objectivity of science, but also philosophy, ethology, economics, policy, evidence and stories. It refuses to be engulfed by the often suffocating orthodoxies of science and embraces the uneasy space where passion meets that science, and the political realities that shape research and practice.
It states that you don’t need to be a specialist to think critically—and curiosity and honesty matter more than rigid orthodoxy or dogma. If we try to stuff our understanding of animal welfare into a “my way or the highway” model of learning, we strangle its potential. Animal welfare is pluralistic, surprising, and constantly evolving.
At its core lies the question of consciousness: Opinions are divided. If animals don’t have consciousness and subjective experiences (i.e., they don’t feel good or bad) welfare is irrelevant; if they do, then “everything we do to them and for them becomes ethically weighty”. An exploration of some of the theories of consciousness reveals an extraordinary schism in the scientific world as classical approaches fail to reveal what the mind “is”. Instead, a few scientists are beginning to ask whether the scientific method can even provide an answer. Does mind really come from matter? Can the weird quantum world provide an answer?
Looking ahead, the authors stress that the real challenges are cultural and political—food systems, research ethics, inequality, and the post-truth era. Meeting them will depend on a new generation of scientists who are confident, creative, and unshackled from “thought” silos.
My work is described as [quoted from the book] a “motherlode of coyote behaviors, life stories, and most precious of all, [my] stunning photo-reportage. This is where animal watching turns into narrative ethology, storytelling across the human-animal divide. One of the key differences between Janet and others with self-taught expertise is her outreach.” The authors challenge the view of whose knowledge is authoritative. What follows is a four page spread with photos of what I’ve been doing in the coyote world and how I’ve been doing it. It’s an honor to be included in this first-in-its-field animal welfare science book. The book can be found on Amazon or on the publisher’s website.
Updated 2025 map of coyote territories in San Francisco
Introduction: It might be fun to get to know something about your very own neighborhood coyotes! My documentation has always been on this very basic, primary building-block level, starting with the individual coyotes. And my information has also been conveyed, individually, to folks in the neighborhoods where I have been documenting the coyotes — after all, these were THEIR coyotes. Mine is very much a grass-roots endeavor. As you can see from the map, coyotes cover the entirety of the city of San Francisco, so you DO have them in your neighborhood.
I begin this posting by describing my approach — a *from-the-ground-up* approach. I then summarize some generalities and quirks about the different territories. Finally I list and sum up what the coyote situation is on each of the territories. And for a some, I even provide histories and links for further reading. Getting to know the whole picture will help you understand your own neighborhood coyotes better. I ask that you act as stewards for them: they are your neighbors and need support in the face of continued misinformation, sensationalism, and fear spread about them. Thanks!!
MY BACKGROUND AND APPROACH: How I came to know our SF coyotes. This is a question I have been asked, so here, I’m diving into it for you!
My friend Audrey saw this map when it fell to the floor and asked what it was. I told her it was my map of coyote territories in San Francisco. She enthusiastically responded that she maps her bird territories: that it began by her simply noticing the same scrub jay in various places and then seeing another scrub jay and where he went. One never appeared where the other appeared, and the two never appeared together. It’s from this that she began mapping some territories of the birds she watches. This is exactly how my studies began in 2007.
I’ve come to know the coyotes of San Francisco one at a time as unique individuals. Not anonymously, not as numbers, not just as a whole species. I give them names based on characteristics or events that will help me remember them — it’s easier than numbers, and it confirms their individuality. This is the cornerstone on which all my information is built.
I am able to distinguish and identify each coyote by its facial features, and sometimes by the way one carries itself or their behaviors. As I’ve stated so often before, each coyote is unique and distinguishable — as much as each human is — however, like in human families, there are family resemblances for which sometimes detective work is needed to tease out the differences! I am a self-taught naturalist and not an academic which gives me the freedom to follow leads I come up with without having to write them out in a proposal, or wait for peer review.
Academics rely on metrics. For many of them, if it can’t be measured by a human-made device or formula, it doesn’t exist. So, interestingly, my information doesn’t exist for some of them. Rather than lab work, statistics and numbers — which is their MO — my information comes from watching coyotes out-of-doors in real time and reveals what coyotes are like: it’s accessible, hands off and non-intrusive, not rarefied, real, and accurate, and can be verified with DNA from scat or photos — few academics know coyotes well enough to actually distinguish individuals, much less all the individuals and families in the city.
