
Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco - spking
https://www.sfgate.com/living-in-sf/article/Coyotes-are-being-seen-on-the-empty-streets-15159105.php
======
spodek
What we think of wild nature is nothing compared to what used to exist.

Schools of fish so dense they would bring boats to a halt in the middle of the
Atlantic. North America had more large wildlife than Africa. Whales as far as
the eye could see all day long. Walruses in the Thames in London.

I did a couple video essays on what I learned from a wonderful book _The Once
and Future World_ :

My video essays: [https://youtu.be/ZLAvBiols2Y](https://youtu.be/ZLAvBiols2Y)
and [https://youtu.be/U4NZdciDozI](https://youtu.be/U4NZdciDozI)

The book: [https://www.amazon.com/Once-Future-World-Nature-
Could/dp/030...](https://www.amazon.com/Once-Future-World-Nature-
Could/dp/0307362183)

~~~
monktastic1
Reminds me of a quote from Charles Eisenstein. He cites _The Once and Future
World_ and then channels Steve Nicholls in _Paradise Found_ :

"Atlantic salmon runs so abundant no one is able to sleep for their noise.
Islands “as full of birds as a meadow is full of grass.” Whales so numerous
they were a hazard to shipping, their spouts filling the entire sea with foam.
Oysters more than a foot wide. An island covered by so many egrets that the
bushes appeared pure white. Swans so plentiful the shores appear to be dressed
in white drapery. Colonies of Eskimo curlews so thick it looked like the land
was smoking. White pines two hundred feet high. Spruce trees twenty feet in
circumference. Black oaks thirty feet in girth. Hollowed-out sycamores able to
shelter thirty men in a storm. Cod weighing two hundred pounds (today they
weigh perhaps ten). Cod fisheries where “the number of the cod seems equal
that of the grains of sand.” A man who reported “more than six hundred fish
could be taken with a single cast of the net, and one fish was so big that
twelve colonists could dine on it and still have some left.”

I used the word “incredible” advisedly when I introduced these images.
Incredible means something like “impossible to believe”; indeed, incredulity
is a common response when we are confronted with evidence that things were
once vastly different than they are now."

(I posted the MacKinnon section here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22064787](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22064787))

~~~
crazygringo
I'm not sure exactly what those quotes are referring to, but many reports of
European settlers to the New World, while technically true, were greatly
misleading.

Prior to arrival of the Europeans, the continent was full of Native Americans
who lived in an ecological balance with wildlife.

When the Europeans arrived, the diseases they brought wiped out 90+% of the
indigenous population, according to some estimates. By the time they explored
the continent, the population was mainly gone, far in advance.

So there's a strong theory that the incredible over-abundance of wildlife the
Europeans saw was actually a huge ecological _imbalance_ , as many animals had
lost their natural (human) predators.

And that phenomena such as millions of passenger pigeons blocking out the sun
overhead weren't "natural" at all, but actually severe ecological imbalance.

(This isn't to say, of course, that now we haven't swung way too far in the
other direction. But just that the tales of abundance aren't necessarily a
naturally balanced state either.)

~~~
orbital-decay
_> the continent was full of Native Americans who lived in an ecological
balance with wildlife_

Native Americans weren't a monolithic group, and the balance with wildlife is
just a part of the noble savage myth, for most of the groups. Maya, Toltec,
and Aztec societies deforested Central America quite significantly before
collapsing (and before Columbus).

~~~
knolax
> Aztec

> before collapsing (and before Columbus)

In the alternate universe you come from, who was fighting Cortez?

~~~
JshWright
They weren't referring to Columbus as the person who conquered South/Central
America (there were quite a few conquistadors involved there... not just
Cortez).

They were referring to the arrival of Columbus as the watershed moment that
signal the arrival of Europeans en masse to the Americas.

~~~
knolax
I'm not saying they were referring to Columbus as the person who conquered
Central America. I was amused by GP's insinuation that the Aztecs had somehow
collapsed before Columbus.

> Maya, Toltec, and Aztec societies deforested Central America quite
> significantly before collapsing (and before Columbus).

On a second reading it seems that GP had most likely meant that they were
deforesting before Columbus, not that they had collpased before Columbus, but
it's still strange to refer to getting conquered as a "collapse".

