| Though coyotes have historically populated San Francisco, they have been absent in the city for the last 75 years. As recently as 2003, however, coyotes began to repopulate the Presidio and other parks, possibly linking the genetically distinct populations of coyotes living to the north and south. Radiotelemetry and genetic studies confirmed the earliest colonists dispersed across the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin County. In this study, we sequenced (mtDNA) and genotyped (microsatellites) canid fecal samples collected in the San Francisco parks in 2007-2008 as part of a citizen science initiative to determine the following: (1) proportion that were dog versus coyote, (2) genetic diversity of coyotes, (3) minimum number of founders. Mitochondrial sequencing identified 32 dog and 15 coyote samples. Of the coyote samples, we identified two cytochrome b haplotypes. Based on microsatellites, we will address questions 2 and 3 above. |