By watching and documenting them every single day (through a 650 mm equivalent lens), I’ve developed a very good understanding of them: their behavior, family life, individualized relationships (with its ups and downs), family structure (in its variations), along with their disaffinity for dogs, and their aversion to humans (though not necessarily *fear* of us). I’ve also developed easy guidelines for coexistence, based on real-encounters and seeing what works.
In turn, and by the same token, having the ability to identify individuals, and knowing their families and family dynamics, has allowed me to map their family territories and to follow their histories on those territories. What follows is a summary of their current territories and situations as of summer 2025 here in San Francisco. I’ve brought up to date a couple of their histories, and supplied links to their past stories (for two of the families).
Interestingly, years ago, the City brought in an *expert* who proclaimed that the city of San Francisco could only support 5 to at most 7 coyote families. Yet I’ve documented three times that many. This year, in 2025, I know 18 different nuclear families and the territories they exclusively claim, and I’ve seen the pups on 15 of those 18 territories — and there could be several more territories that I’ve missed.
Obviously, I’m not present 24-7 in any of the territories. In fact, most of the families I now see only glancingly every couple of weeks or even months. But others I’m more in-touch with, sometimes even seeing them daily for long stretches of time and then less frequently for equally long stretches of time.
When I see them, I might see them for as long as a couple of hours, morning and/or evening, OR I might simply cross paths briefly with a couple of them which gives me only a few minutes of catch-up observation time. The point is that none of these histories is complete. I’m presenting them as I have seen them through limited time frames. But it’s over 18 years of everyday observations that I’ve accumulated what I know about the nature and structure of family situations and their territories.
Here, I have updated my territorial map from when it was first posted in 2021 (and then updated in 2024). See: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/07/14/territories-and-population-in-san-francisco/. There are 18 exclusive coyote-owned territories in San Francisco that I know of. Allowing for my missing some, I’ve rounded this out to 20. There could be a few more that I’ve missed, but there are not fewer. These territories cover the entirety of the city of San Francisco.
THE MAP I’ve created.
I’ve circled most territories in red, a couple in blue and an undefined couple in black. Some of these territories have remained fairly stable over the years — in terms of location and extent — however, they’ve all endured some form — minor or major — of disruption since I started studying them in 2007, so that in some cases, new families have taken over, or in other cases boundaries have been somewhat reconfigured, or territories have actually been divided. And I’ve even seen *shared* territories.
The 18 territories circled in red are confirmed territories. All 18 (except Territory #9) are claimed by an alpha mated pair. Most, but not all, have one to four yearlings, and so far, I’ve seen the pups in 15 of those territories, with litters ranging from 3 to 7 pups.
Before listing the territories and their current situations, here are some individual territorial generalizations and quirks I’ve noted.
Unusually, one of those territories overlaps slightly with another (Territories #10 and #11) — I haven’t figured out the dynamics here yet, but two different, adjacent families travel some of the same corridors regularly. In another, two adjacent families (Territories #4 and #5) appear to be on high alert at their shared border, apparently to maintain where it is.
The *boundary* between the families in Territory #13 and #14 has shifted since 2018 from substantially west of Crossover Drive, to substantially east of the same roadway, and now stands right at that point. Each family has pushed its boundaries — as do all coyote families — but then been pushed back by the adjacent family. It’s a continual process and I think is determined by the stronger physical strength or willpower of a family at any one time. I’ve heard the distressed vocalizations between adjacent families as they’ve worked out their boundaries, which makes me think that the sparring and boundary disputes or confirmations are mostly vocal and not physical. This of course isn’t always true: I’ve seen a number of blood-drawing battles, and an in-between approach where hostility was used to drive a newcomer away. See: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/22/recent-territorial-shift-in-golden-gate-park/.
This year and last year, two of the territories, Territories #1 and #2, and Territories #3 and #4, were expanded, divided, reconfigured, and branched off by sibling-offspring of the original territory. In both cases, those sibling-offspring are now parents on what has become their own defined territory. Yes, inbreeding occurs routinely in coyote families with no visible adverse effects so far, unless weakened immune systems and mange can be linked to it. Each of the reconfigurations was caused by different circumstances and situations.