------
as-j
As an early morning runner in SF, I see coyotes in SF every week or two,
including at Twin peaks as mentioned in the article. One morning in Golden
Gate Park I warned a few people walkings dogs since there were about 4 coyotes
around the corner.

From my first hand experience, I'd assume any wooded area with cover in SF has
a coyote living there.

~~~
ctchocula
What advice do you have for dealing with coyotes when jogging? I've learned
the hard way that running away tends to trigger their fight-or-flight reflex,
which isn't good.

~~~
mariodiana
Do like Texas's former governor, Rick Perry—shoot it dead.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20100501095227/http://www.chron....](https://web.archive.org/web/20100501095227/http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6978352.html)

------
phaser
Here in Santiago, Chile, where many neighborhoods are in complete lockdown, a
wild Puma was seen roaming the streets[1]. This was their natural habitat
before the city was established, and many of them still live in the mountains,
which are not far from the busiest streets of Santiago.

[https://www.france24.com/en/20200324-wild-puma-captured-
in-d...](https://www.france24.com/en/20200324-wild-puma-captured-in-deserted-
chile-capital)

~~~
RandallBrown
Seattle has occasionally gotten mountain lions and bears in the city.

[https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/discovery-parks-
co...](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/discovery-parks-cougar-is-
captured-released-into-wild/)

~~~
tjr225
I used to live in Olympia before living in Seattle and wash pretty shocked to
see a coyote casualty walking down the street one morning when I was drinking
coffee. Turns out it is pretty normal.

------
jedberg
I grew up in LA and while I don't live there anymore I've seen pictures from
the last few days.

Never in my life have I seen such blue skies over LA. And my parents don't
ever remember it being clearer either.

At least this shows what some stricter climate controls can do to both the
climate and the economy and the tradeoffs involved.

~~~
bdamm
Walking around my neighborhood and the silence is absolutely sublime.
Airplanes, cars, highway noise, all diminished. The birds and chirps and
friendly "Hellos" are amplified. It's bee n marvelous.

~~~
froindt
That reminds me about stories of people trying to record nature untouched by
man-made sounds.

It has become increasingly difficult to find locations which are purely
nature. I wonder how much easier it has become since the number of people
generating "work noise" has fallen so much?

[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/24/machine-...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/24/machine-
natural-sound-bernie-krause)

~~~
soared
Maybe in Europe, but in the US there is a ridiculous amount of untouched space
a <20 miles from almost every major city with the exception of California and
the north east.

~~~
jedberg
It turns out there is no where you can go in the United States that is more
than 20 miles from a paved road.

~~~
tclancy
Is there a citation for that? I’d guess there are large parts of northern
Maine that only have logging roads.

~~~
jedberg
There are a bunch of articles about it but nothing scientific. For example:

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-
canada-42104894](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42104894)

And it turns out I was wrong. There is one spot 21.7 miles away from a road
deep in Wyoming.

~~~
bdamm
This is highly dubious. Logging roads might be considered "roads" but some are
passable only by heavy equipment. If you have to stop and repair the road
every few hundred meters then I don't think it counts as a road.

------
40four
This is really cool! (but not unexpected) On the east coast, there is a
species called ‘Coywolves’. They are a hybrid of pure coyotes and timber or
grey wolves.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf)

They are known to be incredibly smart and stealthy. They are adept at adapting
to, and living in urban environments.

Like domestic dogs, they understand line of sight, as in, they are keenly
aware of what direction a person is looking. This helps them remain unseen,
while surviving in _very_ close proximity to humans.

We know coyotes are living in virtually every corner of the US at this point.
I wonder if these are pure bloods, coywolves that have migrated to the west
coast, or maybe a new hybrid or sub species?

PBS Nature has an amazing documentary describing the Coywolf. Check it out if
you have PBS Passport!

[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/coywolf-meet-the-
coywolf/860...](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/coywolf-meet-the-
coywolf/8605/)

[https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/meet-the-coywolf-
infographic...](https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/meet-the-coywolf-infographic-
a-field-guide-to-the-coywolf-or-eastern-coyote/8663/)

------
diggan
The same thing is happening in Barcelona but with boars coming from the
forests outside the city, seems to have no correlation with the lock-
down/quarantine that is happening (streets of Barcelona are basically empty
right now, except for ambulances, police and delivery services)
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/04/wild-boar-
sigh...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/04/wild-boar-sighted-near-
barcelona-city-centre-looking-for-food)

~~~
joshuamorton
Fun story about this.

