‘When you get on a conference call and say those words — ‘kill an animal’ — it sucks’
By Amy Graff, Senior News Editor Oct 10, 2024 (SFGate.com)
The coyote that was killed by federal officials at Crissy Field on Oct. 6 was seen hunting for gophers in the grass of the park on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. Inge_Curtis/Daniel Solorzano-Jones/NPS
The San Francisco coyote behind a string of attacks at a popular San Francisco park has been caught.
Federal officials killed the young male early Sunday morning at Crissy Field, after an investigation revealed he had killed at least three small dogs that were off-leash and bit multiple other dogs, including at least one on-leash dog, across several weeks in September and October, according to officials and biologists with the National Park Service’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Phoebe Parker-Shames, a wildlife ecologist with the Presidio Trust, said there were also reports of the animal charging at people on a trail in the Presidio, the 1,491-acre park that includes Crissy Field.
The coyote had grown comfortable around humans, said Parker-Shames. Officials had tried to scare the animal by hazing it, going as far as shooting it with a paintball gun, but were unable to quell the coyote’s unusually aggressive behavior. Coyotes are typically shy with a natural fear of humans, but this animal became habituated, likely in part due to humans illegally feeding it and encouraging their dogs to harass coyotes.
“It’s an accumulation of factors that bring it closer and closer to people without getting a negative response,” Parker-Shames said.
The data and observations piled up. “In keeping with established wildlife management practices, NPS and Presidio Trust biologists made the difficult decision to lethally remove the animal in consultation with state and local authorities,” GGNRA spokesperson Julian Espinoza wrote in a statement.
A DNA sample was collected after the coyote was killed. It matched up with two dogs that were bitten. Katie Smith, a National Park Service biologist, told SFGATE on Wednesday that the team believes this is the same animal that killed the dogs.
“We have no reason to believe otherwise,” Smith said.
A crescent of land fronting San Francisco Bay at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, Crissy Field is a former U.S. Army airfield that was restored into a glorious 100-acre park with beaches, marshes, grassy expanses and miles of paths always busy with walkers, joggers and cyclists. It’s hugely popular with dog owners, who are allowed to take their pets off-leash in designated areas if their animals are kept under voice control.
The problem is that many dog owners don’t understand the true meaning of voice control, Parker-Shames said. “Even if your animal is distracted by seeing a coyote, it means it will return to you, and reliably. And if it can’t do that then you shouldn’t have it off-leash,” she said.
The GGNRA, which includes Crissy Field, is the only unit within the National Park Service with off-leash dog areas, Espinoza said. Since the spate of coyote attacks, GGNRA has posted signs throughout the park encouraging pet owners to keep their dogs on-leash in all areas.
Smith and Parker-Shames were part of the team that led the investigation into the coyote reports in September. This included reports of the three dogs that were killed; SFGATE talked to two of the dogs’ owners and recounted their horrifying experiences in a separate story.
The two collected photos and patrolled Crissy Field, eventually determining it was a single coyote that was responsible for the brazen actions. The animal that was menacing the park had a telling scar on its upper right forearm.
The decision to kill the coyote was made on Tuesday, Oct. 1. That day, the biologists observed and received reports of the coyote acting aggressively toward dogs in a half-dozen separate instances across the Presidio. On the Mountain Lake Trail near Paul Goode Field, it charged at an individual and then backed up and moved toward a group of people (nobody was bitten or injured).
“It wasn’t extremely aggressive but crossed the line,” Parker-Shames said.
“That’s a little snapshot of the amount of chaos that can come from one animal,” Parker-Shames continued. “It probably felt like there were six coyotes in the park that day. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
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Alongside federal officials, the biologists set up a stakeout at the park that weekend, from 11 p.m. Friday to 4:30 a.m. Saturday. No luck: The animal with a scar was never spotted.
They went out again Saturday night and found him this time. He was killed early Sunday.