In the larger circled family, Territory #9, the alpha parents themselves disappeared at the beginning of this year, so there are no new pups there this year that I have seen. The parents’ disappearance appears to be due to mange: two coyotes with severe mange were seen sporadically in the territory for a while, but it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to identify a mangy coyote who I at one time knew when it was healthy, especially when I didn’t see the condition progress. I never did identify them in this condition first-hand. People sent me photos, but there were never enough pixels for me to actually identify them. As do many injured or sick coyotes, they avoided being out in the daytime during this vulnerable time. So, blatantly missing in 2025 from this territory are those parents who for six years had been the ever-present and very visible alphas, while the four yearlings born last year along with one two-year-old remain as the territorial owners, holding down the fort. This fivesome of siblings continues to patrol and mark the length of their territory to keep it safe for themselves. If another mated pair moved into a remote corner of the territory, they may have had pups, but I have not seen this.
Some of the territories involve sagas of long lasting family dynasties which are passed down over five generations (as in Territory #1 and Territory #3). Others are more short-lived, changing hands every couple of years, either peacefully ending their generational ownership of the land (as in Territory #9 in 2019), or forced out by a decisive territorial battle (as in Territory #3). In some cases, as in territory #14, the female has remained the alpha, while she has shuffled through a new male sometimes every year, sometimes every other year: death is often the cause, but so is *divorce*. The divorced male has frequently remained with the family and behaved like any other yearling. And one family, after years of occupying a territory, suddenly up and moved — BOTH alphas and a yearling — to a territory 5 miles away (from Territory #12 to Territories #6 and #13). This last one ended in divorce of the alphas with one moving back to the original territory, and the other remaining there, each with a new mate. I’ve seen a divorced and replaced male stay with the family as if he were a yearling.
A couple of the territories I’ve kept pace with solely through field cameras (Territory #6): it’s enough to capture some behaviors, including the arrival of pups, and shows turnover when it occurs.
In two instances — within one, and next to another territory — I’ve circled areas in blue. These have been claimed by loners who haven’t seemed to interact almost at all with members of the larger territory — at least for extended periods of time. For example, at the very western end of Territory #14, there has been one loner individual with mange who has hung out there for 2 years. He actually was (is?) part of the larger family but seems to have split off a couple of years ago to that farthest outpost within the territory. A younger brother of his would visit him sporadically, but otherwise there was no real interacting between him and that family that I saw. Having said this, beginning in mid-July, 2025, for the first time in two years, I saw that family’s alpha female — Mom — in this outpost area and now I’m seeing the rest of her family there, so temporary situations seem to exist in these territories, and I wonder if the loner has been a sentinel holding the territory for the family? Also, I’m wondering if the family moved back to that area because of the huge concerts going on in Golden Gate Park in August: there is tall cyclone fencing throughout the park and the noise and crowds are tremendous during the weekends. In the other blue circled territory, Fort Funston, there is one individual that has hung out alone regularly — no other coyotes ever appear there, just him. The same situation may exist here — I don’t know the *why* of these situations, just that they exist.
The thin black circles are where I have not kept up — so these are unconfirmed territories, and there may be several more. There are never enough hours in a day for me, one person, to keep up, though I’ve generously been sent sightings and sometimes facial photos from some of my very loyal supporters which has helped me immensely! I don’t know the situations for the thin black circles except that coyotes have been seen sometimes regularly and sometimes sporadically in these areas. I have not zeroed in on them enough to identify them or their relationships, though I know they are there.
🐾 Interlopers and Floaters. We also have had a few interlopers over the last few years — these are, unusually, loners without territories, living on the edges of others’ owned territories.. One was lame and old and possibly this is why he was allowed to stay; he did quite a bit of roaming. Also, I’ve seen mangy individuals and pairs hanging around the periphery of claimed territories, sometimes for several months before finally moving on. And occasionally an unknown coyote — unknown to me — turns up in someone’s backyard which I can’t identify: I assume these are dispersing youngsters who haven’t found homes within the city and will probably have to move south and out of the city. I often don’t identify pups until I see some kind of permanence in their situation, which should explain why some of the coyotes are unknown to me.
In summary, some of the territories have been geographically stable for years, and some have been slightly — but never drastically — reconfigured. However, some of the famlies on them have changed — in some, there has been a turnover. Most are claimed by mated pairs and most of these had pups this year.
As for population size, please remember that population numbers fluctuate over a year’s time and indeed have increased somewhat over the years incrementally. Like a breathing bellows: population grows during the pupping season, and then shrinks back down based on low pup survival rate, those killed by cars in the city (this comes to about 25 to 30 per year) and dispersals of the older youngsters. The adult population hovers under 100. Rounding this out, the ballpark numbers come to just about 20 breeding pairs or 40 individual breeding adults, plus an average of two yearlings on each territory (some of course have none, and some more) — these yearlings have remained to help raise the next litter and will soon disperse. In addition, there are just about that same number of pups born this year as there are adults — the pups who surmounted their low survival rate and being hit by cars, also will disperse sometime during their second year, and — as far as I have seen — they will most likely head south and out of the city because, most territories are already taken in the city itself.