I once did a night "hike" up to Tibidabo. This wasn't organized or anything,
just a few friends and I took a commuter train out of the city to the base of
the mountain, semi-stranding ourselves. Then we walked up to the top, slept
outside on the hilltop and enjoyed the sunrise the next morning.

Tibidabo has an amusement park and a cathedral, so there was a night security
guard who was _very_ confused by the 4-5 tourists hanging out outside his gate
at night, although he didn't complain much.

The relevant bit here though is that on the walk up the mountain, we saw more
than one wild boar out on the roadside, including a whole family. It was
unexpected and frightening.

~~~
babakd
Joey?

~~~
joshuamorton
No, my name is pretty obvious ;)

~~~
sulam
Mort?

------
sn41
Perhaps appropriate: The famous poem by Sara Teasdale, about a different
context, which also lent its name to a short story by Ray Bradbury:

There will come soft rains

\--------------------------

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows calling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

~~~
Igelau
Let's not romanticize this too much. Coyotes are literally all over North
America, so it's not like they've suddenly reappeared or something. We also
accidentally let them overpopulate by exterminating so much of the wolf
population.

------
zmj
There are mountain lions in downtown Boulder:
[https://twitter.com/mitchellbyars/status/1242110542317096960](https://twitter.com/mitchellbyars/status/1242110542317096960)

~~~
gerdesj
I should hope so too. Boulder is in a bloody huge mountain range.

~~~
dboreham
I live _on_ a mountain with mountain lions all around, but I've only seen one
twice in 20 years. So seeing three in a city is really unusual.

------
simonw
The first time I saw a Coyote was in broad daylight up on Corona Heights in
San Francisco.

I'd never even seen a photo of one before, but I knew what it was straight
away because its face looked like Wile E Coyote!

~~~
Talanes
I grew up in the rural deserts of Eastern California where coyotes are
abundant, and never directly saw one once. Just the occasional rustling in the
brushes and darting glances, and sometimes the flick of a glowing eye.

And then I come to San Francisco and one just walks past me and sniffs my hand
while I'm going to the 7-11. Didn't even register that it wasn't just a dog
until it had walked past.

It's crazy how much more comfortable around humans animals become in urban
environments.

~~~
DanTheManPR
Anecdotally, I think they have better instincts for how to stay concealed in
natural environments. Wildcats are the same way. Bobcats are everywhere in the
lower 48 of the US, but most people have never seen one, and may not even be
aware that they're around.

------
technothrasher
Those little guys are so cute. Our Eastern coyotes are about twice that size,
having hybridized with timberwolves.

~~~
wefarrell
Domestic dogs too, which has resulted in less fear of humans.

------
thdrdt
There are multiple documentaries about "What if people suddenly leave earth?".

All those movies show how fast nature will take over. Within 10-14 days
animals will be walking everywhere.

So I am not surprised we see animals moving into cities.

And it is also true a lot of animals are already around but are very shy. So
we don't notice them but they are already around.

~~~
elliekelly
Can you recommend a good one? (Or two? I’ve suddenly got lots of time this
weekend...)

~~~
thdrdt
Maybe this one:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath:_Population_Zero](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath:_Population_Zero)

------
joegahona
I wish the article contained more than 1 image of a coyote on a SF street.
Nonetheless, very "12 Monkeys"-esque.

~~~
avip
Coyotes are terrorizing the once inhabited city.

~~~
DoreenMichele
If you are a grown adult, coyotes aren't that dangerous or scary.

They aren't very big. They will attack small pets and children that are alone,
but they typically leave adult humans alone.

I used to go for six mile walks in the High Desert for exercise. I routinely
ran into coyotes. They never bothered me.

I did tell my children to not go out alone at night. There had been two or
three attacks on children in the previous five years.

I have a dog phobia due to things that happened when I was about four years
old. I'm not similarly afraid of coyotes.

Of course, I wouldn't want to run into a large pack in the dark either. They
can and will take down deer as a pack and did so sometimes within earshot of
my tent when I was homeless.

So, I mean, don't be stupidly cavalier, but lone coyotes are known to not be
particularly dangerous to adult humans.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> lone coyotes are known to not be particularly dangerous to adult humans

This is an important qualifier; they are not always alone.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Yes. It probably bears repeating. The pandemic seems to be causing people to
gloss over important details in comments.

So thank you for pulling that out and highlighting it.

------
lflux
I've seen a coyote dart across the street in SoMa in the middle of rush hour.
Nature's a bit closer than we think.

