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FILE: A coyote pup takes a look around.<\/p>\n
Carol Hamilton\/IStockphoto via Getty<\/p>\n
A monogamous<\/a> pair of coyotes<\/a> is preparing to raise new pups in their San Francisco den, leading to the partial closure of two popular trails.<\/p>\n On Friday, the Presidio Trust is set to\u00a0close<\/a> parts of the Park Trail and the Bay Area Ridge Trail to dog walkers until October.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Conflicts with coyotes\u00a0typically increase<\/a> during pupping season, which runs<\/a> roughly from spring until fall throughout the Bay Area.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCoyote behavior is often misinterpreted during pupping season,\u201d San Francisco Animal Care and Control spokesperson Deb Campbell wrote to\u00a0SFGATE. \u201cParent coyotes can do some scary looking things to encourage dogs with people to move along. \u2026 This isn\u2019t aggression so much as protective behavior. They just want dogs to move away from their pups.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCoyote behavior is often misinterpreted during pupping season,\u201d San Francisco Animal Care and Control spokesperson Deb Campbell wrote to\u00a0SFGATE.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Presidio Trust <\/p>\n Until this fall, when the pups will be finally big enough to venture out on their own, visitors won\u2019t be able to bring their dogs, on- or off-leash, to the Park Trail between Mountain Lake and the Presidio Promenade or to the Bay Area Ridge Trail from Rob Hill Campground to the Presidio Golf Course.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Conflicts with people are rare but not unprecedented<\/a>. Issues with dogs, which coyotes see as threats to their young, are more common<\/a>. \u201cEscorting<\/a>\u201d refers to the phenomenon where a coyote follows people with dogs, hoping to shoo them away from their dens. San Francisco Animal Care and Control provides\u00a0extensive advice<\/a> for managing coyotes encounters, strongly advising hikers to put their dogs on leashes and keep their distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Phoebe Parker-Shames, wildlife ecologist for the Presidio Trust, told SFGATE that \u201cmom is starting to scout some previous den site locations,\u201d and residents near the golf course have seen the local canines more often recently \u2014 both indicators that the breeding pair is about to den.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Presidio, we have two individuals, and this is their territory,\u201d Parker-Shames said. \u201cThere is enough food that there could be more than a single breeding pair, but they won\u2019t let another coyote establish a territory in their area. Any coyotes that are born in San Francisco, they either have to, you know, challenge an existing territory holder, or they need to disperse.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Presidio, we have two individuals, and this is their territory,\u201d wildlife ecologist Phoebe Parker-Shames said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Presidio Trust<\/p>\n Coyotes, a native California species, returned<\/a> to San Francisco in the early 2000s after their eradication, and their population grew. But numbers have likely plateaued in recent years, according to Tali Caspi<\/a>, a postdoctoral researcher who has studied the city\u2019s coyotes<\/a> extensively. There are small local spikes every season right after the pups are born, she said, and before they are old enough to move away from their families.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPups are totally reliant on their mom and dad,\u201d\u00a0Caspi said. \u201cWe think of a lot of mammalian species just having the mom take care of the babies, and dad\u2019s out of the picture, but coyotes are not like that. Parents mate for life, and both raise their offspring. They\u2019re very, very invested parents.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the Presidio Trust\u2019s closing trails to dogs, other land managers will post signs to warn of coyote activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On Angel Island, there is likely a family of 15 coyotes, all with the same mom, according to researchers there. But William Miller, an environmental scientist for California State Parks, told SFGATE that they have not observed any pups yet this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n All trails within the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department\u2019s more than 230 parks remain open at this time, despite pupping season. Some regional open spaces, such as Mount Tamalpais State Park, allow dogs on only one trail. The East Bay Regional Park District puts out\u00a0safety messages<\/a> about coyotes but does not initiate closures for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur park district is so massive, there\u2019s just no way we would be able to close anything effectively because the coyotes are everywhere,\u201d Jennifer\u00a0Vanya, a spokesperson for the East Bay Regional Park District, told SFGATE. \u201cEven in the urban interface areas, they\u2019re in every inch of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Report encounters with coyotes to the Presidio Trust at 415-561-4270 or coyote@presidiotrust.gov<\/a>, and alert\u00a0SF Animal Care & Control<\/a> to any observations in greater San Francisco. Learn more about coyotes during the Presidio Trust\u2019s<\/a> free community event on April 12\u00a0at the Crissy Field Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE: A coyote pup takes a look around. Carol Hamilton\/IStockphoto via Getty A monogamous pair of coyotes is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105,1692,106624],"class_list":{"0":"post-235994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news","14":"tag-sfgnews","15":"tag-sfgscience"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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