Coyote sighting

We have coyotes in Golden Gate Park! Yesterday, in mid-afternoon, amid thick fog and gusty winds -- that's summer in San Francisco -- one loped along parallel to me across JFK Drive from me for 50 yards before turning off into the bushes. A ponderous galumphing human was no concern to this beast. I wasn't surprised to have glimpsed them in Albuquerque -- but here in the city?

According the Chron they are native to the area and moving back in after having been killed off in the last century. We know where they come from: a surveillance camera has picked up one immigrant crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at night.

The presence of coyotes in the city is good for the ecosystem, city officials and wildlife experts said, even if a few feral cats go missing.

"It is important that people recognize that coyotes are part of our ecosystem and that they have intrinsic value and ecological value," said Camilla Fox, the executive director of Project Coyote, a Larkspur nonprofit that consults with cities, ranchers and other groups on ways to live with coyotes without resorting to bullets, traps and poison.

Coyotes, she said, "keep the rodent population and other mesocarnivores - like foxes, skunks and raccoons - in check, which helps songbird and ground-nesting bird populations."

Apparently we are most likely to see them when they are defending their cubs. Here's a picture from the Chronicle the three little ones known to have been born in the park this year.

The authorities beg dog owners to leash their pets. Coyotes stand up for themselves when threatened; see this video of a Rottweiller encountering coyotes with young.