DNA tests determined that it was one single coyote who’d killed three dogs at Crissy Field and the Presidio since September 15, so National Park officials killed that coyote Sunday, as it had been getting pretty aggressive with people too.
The coyote attacks on dogs in San Francisco parks have seemed a little more frequent than usual this summer and early autumn, and three dogs were killed by coyotes at Crissy Field in the month of September alone. And while this may not be perfect overlap of the same three dogs, DNA testing by National Park Service (NPS) biologists connected one single coyote to having killed two dogs killed at the Presidio since September 15. Those same biologists strongly believe that same coyote also killed a third dog attacked there since then.
And how did NPS biologists get that coyote’s DNA sample? They shot him. SFGate reports the NPS officials killed the male coyote on Sunday, after determining with high likelihood that this was the coyote behind three fatal dog attacks. This coyote had a distinctive scar that made it easy to recognize.
“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,” Golden Gate National Recreation Area spokesperson Julian Espinoza said in a statement to SFGate.
And the male coyote in question had rung up quite a recent history. On Tuesday, October 1, park officials had received a “half dozen” reports of incidents of that same coyote charging dogs, and even charging a person, while also coming uncomfortably close to a group of people. These are not typical coyote behaviors.
Park officials say that people had been feeding the coyote, and even encouraging unleashed dogs to go near it. This is likely what tempered the coyote’s natural resistance to interacting. And while much of Crissy Field is a designated off-leash area for dogs, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should leave your dog off-leash in coyote-populated areas.
“Even if your animal is distracted by seeing a coyote, it means it will return to you, and reliably,” Presidio Trust wildlife ecologist Phoebe Parker-Shames told SFGate. “And if it can’t do that then you shouldn’t have (your dog) off-leash.”
Related: Coyotes Have Killed Three Off-Leash Dogs at Crissy Field So Far This Month [SFist]
Image: @presidiosf via Twitter
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