Coyote Invasion

One night after basketball practice, I saw a coyote in the MVMS parking lot. It looked at me casually, then slowly walked away. I've also seen a coyote on Mt Tam while riding my bike and I saw one at the Headlands.

Coyotes are survivors. They are very smart and very elusive. They can adapt to almost any environment. They can be seen occasionally, but will keep to themselves as long as people don't feed them. They will go almost anywhere that they can find food and shelter. Lately, they've been seen, in increasing numbers, in Golden Gate Park.


One woman, in an interview for the San Francisco Chronicle, said of the increasing coyote population: "It's ridiculous, They're a disaster for the existing bio system"

The woman is wrong. Coyotes are native to this area, so it's not like they don't belong here. There won't be a population boom of coyotes, but only as many as the ecosystem will support. A closer look at the woman's background reveals her true concern: she's a feral cat rescuer!

A feral cat is a house cat or the offspring of a house cat that was released into the wild. Feral cat colonies can be found in many city parks. Feral cat colonies are "disasters" to existing bio systems, for they are non-native predators who survive in greater numbers than they should because people feed them. When the food that people give them isn't enough, feral cats go hunt the native wildlife. Example: there are no California Quail in Golden Gate Park. Reason: feral cats ate them all.


Feral cat colonies are a bigger problem than coyotes. How humans can help: spay and neuter pet cats and don't feed feral cats. Serendipitous natural solution: let the coyotes control the feral cat population, by (sorry kitties) eating them.

By the way, just where are these Golden Gate Park coyotes coming from, anyway? Based on tissue samples, they seem to be coming from Marin County. Which means that, sometime in the wee hours of the morning, coyotes are crossing the Golden Gate Bridge!