Coyotes, like this one walking down a hill on Mount Diablo, are increasingly being spotted in urban and suburban parts of the Bay Area. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
DEAR JOAN: We live in the Thousand Oaks area south of the Capitol Auto Mall. In the past few months we’ve seen a few coyotes roaming our neighborhoods and parks. Recently we noticed that one of them had a tag on his ear. Any idea who would do that and what information we can glean from this apparent surveillance?
There are also two gray foxes that live in a neighbor’s backyard and roam our fences. Will they ever move on?
— Dennis, San Jose
DEAR DENNIS: Your visiting coyote could be part of a tagging program being conducted by biologists and scientists with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Presidio Trust in San Francisco.
In 2015, the Presidio Trust caught 16 coyotes in the park, tagged them, gave them temporary radio collars, and released them. Recently, a handful of coyotes were tagged and collared in the Marin Headlands area.
Tagging and tracking is an attempt to learn more about coyote movements and activities to help wildlife specialists manage the animals.
Although it seems unlikely that a coyote would travel from San Francisco to San Jose, it happened. One of the pursued coyotes walked down South Bay from the Presidio in just a month before being hit by a car and killed on Highway 280.
Researchers love to hear from citizen scientists who spot one of these tagged coyotes. You can take a photo and submit it along with details of the encounter through the iNaturalist website www.inaturalist.org or by installing the app on your phone. The iNaturalist site is a joint venture between the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
Approach coyotes, tagged or not, with caution and keep a safe distance. If you are traveling with a dog, be sure to keep it on a leash.
Foxes are not a major threat to humans, although they can be a major threat to small animals such as cats, small dogs, or backyard chickens. Foxes are usually afraid of humans, but once they have found a warm, sheltered place to carry their young and have access to food, they can stay for several months.
Her neighbor or someone else in the neighborhood might be feeding her, which can make her less careful. Although foxes will likely move on at some point and probably won’t cause you any problems, it’s best for them to move away from a populated area and keep their distance from humans. Whenever you see them in your yard, make loud noises to startle them.
helium balloons
I’ve had a few emails from people who were upset that I was proposing helium balloons to be fixed in front of windows to prevent birds from pecking at the windows and their own reflections. I should have stressed that you should make sure the balloons are secured and don’t accidentally fly away. Abandoned balloons and their strings pose an entanglement hazard to other animals.
There are also concerns about our helium supply. Estimates of the proportion of helium used by the balloon industry range from 7 to over 10 percent, but helium has been rationed over the past year due to shortages of the gas used in medical and scientific equipment.
Animal Life runs on Mondays. Contact Joan Morris at AskJoanMorris@gmail.com.