BTW, I read a Chronicle article stating that sightings reported to our Animal Control Department had increased to 600. I mean, really, what does this mean? It doesn’t at all reflect anything about the population size, family structure, territories, or even “encounters” with dogs. Sightings are reported randomly by some people and not others — in fact most people don’t report their sightings. If reported sightings have increased, it would be due to many factors, including easier ways to report these, and being recently prompted to do so on social sites such as NextDoor. Starting with the COVID shutdown in 2019, many more people acquired dogs and started using the parks: more eyes out there translates into more sightings and possibly more reported encounters because of that increase in dog numbers. Let’s see, to put this in perspective: there are 365 days in a year, so even if the number of sightings were double what was reported, it would mean 3 sightings a day throughout the entire city. I myself — one person — see more than this every single day. But that number: *600* makes it falsely appear that there are many more coyotes or encounters, and that we’re being overrun by them. Not so.
THE TERRITORIES and SOME HISTORIES that I’ve documented, with photos of the reigning alphas.
Chert had been our long-time alpha here since 2014. In the vacuum left by her death last year (2024), her offspring Chevy and Bibs — sibling littermates — now three years old — paired up and claimed part of the land. This spring, they had their first litter. Meanwhile, Scowl (Chert’s son-turned-mate for 2 years before he left her) returned with his new mate, Bonus, to reclaim the other portion of Chert’s territory. The once-unified territory now has two households:
ScowlBonus
Scowl & Bonus hold the larger Territory #2.
Chevy & Bibs command Territory #1.
BibsChevy
Through all the upheaval, the land has remained in the same family line for nearly two decades:
Myca (2007) → Maeve (2009–2013) → Silver (2009–2021) → Chert (2013–2024) → Scowl (2019–present) → Chevy & Bibs (2022–present) — with new pups born in 2025 to both branches.
I’ve followed and photographed all of them across these 18 years.
One last note: I continue to see Scowl regularly interacting with other coyotes whom I suspect are his dispersed offspring. I catch these interactions on infrared cameras. Although I can’t identify them individually, the presence of more than just the one family suggests that some family bonds endure, even after dispersal.
The Long Reign of Scout, in short. Scout’s story spans nearly a decade. Born in Territory #1, she dispersed at just nine months to vacant Territory #3, holding it as a solitary queen for three years before being seen with a male companion. Challenges came — most notably a half-year battle with a stronger female who tried to take her land in 2019 — but Scout persisted and regained control of her territory. Over the years, she raised litters with two different mates, shifting den sites and even expanding temporarily into nearby ground in 2022 (to Territory #4). Through all of it, she kept her grip on Territory #3 for nine straight years.
A Daughter’s Coup in 2025. This year, at age ten, Scout met the challenger she could not drive out: her own two-year-old daughter, Lapis, born in 2023. Lapis refused to disperse, standing her ground even under her mother’s repeated attempts to intimidate her. Eventually, the standoff ended with Scout’s departure — her own daughter had taken over the territory — poetic, in a way, after what Scout herself had endured.
Scout has moved back to Territory #4, where she had pupped in 2022, and has been steadily expanding that range. Her push has forced the current resident family there — the mange stricken Clip, Dude, and their two yearlings — to shrink back to a reduced Territory #5. They, too, had pups this year, but the mange has weakened them, and may be the cause for them giving up the expanded area they used to occupy.
Clip (with mange and a bee sting)Dude (with a super heavy case of mange)
Back in Territory #3, Lapis now rules alongside her littermate-turned-mate Bold. The pair became parents this spring, marking the fifth generation of the Territory #1 line — the same lineage that produced Bibs and Chevy in Territory #1. And, as with Scowl in Territory #2, there is regular visiting between some of the individuals in Territory #3 and Territory #2.
BoldLapis
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In territory #6, change has been constant. [For their earlier history, see: https://coyoteyipps.com/2021/01/10/family-interrupted-update]. Since I first began observing this territory in 2014, one family after another has taken over. In 2024, Clipped and Tubetail and their yearlings all showed up with mange. Nevertheless, Clipped was lactating heavily this spring, showing that she had given birth to pups this year. However, in June of this year, 2025, when their pups would have been only 2 months old — a new family of coyotes suddenly moved in and this family is no longer there. I wonder if the pups got mange and might not have survived? This is a family I keep track of with only a field camera at a hole in the fence which has been frequented daily by all family members, allowing me to see the changes and growth of families without being there.