~~~
fillskills
You mean the rest of nature. We are also nature :)

~~~
travisjungroth
What do you call a place with no 7/11?

~~~
snuxoll
Boise, ID - the only one we had closed down some time ago.

------
ChuckMcM
Just wait until the mountain lions and brown bears start prowling around
looking for snacks :-)

For folks further out into the 'human/wildlife interface' as the Forest
Service calls it (or the 'cafeteria' as I call it) sightings of all wildlife
is up. Some friends who retired out in Brentwood[1] (not the LA neighborhood,
the town outside of Livermore CA) They now have nearly continual deer presence
and multiple daily sightings of Coyote and Fox around mid-morning and dusk.
They have heard mountain lions but haven't seen one yet, and no bears so far.

[1]
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Brentwood,+CA+94513/@37.90...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Brentwood,+CA+94513/@37.9077743,-121.9017665,10.08z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x808ff999f087c8cd:0x7e19835b56d29a02!8m2!3d37.931868!4d-121.6957863)

~~~
russell_h
For what it’s worth, there aren’t thought to be any brown bears left in
California; the closest ones are in Washington or maybe Idaho.

~~~
thaumaturgy
This is largely a matter of local lexical confusion. In the US, "brown bear"
can mean two things: a black bear with a brown coat ( _ursus americanus_ ), or
a grizzly ( _ursus arctos horribilis_ , which makes me giggle every time).

Across the pond, "brown bear" probably means _ursus arctos arctos_ , a cousin
of our own more foul-tempered beasties.

But when a Californian says "brown bear", usually they just mean a brown-
coated black bear ([https://bear.org/black-bear-color-
phases/](https://bear.org/black-bear-color-phases/)).

~~~
look_lookatme
> But when a Californian says "brown bear", usually they just mean a brown-
> coated black bear ([https://bear.org/black-bear-color-
> phases/](https://bear.org/black-bear-color-phases/)).

Well that's confusing. Whenever I hear brown bear (in hunting contexts, etc) I
assume grizzly.

------
mytailorisrich
Here in England we don't have coyotes but just today I saw a pheasant walking
down a deserted road nearby. It looked slightly confused.

~~~
webignition
Is that unusual where you are?

Over the past few years I've seen the odd pheasant within ten minutes walk of
the centre of Basingstoke as well as the occasional deer sprinting across the
ring road dual carriageway.

Hopefully we all get to see more wildlife as life quietens down a little and,
at least in the UK, we can be sure not to encounter anything even remotely
dangerous.

~~~
mytailorisrich
We're not far from the edge of town and the fields, and it's common to see
pheasants out there but not where I saw that one, which was quite a distance
from there.

------
OkGoDoIt
I walk a lot all over San Francisco, including at night. I’ve been seeing
coyotes in the streets for at least a year now. Several times in North Beach,
a couple times in the dogpatch/China basin area by the ballpark, etc. My phone
doesn’t take great photos in low light, but I posted what photos I can on my
Twitter [1] and Instagram and Facebook to try and get the word out. At this
point I kind of just assumed everyone realized they are around.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/okgodoit/status/1082425011388829696](https://twitter.com/okgodoit/status/1082425011388829696)

~~~
PopeDotNinja
I was walking around the Marina in SF about 15 years ago at night. I heard a
rustling in a front yard and stopped to look. It took me a second to focus on
what I was looking at in the dark. It was a skunk in a defensive posture with
it's tail raised. I slowly backed away, and fortunately didn't get sprayed,
although that would have made for a better story.

~~~
tnolet
I had a similar encounter 10 years ago around 24th street and Mission. Was a
raccoon though. Very cute one too and quite fat.

------
irrational
I live in the PNW. Every few days someone gets on nextdoor.com freaking out
about having seen a coyote. My response is always the same. They were here
long before humans were ever here and will still be here long after we are
gone.

