Four months into a project tracking the movements and behavior of a growing presence of coyotes in the Marin Headlands, researchers say they already have a better understanding of the often elusive carnivores and the risks posed by their growing comfort with humans.
Of the seven coyotes that were tagged and collared with GPS trackers starting in the fall of 2020, three have been found dead on Highway 101, according to the National Park Service.
“Human feeding may get coyotes accustomed to coming into developed areas where they are at risk of being killed or injured by vehicles,” said Julian Espinoza, spokesman with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is conducting the research.
Coyotes are native to California and the Bay Area, but were aggressively hunted, trapped and poisoned from the Gold Rush through the mid-20th century as they were considered a dangerous nuisance. But the Bay Area population has rebounded through the decades, most notably in 2002 when coyotes reestablished themselves in San Francisco at the Presidio and Golden Gate Park.
Wildlife ecologist Jonathan Young of the Presidio Trust said as more coyotes took to urban environments, there was little understanding of how they behaved and how they interacted with humans. Most of their dramas played out at night, he said.
“Some people have called them ghost dogs for a reason,” Young said.
The Presidio Trust and its research partners have been using GPS tracking collars in the Presidio in the last four years to lift this veil of uncertainty. The lightweight tracking collars are able to be wirelessly detached when the monitoring period is over or if a coyote is killed. While there are misconceptions of coyotes running rampant through the city, most of the pups they track die within a year, Young said.
The data from this research is being analyzed by UC Berkeley and UC Davis. Their findings are helping to better inform how parks should manage the interaction of humans and coyotes.
This research inspired the National Park Service to begin conducting similar studies at the Marin Headlands, where coyotes have been growing more accustomed to the many humans visiting the popular destination.
After the coyotes were tagged in the Rodeo Valley in September, the park service has been observing a larger number of untagged coyotes in the region as well. It also helps point out some of the trouble makers.
“For example, we now know that an adult female coyote with red tags in each ear is the individual who has been previously observed soliciting food from visitors at a particular area of Rodeo Valley,” Espinoza said.
To the alarm of researchers, coyotes can now often be seen snooping around picnic tables at the Headlands, hoping to find leftovers or a human willing to give scraps. Feeding coyotes is illegal and ill-advised; most cases of bites on humans were from people feeding the wild animals, Young said.
Several signs can now be seen in the Headlands warning visitors to keep their distance – for everyone’s sake.
“The harmful effects of feeding wildlife have been well established,” Espinoza said. “The data from this project will inform our community outreach efforts to help visitors understand how their interactions with wildlife — even if seemingly innocuous or well-intentioned — can have a damaging effect.”
Concerns about coyotes have not gone away in these recent decades. Last September, a woman sitting on Tennessee Beach was bitten by a coyote that was reported to be acting aggressively. The new tracking research should help to better understand and avoid these incidents, Young said, as it will allow researchers to target specific animals if they are showing problems. This will help avoid situations such as in Orange County in 2018, when a child was bitten, Young said. Several innocent coyotes were shot and killed before the culprit was found.
Widespread eradication of coyotes is no longer a reasonable management practice because the coyotes have already become well-established in the region, Young said. It’s also not a very popular option, he said.
“The only reasonable way forward is coexistence but to do that you need information and need to be able to monitor and manage these animals and people in an informed way,” Young said.
Visitors that come upon a coyote can play a part in the ongoing research. Researchers are asking people to use the iNaturalist phone application to report sightings including information about any behaviors, tags or collars that they might see.
More information on the project can be found at nps.gov/articles/coyote-tracking-marin-headlands.htm.
