*Not sure who to credit for this stellar shot, but I found it on this person's Flickr site on 8/12/08:http://flickr.com/photos/stubbornbeauty/2215602653/
I had a little chat with Bill Merkle today, who is a wildlife ecologist with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRC). GGNRA is a division of Golden Gate National Parks, an extensive parks system which encompasses the Marin Headlands and Muir Woods north of San Francisco, Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay, and Crissy Field, Fort Point, and the Presidio within San Francisco proper. By all accounts, Merkle is the go-to man for the local coyote low-down, so I was very excited to receive a call from him in response to my inquiry last week. Like any good steward of the environment, he was at first a little remiss to talk about the coyotes' whereabouts (plenty of people want to know their range, either so they can harass the poor animals out of spite or so they can follow them around out of love - which, depending on the quantity/quality of food offered and the degree of patience of the 'yote, could qualify as harassment as well). Pretty soon, he opened up and told me what I wanted to know.
Coyotes have been longtime residents of San Francisco and its environs, but with increasing development and loss of farm land over the last century they fled to greener pastures. Their return to their former homeland has been a fairly recent phenomenon, and their appearance in the city of San Francisco is nothing less than an amazing story of survival, a la "An Incredible Journey." I only lasted one year in the big city, so I tip my hat to those furry survivors who have managed to make a go of it here, even in the face of mostly anti-coyote sentiment mingled with a false sense of fear. To carve out a tiny niche of nature in a bustling metropolis is a noteworthy achievement, indeed!
The first coyote sighting in the city occurred in 2002 in the Presidio, a wooded enclave that caps the northernmost end of the city and the southern terminus of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Presidio has been the most likely spot for sighting coyotes, and Merkle says at least one pair probably lives there still. Other sites where he has received coyote reports from are Land's End, Fort Mason, Golden Gate Park, and Twin Peaks. "I've heard there's definitely coyotes at Lake Candlestick Park," he added. Whether or not they know their way around a dugout - or just dig out dens in the outfield - remains to be seen. I really do enjoy the image of coyote sauntering up to the pitcher's mound in a Giant's jersey with the game ball clutched in his muzzle, proceeding to drop it at the pitcher's feet with a little flip of the lip and swish of the tail. Who knew team pets could be so arrogant?
But I digress. What's really amazing, and I'm not talking major league wild dogs here, is how the coyote managed to find its way into San Francisco in the first place. The most likely, and least treachorous, route it would seem is from the south by way of San Mateo. Many coyotes live in the dry, desert-like hills of San Mateo, San Jose, and Gilroy, and the trip up north through the Peninsula wouldn't involve any doggie paddling across major waterways, so the prospect of them arriving via this route is entirely possible. Yet, it is a journey through at least 30 miles of densely populated suburbs, with the hazards of humans all around. Any coyote to make it through this maze is worth his salt, and deserves a special spot in the city free from molestation and stocked with the plumpest ground squirrels - in my opinion. But his friends from the north have perhaps an even more amazing route to navigate, even if it is shorter distance.
In 2003 genetic testing was performed on a coyote that was captured in the Presidio. Scientists from the School of Veterinary Medecine at UC Davis determined, "with 97.5% probability" that the city coyote in question was related not to his southern-dwelling cousins, but to coyote populations in northern Marin county. In 2007 genetic testing of another coyote that was (unfortunately) killed by USDA Fish and Game officials in Golden Gate Park revealed that it too was a genetic match to the northern coyote clan.
In all, "two out of two coyotes tested [since genetic testing began] have been of North Bay origin," said Merkle. While no one's disputing the results of the testing, it seems to raise more questions than answers, principally, how in the world did a coyote cross the Golden Gate Bridge? There are some folks who hold out that perhaps someone caught the animals, drove them across the bridge, and then deposited them in the city - maybe as a joke played by earthy, eco-conscious Marin on her nature-deficient cosmopolitan sister, San Francisco. Due to the age (2-3 years old) and initial location (Crissy Field, right next to the bridge) of the first coyote tested, Merkle tends to believe that the little guy just up and hauled off over the bridge bikeway one day. Why? We might never know. But his spirit of adventure classifies him as a true "Don Coyote" of the modern age. He may have even found that windmill in Golden Gate Park sufficiently scary enough to tilt at, but that's just wishful thinking.
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