~~~
zentiggr
> ... in the PWN

I think we all got PWNed this time.

~~~
irrational
Ha ha! Fixed ;-)

------
emptybits
Here in Vancouver there are social media accounts of cougar tracks on a beach
and in a park. Unconfirmed. Unlike coyotes here (common)[1], or bears and deer
(occasional), cougars are virtually unheard of near populated areas so this is
notable if true.

Yes, yes, cue the "preying on young men in bars" jokes... :-P

[1] [http://stanleyparkecology.ca/conservation/co-existing-
with-c...](http://stanleyparkecology.ca/conservation/co-existing-with-
coyotes/coyote-sightings-map/)

~~~
cleandreams
A security camera in SF caught a cougar on video a few years ago.

~~~
eweise
We've had quite a few cougar sightings up here in the north bay but its rarer
now with all the watering holes closed.

------
hadlock
I've seen coyotes in Buena Vista, and in october, Anza Vista (the hill just
west of lower fillmore district). Seems like there is plenty of food in the
area. In Dallas, Texas I would regularly see coyotes in the park.

Coyotes are generally quite meek around humans. You weigh 150 lbs and are 5'
tall (or taller) they are perhaps 70 lbs wet and 26" at the shoulder. If you
so much as make eye contact with them, they'll generally leave immediately.

------
mighty_bander
Coyotes come out after dark. It takes about 20 minutes for them to figure out
people aren't around. Mangy jerks.

Once I was walking through some brush in a city park in Calgary, AB and a
siren went by. The whole area around me lit up with howling. Little unnerving,
although coyotes are pretty cowardly out West (in the East they've interbred
with wolves and will once in a blue moon take a hiker down).

~~~
cmrdporcupine
Here in southern Ontario the coyotes are still pretty cowardly. I live rural
(but close to town) and I might see them from 100 feet away before they
skitishly run off. Except for one time there was one that brazenly marched
down our driveway in broad daylight. Not sure how long that one lived for,
never saw it again...

The ones in town are a bit less shy.

What's strange is last night our chickens were attacked by an eastern red fox.
Usually they're super skittish and shy around humans, but as I (along with 3
other people) was rescuing my rooster from under a car, this one kept circling
around, thinking he was going to get his prey back from us. Not scared at all.

(FWIW roosters are amazing animals... this one seems to have charged the fox
to get it to drop one of the hens, and then fought with it and decoyed it away
from the hens a good 200 feet down to the road, then it hid under a car of
some people who passed by and witnessed this all happening and stopped. All
birds survived, just missing some feathers. Rooster gets lots of treats
today.)

~~~
BostonFern
Good boy!

------
thedance
In Berkeley we have these, plus bobcats, foxes, and mountain lions. One of the
interesting things about California is that even though humans have stepped
all over the ecology of the American West, that hasn't been going on long
enough to extirpate literally every wild species. Compared to places that have
been settled for 1000s of years, California can seem wild.

------
mark-r
I live about a mile from the Minnesota river, and I see coyotes occasionally.
Once right in our back yard, I even got a picture.

------
FpUser
Toronto for example was full of Coyotes last summer. No need for COVID to see
them around. I saw quite a few on my own.

------
choward
I wonder how many peoples cats are missing right now.

------
riantogo
Seeing nature flourish as humans pull back... I wonder if we are the virus

~~~
abraae
There's no need to wonder. Humans are.

Right now the planet is drawing a great big sigh of relief.

Yet we have politicians that are just busting to get things ramped back up to
the crazed consumption-driven frenzy that we treated as normal until a few
weeks ago.

------
pjbk
When I was living in Daly City I saw them regularly if I went for a night walk
in the Lake Merced area close to the Olympic or Thornton park. I once went
pass one on the other side of the street, he glanced at me but was more
interested in inspecting a trash bin. They usually ran away.

Plenty of raccoons too. For some reason those are more comfortable around
people. One night I met one walking towards me on the sidewalk. First I
thought it was a fat cat. I stepped aside as he strolled by me, he stopped,
gave me a greeting stare and proceeded on his business.

------
yellowapple
Not surprised one bit. I definitely heard them (but never saw them) when I was
living in Daly City. Also once nearly hit a deer while I was driving along
Skyline Blvd, speaking of unexpected wildlife.

Coyotes pop up pretty regularly in Sacramento, too (which is somewhat
unsurprising given the proximity to farmland and other open areas, but
somewhat surprising given the degree to which Sacramento's suburbs sprawl and
would be expected to push wildlife further away from Sacramento itself).