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BlondiePipa
Territory #7 has been far more stable. Alpha parents Pipa and Blondie have been in place here since 2019, raising litters every year. I watched Pipa grow up in Territory #8 where she was born in 2017, and I watched Blondie grow up in Territory #9 where he also was born in 2017. This year, in 2025, four of their yearlings have stuck around to help raise the newest litter of three pups. It’s one of the larger families.
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WiredSparks (with two of their seven pups born this year)
In territory #8, Wired and Sparks have ruled since 2021, after Wired’s first mate, Puff disappeared. Less than two years before this, when Puff was Wired’s mate, Puff and Wired battled the old, widowed previous owner of the territory, Petra, driving her out and replacing her. This year the family consists of Wired, her mate Sparks of 4 years, one yearling, Cricket, and Wired had SEVEN pups this year! Cricket’s brother, Spider, is the coyote who was tragically shot in Crissy Field in September 2024 for grabbing three small unleashed dogs. An earlier write-up of this territory can be found here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2023/07/08/sparks-update/, and an update to that can be found here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/05/01/catching-up-on-sparks/.
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A couple of the male yearlingsDaughter Galileo (bottom coyote)
Territory #9 saw an abrupt change in 2025 when long-time alphas Cai2 and Stumpf disappeared early in the year, leaving four yearlings and one two-year old behind. These five youngsters are holding down the fort well without any alphas over them. Galileo, the yearling female, very well might become the next alpha female there unless the territory is invaded and taken over by a stronger pair. The story is a continuing one, as are they all.
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HeartMango
Territories #10 and #11 share an arrangement: two families whose borders actually overlap. Mango & Heart had pups this year as revealed by Heart’s swollen mammary glands in the spring, while Scrub & Cactus along with their yearling, Sand, own the territory right next to AND overlapping theirs. For now, they manage to coexist and share some of their corridors.
CactusScrub
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Monte was killed in 2021, his grand-offspring are still on Territory #12, but not as alpha parents, and Territory #13.
The once wide-ranging “gypsy” bloodline that anchored territory #12 is gone. Its most notable member, Monte (aka Carl), is gone (see photo), but the lineage continues elsewhere through their offspring, in Territory #13, and in Territory #12. You can read their story and see photos here: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/05/15/till-death-do-us-part/. Monte was shot by the City in 2021 for bearing his teeth to a child in his denning area. His and Ma’am’s son, Cape, remained there with his young mate Vida (born in Territory #1), but both parents were killed by cars within a few months of each other in 2022, leaving 7 month old pups behind who indeed remained there for a while. The daughter, Bonus, in fact paired up with Scowl (after he divorced Chert) and raised one litter of pups on this territory in 2024. The territory has been vacant since Bonus and Scowl returned to Territory #1 in 2025. But we are beginning again to see occupants here this summer!
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FlickFille (she survived the bullet she received)
Territory #13. Fille and Flick are the alpha parents here, with two yearlings. They had four pups this year. Last year, three members of this family were tragically shot by the City in the Botanical Garden when a young day-camper was nipped by one of them. For years this had been a denning area, yet there were no signs, education, or precautions in place. Denning areas are notoriously protected by all members of a coyote family. In this case, a child in a butterfly costume went into the bushes where a coyote was resting, as she hurried away upon seeing the coyote, she tripped and fell, and that’s when she was nipped “on the bum” as her mother said. Three coyotes were shot for this, including a three month old pup. Fille was shot, but managed to survive the ordeal. Both Fille and Flick were born on this territory from a line that extends back in time through Tarn & Monte, and Pink & OM, so this territory is another one encompassing a family saga. https://coyoteyipps.com/2024/10/30/catastrophic-handling-of-the-botanical-garden-coyote-incident-is-examined-by-dan-noyes-of-abc-news-october-29-2024-with-sound/
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AmberPoloArcher
Territory #14. The alpha parents Amber and Scarf controlled the territory as of April, along with their two yearlings, Splash and Dew. In fact, Amber has held the territory for many years, shuffling through males fairly regularly. Amber’s two-year-old son, Archer, has kept to himself at the very western end of the park over the last two years — could this be because he and only he became afflicted with mange? I don’t know. Amber and Scarf had four pups this year, however, sometime in April Scarf seems to have disappeared. Am I just not seeing him, or is he really gone? I don’t know. New fellow, Polo, is hardly ever seen, but he was at the densite guarding, so he seems to have taken over the alpha male role. Also, one pup was found dead in July and I’m hoping the loud and crowded summer concerts are not behind his death.
