After The Frisc weighed in last week on recent coyote incidents in the Presidio, the Presidio Trust’s wildlife ecologist Jonathan Young got back to me with more information about the animals he’s been tracking for more than a year.
One overarching point to our conversation: Coyotes are here to stay, so let’s understand them better.
One way to do that is with tracking collars; Young has captured seven coyotes in the Presidio since he began the effort and untangled one puzzle: There is only one mating “alpha” pair in the park. It is their territory. Any other coyotes present are either their pups or transients passing through.
The pups stay with the parents for about a year and then fend for themselves and find their own territory. “On average there are three to eight coyotes in the Presidio” at any given time, according to Young, and that territory probably extends west to Lands End and east to Fort Mason.
Extrapolate that area to other areas of refuge in the city — Golden Gate Park, Lake Merced, and so forth — and the number of coyotes our 49 square miles can sustain is in the dozens, but unlikely to be in the hundreds, he says.
Why does Young think the Presidio pair’s territory extends farther west and east? “The urban matrix isn’t a barrier for these animals,” he says.
Take a look at the travels of the alpha female in a recent six-month span:
Nothing except tall freeway walls are a deterrent. One Presidio pup who set out on his own in 2016 was tracked all the way down past San Jose. He set up shop in Los Gatos, near the intersection of highways 280 and 85 and regularly crossed the freeway. (He was eventually struck by a car and killed.)
As noted last week, relocating problem coyotes is illegal. So “lethal removal,” as Young bureaucratically puts it, is the only option if an animal becomes a threat. He and his colleagues who work for the city, the state, and the national parks want to know if coyote behavior changes.
What happened a couple weeks ago — stalking and chasing dogs who come close to the coyote’s den during pupping season — is deemed normal. “Abnormal” means approaching or being aggressive toward humans. Once an animal “crosses into abnormal behavior,” says Young, “it would be rare that any action could reverse it.”
Throwing sandwiches
Identifying the right animal for lethal removal then becomes crucial. Young has put color-coded ear tags on the coyotes he has captured. The Presidio alpha male also has a torn ear, which has earned him the nickname “Torn Ear.”
Two coyotes in Golden Gate Park were shot and killed about 10 years ago. At some point, because some Homo sapiens will continue to leave food outdoors — for their own animals, for feral cats, in overflowing garbage bins — or flat-out feed coyotes, lethal removal will probably happen again sooner or later. (Young has heard reports of “Haight Street travelers” throwing sandwiches to them in Buena Vista Park.)
If a coyote deemed dangerous is living in a city park, San Francisco and state wildlife officials would work together. If it is in the Presidio, it would largely be the Presidio Trust’s call. “Public safety comes first,” says Young. “I don’t want people to think the Presidio will protect these animals at all costs.”