------
sreevisakh
Here is a rarely seen Malabar spotted civet roaming the streets of Kozhikode
city in India:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t9IC1s2tbk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t9IC1s2tbk)
. Endemic to Western ghats and critically endangered, most of us have only
heard about it in books. Kozhikode along with the rest of India is currently
in a lock-down.

EDIT: It could be the small Indian civet instead. Needs someone to identify

------
mmhsieh
Do not coyotes bring in ticks and all the tick-borne diseases as well? perhaps
public health priority #2 is to humanely remove these animals sooner than
later.

~~~
Igelau
I thought that was deer.

------
pascalxus
I wonder how much of this has to do with the lack of development in the bay
area. With a huge amount of undeveloped area all over the bay area, there's
probably a lot of places for coyotes to live, since so much living space has
been zoned and allocated for them and other wild life. It's too bad, we're not
this kind to human beings.

~~~
ComputerGuru
So kind of you to leave them a smidge of their former territory.

------
wglb
Chicago has lots of urban coyotes.
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-
news/ch...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/chicago-
coyotes/306a6c78-34ba-47c0-a02c-b0f0086b64ec/amp)

~~~
djsumdog
Yep, the Chicago subreddit has a photo of one wandering around this week. We
also occasionally get deer that make it into the city; usually walking down
some of the long bike trails from Skokie.

------
ComputerGuru
The city of Chicago employees coyotes for rat control. They’re seen all over
the metro area and have become familiar faces.

~~~
djsumdog
They use coyotes? I thought it was just cats. Huh ... I guess some of those
photos of them on the street this week may not have been of wild coyotes like
I thought.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Mainly feral cats but there are rats too big for them to go after. The coyote
project started around ten years ago, it’s been a great success:
[https://cei.org/blog/chicago-coyotes-control-mice-and-
rats](https://cei.org/blog/chicago-coyotes-control-mice-and-rats)

------
beambot
How about critically-endangered animals reappearing -- e.g. the Malabar large-
spotted civet: [https://www.ibtimes.sg/this-critically-endangered-animal-
was...](https://www.ibtimes.sg/this-critically-endangered-animal-was-spotted-
road-amid-covid-19-lockdown-india-video-41806)

------
celias
Stuff You Should Know did a podcast about coyotes recently

[https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-
know-269...](https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-stuff-you-should-
know-26940277/episode/how-coyotes-work-58984374/)

------
perl4ever
In suburban upstate NY, coyotes, deer, and turkeys are pretty normal for many
years. They wander across your lawn, eat your shrubbery and your pets, and
generally seem to be well aware of where hunting is and isn't permitted.

...I showed a snapshot of a "coyote" once to someone who insisted it was
actually a wolf.

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marklacey
There have been several reports going back at least a few months of a coyote
wandering around Noe Valley at dusk, I think around 25th & Sanchez or that
general area.

So this isn’t new although perhaps more are venturing out for longer periods
of time due to the streets being emptier.

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bifrost
I live on Mt Davidson and I see em running down the street at least once a
week...

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rocky1138
It's not just San Francisco. I was driving onto the 406 in here Niagara
(Canada) and I had to avoid one that had died after being hit by a car. In my
entire life I've never seen coyote road kill.

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telesilla
There are large flocks of pigeons flying around the streets all day, like I've
never seen before. I wonder where they get their food now the terraces and
plazas are empty.

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outworlder
This makes me very happy. I wonder if we could some day come up with some way
to coexist with nature instead of blindly blanketing it with asphalt and
concrete.

~~~
chrisco255
Coyotes have already done an excellent job of coexisting with humans. They are
one of the most successful species at adapting to human civilization. Pigeons,
rats, roaches, etc. also quite successful.

~~~
outworlder
> Coyotes have already done an excellent job of coexisting with humans

I have only seen them being 'successful' if are large tracts of land around
the cities that they can live at. Would they be able to live in, say,
Manhattan?

If not, as we expand the urban sprawl, they might become less successful...
And coyotes are not the only species we should be worried about.

~~~
chrisco255
Manhattan is quite the edge case. It's one of the densest areas on the planet.
I don't think that's a good model for development. Sprawl in the U.S. is more
of the suburban variety and there coyotes do thrive quite well. They don't
even need large tracts of land. They are fully capable of burrowing in little
pockets of green space. See: [https://urbancoyoteresearch.com/coyote-
info/general-informat...](https://urbancoyoteresearch.com/coyote-info/general-
information-about-coyotes)

~~~
frosted-flakes
That is such a neat website, and very interesting research.

