Some SF Presidio trails closed until October as coyote pupping season begins

By Luz Pena

Click here for updates on this story

    SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — In San Francisco, the Presidio Trust is putting up the first warning signs of the season, alerting dog owners to avoid certain areas.

ABC7 News reporter Luz Pena spoke to an ecologist who explained why this time of year could be particularly dangerous for dogs.

“The coyotes are about to have or are just having babies right now, so we got small pups in dens in all across the Bay Area. Here in the Presidio, we have an alpha pair and they traditionally have a den around the golf course area,” said Phoebe Parker-Shames, wildlife ecologist for nthe Presidio Trust.

Mark Sole was getting ready to walk his dog Beau when he saw the signs. They are no strangers to coyotes.

“We’ve had 3-4 instances where our dog has interacted with coyotes and it’s a risk that we have always sort of assumed. We’ve had one altercation with a coyote,” said Sole.

Phoebe Parker-Shames, wildlife ecologist for the Presidio Trust, said they are trying to reduce potential conflicts between dogs and coyotes.

“Coyotes much like dogs are canines and so the other canines that they might encounter in their sort of evolutionary history would be wolves that would be there to attack them or attack their young, so they have that same of territoriality and fear towards our domestic dogs,” said Parker-Shames.

On Monday morning, Christopher Sewell was golfing at the Presidio when he had an encounter with one of the coyotes in the area.

“I thought it was like a crazy looking dog and then my buddy who lives here in SF was like, oh that is a coyote. We could see its ears perking up – it was next to hole 3,” said Sewell.

Coyotes are part of this ecosystem and have been spotted across the city – one of the common places is Golden Gate Park. San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department says they are monitoring the area.

“The dens exist only for a portion of the season and then the coyotes go about their business after pupping season is concluded and what we did this winter is that it was an inactive den, but we got rid of it and got rid of a bunch of drubs and bushes where coyotes like to hide with hope that they won’t den there this coming season,” said Phil Ginsburg, General manager SF Recreation and Park Department.

Park experts don’t believe humans are at risk, but recommend having a plan if you do encounter a coyote.

“If a coyote starts to approach you, then you get large you haze the coyote, you yell at it you wave your hands,” said Ginsburg.

The two trails in the Presidio will remain closed for dogs through early October.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.