Photo by David Cruz
Wildlife officials estimate their are 13 coyotes living in San Francisco, and they’re encouraging residents to learn to live with the song dogs.
Recent photographs show at least three coyote pups were born in Golden Gate Park this year, according to a recent San Francisco Chronicle article. The first coyote sighting in the area occurred in 2004 and sightings have become more common since then. Officials believe the coyotes are migrating from the north into the city. Coyotes were once native to the area, but they were mostly killed off as the city boomed during the gold rush in the mid-1800s.
Rare aggressive behavior from coyotes have some San Francisco residents nervous, but officials believe the incidents have been mostly cases of coyotes protecting their denning areas.
“A lot of people freaked out about it, but in hindsight we realized they were probably protecting a den,” Rebecca Katz, the director of San Francisco Animal Care and Control, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “What we are trying to do now is get more people educated about coexistence. It’s not an option for us to remove them. We’re not willing to kill off the coyotes. We think we should learn to coexist.”
While the public might be able to coexist with coyotes in San Francisco, rapidly rising coyote populations in much of the Golden State have decimated the state’s black-tailed deer population and made it an under-appreciated predator hunting hotspot (see related article “Calling California” by Jack Spencer Jr. in the April-May 2012 Trapper & Predator Caller issue).
If you’re interested in calling coyotes in California or right in your backyard, make sure to try out the Quaker Boy Screamin’ Cottontail Predator Call. The closed-reed hand call is great for close-range or long-range calling and works on all predators. You can pick one up at our store HERE.