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bhewes
Ah they finally made it in that city. I would see them often walking around
late at night in the Silverlake and Los Feliz neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

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gruglife
I live down by west portal and have been seeing coyotes long before the
shelter in place happened. Probably started a year or so ago.

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macawfish
Last year I saw one at night in San Diego walking down the boulevard. It
trotted right past me like 5ft away!

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wglane
I see them pretty regularly running GGP.

~~~
robdimarco
I saw one in GGP when I was running there a few months ago. Scared the hell
out of this East Coaster!

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bariswheel
I see coyotes up on Bernal Heights park all the time. Harmless, they tend to
stay in their lane.

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perfectstorm
The other day I saw a video of a spotted Malabar civet walking through urban
streets of Kerala, India. It is an endangered species
[https://twitter.com/DGrieshnak/status/1243077554224787457?s=...](https://twitter.com/DGrieshnak/status/1243077554224787457?s=20)

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WalterBright
I live roughly in the middle of the Seattle metropolitan area, and coyotes,
deer, eagles, wabbits, etc., are a common sight. Last year a mom coyote and
her 5 pups were often playing and hanging out in my front yard. (I didn't
bother her and she didn't bother me, aside from stealing my Acme Rocket Sled.)

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Justice4Yall
And I see thousands of storks flying on a deserted airport since few days.

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jrockway
There are also some unconfirmed sightings of mountain lions. Probably.

~~~
krick
Are you being literal or is it a reference to something? This sounds awfully
familiar, but I cannot remember where I heard that.

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vinniejames
This isn't all that rare, lots of coyotes live in the parks

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svnpenn
Once upon a time

I was of the mind

To lay your burden down

And leave you where you stood

------
pl0x
Please donot feed them.

------
kingkawn
Finally some good news

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fortran77
They need to be careful not to step in human poop.

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daotoad
They are riding dolphins through the crystal clear canals of Venice, hunting
swans.

~~~
jyrkesh
This article literally cites dolphins in the Venice canals as fake news.
Please read the article before you comment.

~~~
mark-r
Please turn up the sensitivity on your sarcasm detector.

~~~
joejerryronnie
I believe HN shorts out when the sarcasm detector reaches about 30%

------
aeturnum
The "earth is healing, we are the virus" narrative is overblown (and
ecofascistic), but it's good to remember that humans are not special. We push
other life forms out of our spaces, but many of those life forms continue a
marginal existence. The end of humanity would not be the end of life and being
reminded of that is a useful check on our tendency to put ourselves at the
center of "the" world (instead of just the center of our world).

~~~
philwelch
Taking comfort in the potential extinction of humanity because at least there
would be some non-sapient critters still around strikes me as an odd value
system. Couldn't you make the analogous argument that the extinction of all
life on Earth would be fine since it would have absolutely no effect on the
vast majority of the universe?

~~~
resu_nimda
Major extinction events have historically paved the way for new and
interesting forms of life, including humans.

~~~
macintux
But easy access to energy is gone. This is Earth’s last chance to bootstrap to
the stars.

~~~
state_less
I'm not sure I follow. How is it gone? We have fusion (solar) and fission. And
we may find out how to more directly harness energy as we progress. I think
our access to energy is limited by our lack of knowledge.

I agree though, we should get out on some new space vessels soon to buy some
insurance and project ourselves into the far future.

~~~
macintux
If we go extinct, the next intelligent species (if there is one) won’t have
the easy reserves we used to get started. You can’t jump directly from fire to
fusion.

~~~
philwelch
Give it a few million years and they'll have hydrocarbons the exact same way
we got them.

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Kye
They're not empty. They're full of coyotes.

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unlinked_dll
Bit weird to see them in broad daylight, but we definitely have an urban
coyote problem in the US.

I swear the most common "crazy story from my vet" is the soccer mom that
rescues a litter of puppies that she found on her run...

~~~
xsmasher
Probably something they heard from another vet, who heard from another vet -
sounds very close to the classic "Mexican Pet" urban legend.

[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-mexican-
pet/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-mexican-pet/)