“As we did our targeted removal, we did our best to ensure we got the right individual animal,” Smith said. “We have no reason to believe there’s more than one coyote exhibiting these bold behaviors.”
The biologist said studies have shown that it’s usually a single individual that is responsible for most conflicts, and once a coyote has learned a behavior that it benefits from — like, say, approaching humans for their food or preying on small dogs — it’s hard to counteract it.
Smith and Parker-Shames are confident the team made the right call, especially because the animal was acting aggressively toward humans without dogs.
“Obviously, we love dogs,” Parker-Shames said. “But when we decide to remove a coyote, it’s more about human safety than dog safety.”
Being at the center of the decision was not easy. “When you get on a conference call and say those words — ‘kill an animal’ — it sucks,” Parker-Shames said, getting emotional.
The biologists are concerned the killing of one habituated coyote will lead dog owners to think it’s now safe to let their canines off-leash.
“This lethal removal is not a solution, this was a reactive response to an increasing public safety concern,” Smith said. “It’s not a solution to prevent issues like these moving forward.”
Martha Walters, the chair of the Crissy Field Dog Group, has been coming to the park for 40 years and has repeatedly called on officials to put together a plan for managing coyotes and share it with the public.
“The coyotes are still present at Crissy Field so people need to be on the alert,” Walters said Thursday morning. “Yesterday, a Crissy Field Dog Group member said there are three coyotes that went from the Marina Green to the Wave Organ and onto the East Beach at Crissy Field.”
The biologists said it’s important that Crissy Field visitors continue to keep their dogs on leash and pack out their trash, as coyotes love feasting on stinky scraps. The overflowing trash cans at the park are attractive for coyotes, as is the chicken left at the pier by people using the meat in crab traps.
“Coyotes are highly intelligent and highly opportunistic and if you give them an easy opportunity for a food source, they’re going to take that,” Smith said. “It’s important for us to remove those attractants if we want to change that behavior — that includes putting small dogs on a leash. The best thing you can do to keep your pet safe is to keep it on a leash and as close as possible.”
In particular, Smith said she had observed some disturbing behavior at the park that she thinks contributed to the young male coyote’s demise.
“I’ve personally observed visitors intentionally encouraging their dogs to interact with and harass a coyote,” she said. “It’s deeply disturbing because we’re animal lovers, and seeing folks intentionally put their pets at risk is incredibly disturbing, and it’s not at all helpful to the coyote.”
An estimated 100 coyotes live in San Francisco, making homes in the patchwork of green spaces spread across the city’s 49 square miles. After the killing of the coyote, Parker-Shames said four coyotes are still likely living in the Presidio: an alpha male and female, long-term residents who breed once a year and have not caused any significant problems. The pair likely had two pups in 2023, and one was the young male who was killed. Parker-Shames has not seen his sibling in many months, and she assumes the animal has either died or moved to another area.
This year, the mother and father had two more pups. The wildlife biologists hope San Francisco residents can help keep those animals wild.
“This was so hard,” Parker-Shames said of the recent killing. “I don’t want to have to be out here again. All of us come into this because we care about wildlife. I would rather be involved in the effort because I know we’re going to do it well and responsibly.”
More Coyote Coverage
— New study reveals what urban coyotes are really eating in San Francisco
— ‘Awful, horrific experience’: Coyotes are killing San Francisco pets
— ‘They’re just everywhere’: San Franciscans question whether coyotes belong in the city
— Trapped coyote found living in San Francisco backyard for several days
— Three dogs reportedly killed by coyotes at San Francisco’s Crissy Field
— Pack of coyotes surround, kill dog on popular San Francisco beach
Oct 10, 2024
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
Amy Graff is the senior news editor for SFGATE and leads the site’s news desk. She was born and raised in the Bay Area and got her start in news at the Daily Californian newspaper at UC Berkeley, where she majored in English literature. She has been with SFGATE for more than 15 years and writes about a little bit of everything but is obsessed with weather. You can email her news tips at agraff@sfgate.com.