Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco • Hacker News Board

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#21

Post by mighty_bander » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:17 PM UTC

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).

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#22

Post by avip » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:17 PM UTC

daotoad wrote: post #5

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

No. Keep your fake news alert on max sensitivity these days. And possibly any day.

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#23

Post by phaser » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:18 PM UTC

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...

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#24

Post by fillskills » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:18 PM UTC

lflux wrote: post #15

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.

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

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#25

Post by jrockway » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:20 PM UTC

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

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#26

Post by travisjungroth » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:21 PM UTC

fillskills wrote: post #24

lflux wrote: post #15

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.

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

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

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#27

Post by aeturnum » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:23 PM UTC

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).

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#28

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:23 PM UTC

travisjungroth wrote: post #26

fillskills wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

[deleted]

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#29

Post by philwelch » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:25 PM UTC

aeturnum wrote: post #27

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…

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?

Re: Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

#30

Post by cmrdporcupine » Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 8:26 PM UTC

mighty_bander wrote: post #21

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).

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.)