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PoppyBrick
Territory #15. Brick who has been the alpha dad for a number of years (along with him previous mate, Eyes), has a new mate this year, Poppy; both have been afflicted with mange and Poppy is encumbered with a continuing limp. I don’t know what happened to Eyes or to her offspring who are no longer around. And I’ve not seen any pups this year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I will update as I find out more.
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Mak and Mari
Territory #16. Alphas Mak & Mari own this territory alone, without any yearlings. Both of them have different degrees of mange, with HER case being the worst of the two. I assume there are pups, but I have not seen them. Mari continues with her long-time limp.
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Territory #17. Pico, the alpha female on this territory was nursing pups through May, but no pups or yearlings have been sighted and I’ve not seen (or even been able to identify) Dad — he appears not to be around any longer. I’ll update as I find out more.
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Territory #18 A thriving family with pups continues to claim this territory, but my observations have been minimal at this location. I will update with photos soon.
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?? Unnumbered question marks: Coyotes are seen here pretty regularly, but I haven’t had time to confirm who those coyotes are or their relationships.
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Taken together, these territories each have elements of stability and change, with the two weighted differently for each territory — some families appear to be deeply rooted and entrenched on their territories while others may last only a couple of seasons before changes are seen — all are part of the quiet, ongoing family life of the city’s wild residents of which few people are aware beyond the encounters they report.
These are the alpha parents in the city this year (2025) — a summary of images seen throughout this posting. NOT depicted are about the same number of yearlings who will soon disperse. The new crop of pups born this year number close to the total number of adults (yearlings and alphas).
I want to add to information presented in this news piece by Itay Hod about WHO the coyotes are, in a nutshell:
Summarizing WHO the coyotes are is a huge topic — no different from summarizing concisely who humans are! But right off the bat, they are highly intelligent (I just wrote and posted this about their intelligence: https://coyoteyipps.com/2025/06/25/coyote-intelligence/) and highly social animals who are always interacting, always communicating with each other through eye to eye contact, body language, and vocalizations. They live in organized families which always start with an alpha male and female. The rest of the family includes their offspring which include a couple of yearlings born in previous years who have not dispersed, and then pups born in the current year who will disperse sometime during their second year.
They live on their own exclusive territories and keep other coyotes out, which is one way they limit the population. Territories here in San Francisco run about 2 to 2.5 square miles, and we have about 20 of them which I’ve mapped — and updated: I’ll post this soon. These territories cover the entirety of San Francisco, so you have an opportunity to encounter them anywhere!
As animals, they interact with each other constantly: they play, horse around, tease, care for each other through mutual grooming. The core of their existence is their family life, which, in it’s own way, is similar to ours. Watching them is joyous and often presents soap-opera scenarios. Most coyotes famously mate for life, but true to the individuals they are, some of them indeed *divorce*!
I think probably the most fun thing about them is how their lives are so parallel to our own when it comes to their families: it’s so easy to relate to them! Their families are the most important thing to them and this might help people understand their protective behavior, especially during the denning season which is right now.
Alison Lufkin wants “something, anything, done about the coyotes”. She in fact posits the answer about what needs to be done in her own statements: she learned through a heartbreaking experience, that you must keep dogs leashed in all coyote areas, and it’s best to avoid areas where there has been an increase in coyote activity because this probably means it’s a denning area. Alison learned the hard way through a harrowing experience. But why wait until after the fact? You can avert all encounters by knowing what is going on and knowing what to do the minute you see a coyote through EDUCATION and LEARNING pro-actively about coyote behavior, what to expect if you see one, how to handle encounters. I gave a blitz of about 12 educational slide-talks during the last few months in libraries throughout the city and will continue, including putting out signage in hot spots when needed. I give lots of first-hand information on my Instagram and here on my blog (both go by the same name: coyoteyipps.com), and you are welcome to contact me for help through this blog. But at the same time, I hope everyone else can help spread the word about what to do at coyote encounters. Please read the two articles below and spread the word. Mainly: walk away from a coyote the minute you see one, especially if you have a dog.
About My Site and Me: This website reflects my 18+ 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!
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. 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.
Press on image above for another crash course on coyotes
