Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco

A coyote in San Francisco, March 2020, sent in by reader Charles Linder A coyote in San Francisco, March 2020, sent in by reader Charles Linder Photo: Charlers Linder / @linderisms Photo: Charlers Linder / @linderisms Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close Coyotes are being seen on the empty streets of San Francisco 1 / 53 Back to Gallery

While families' cats and dogs are enjoying the upside of spending days with their owners working from home during the coronavirus shutdown, wild coyotes in San Francisco are reportedly also taking advantage of the benefits of a suddenly empty city.

There have been several recent fake stories circulating about unusual wildlife showing up in cities during the global pandemic, including news from Italy of dolphins swimming in the historic canals of Venice and a gang of happy drunk elephants in the Yunnan province of China that was also debunked. A surge in coyotes wandering the streets of San Francisco is a little less far-fetched.

There has been an increase in coyotes in the city over recent years. In February KQED reported that they were thought to be recolonizing the places they used to inhabit abundantly after being nearly wiped out through poisoning and hunting from the '40s onwards. After years of zero sightings in San Francisco, a coyote was seen in the Presidio in 2002, thought to have been brought over from a trapper in the North Bay or possibly even making its way alone over the Golden Gate Bridge. Since then numbers have continued to rise.

As San Franciscans get through their second week of sheltering in place, coyotes are seemingly enjoying the newfound space on the street.

On Monday twitter user @manishkumar457 shared a photo of a coyote on the sidewalk during the shutdown.

Coyote on the streets of San Francisco during the coronavirus shelter in place order #mindblowing #wow pic.twitter.com/mz35HAe9ZM — manishkumar (@manishkumar457) March 23, 2020

Yesterday @BathtubBulletin posted a photo of a coyote in Glen Park.

Coyote in Glen Canyon Park, San Francisco, March 2020 https://t.co/3X5S9qHsRR pic.twitter.com/NNf4yZeEhr — Bathtub Bulletin (@BathtubBulletin) March 25, 2020

Jane, an SFGate reader, spotted coyotes this week at Twin Peaks and told us that she's, "never seen one at Twin Peaks (and I've literally been there hundreds of times). I think they're feeling free to roam given the general lack of traffic."

Also on Tuesday, Vice producer Gianna Toboni tweeted that her family saw three of the animals by their house in San Francisco.

Unexpected things happening, maybe as a result of shelter in place. My brother just spotted three coyotes in front of my parents’ house in San Francisco. — Gianna Toboni (@GiannaToboni) March 24, 2020

And CNBC reporter Christina Farr spotted a pack of sleeping coyotes in the city last week.

I went for a walk for fresh air and a group of women called out to me. And omg, they had spotted a pack of sleeping coyotes in the middle of (usually busy) San Francisco. pic.twitter.com/NNdG3dcs2Q — Christina Farr (@chrissyfarr) March 20, 2020

While anxious residents are eager to see the end of the stay-at-home order, after waiting in the wings, our wild canine friends are apparently making the most of their opportunity to claim back the city.

Andrew Chamings is a digital editor at SFGATE. Email: Andrew.Chamings@sfgate.com | Twitter: @AndrewChamings