 Bob Sallinger was an advisor and contributor to the Portland Urban Coyote Project since its inception over a decade ago. He died suddenly on Thursday, October 31, 2024.
By Zuriel van Belle, Project Director The day before Bob died, he had to skip a Coyote-palooza planning meeting. As we discussed various elements of the event, funding, outreach strategies, and partnerships myself and others in the meeting, as often happened when Bob wasn’t there, said things like, “We’ll need to ask Bob,” “It would be good to know what Bob thinks,” “I’d want Bob’s perspective on that before we make it official,” and “Bob would know!” I deferred to Bob in his absence so much during that meeting that I finally said something like, “Turns out, I’m nothing without Bob.” It was a joke, but I think we all understood what I meant. Bob would know. Bob was a part of the coyote project from the very beginning and documented the charismatic coyote in Alameda that prompted the first version of our website (a single-page report form created by masters student Jenny Grant, and geography professor and advisor to the project, Barbara Brower). As the project grew, Bob guided us, advised us, warned us, and humored us. He shared with us freely and for the good of the coyotes and the community. He served as a member of my master's thesis committee and provided excellent notes, encouragement, and ideas. During his transition from Bird Alliance to Willamette Riverkeeper, he was beyond generous with his time; staying committed to coyotes among his many, many, many other commitments. At one point, when discussing the project, he said something like, “I want to stick around but I also don’t want to be that old guy hanging on—I only want to stay if you want me to…” I could only laugh and say something like, “Oh my gosh, please never leave us. We definitely want you to stay.” He was a trusted collaborator and an absolute fount of knowledge—about coyotes, partners, and messaging. His input, advice, and wisdom were indispensable for our project and we, like so many others, have lost a piece of the project we won’t get back. My last private email to Bob, on Thursday morning, ended with “I’d love your perspective as the original Portland coyote man.” As usual, I was asking him to draw from his wealth of knowledge about coyotes and coyote issues in Portland. Bob was the original Portland coyote man. Losing Bob will reverberate through the environmental community immeasurably. I know that I am one of the countless many who relied on his depth of knowledge, drive, sensibility, practicality, wisdom, experience, integrity, and humor. I hoped to learn so much more from Bob. Our deepest condolences go out to Bob’s family, to his friends, to his colleagues, and to our whole community.
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 By Barbara Brower, Project Advisor
We lost a friend this week, an irreplaceable friend. Without Bob Sallinger, there would be no Portland Urban Coyote Project. Although he is probably best known for his work with peregrine falcons and other birds, Bob knew pretty much everything there is to know about coyotes and human-coyote interactions in the Portland Metro area. We discovered this when we connected with Bob 14 years ago. Quite suddenly, in November of 2010, coyotes showed up in my Portland neighborhood, dozing in driveways, napping in intersections, strolling around the neighborhood. Their presence was a shock to me and my neighbors, and fascinated my grad student Jenny Grant, fresh from work with Montana wolves. Bob Sallinger, then Conservation Director at Portland Audubon, became our guide and coach as we began to gather and map neighborhood coyote sightings (enlisting the help of second graders at Alameda Elementary, and tapping neighborhood lists in the days before NextDoor). He taught the neighborhood about urban coyotes, in an intimate home-based session and a community meeting at Grant High School. With slides and his inimitable delivery, he managed to calm the fearful and caution the over enthusiastic, teaching the tools we needed to manage human-coyote interactions in the city. He helped us make the transition from an improvised coyote-sightings map project to the full-blown Portland Urban Coyote Project we have today. He was mentor, collaborator, and partner, who somehow managed to give countless hours and ideas to our coyote project while engineering the development of this country’s largest and most influential Audubon affiliate, and standing in the vanguard of every battle to protect Oregon’s wild nature. We did sometimes have to plan our coyote events around bedtimes, because in addition to being a warrior for Earth, Bob Sallinger, from what I can tell, was a terrific dad. Was all of that effort, so much urgent action calling on him from all sides, too much for one man? Maybe. For 70+ years I have had a ringside seat on the environmental movement; through family connections I’ve known many of its heroes. Bob Sallinger will always be one of those heroes, among the greatest. I weep now for his family, for his friends and collaborators like us at PUCP, and for all of us who have lost a real champion for nature and wildness at a time when we really can’t afford that loss. Goodbye Bob, and thanks! You certainly did your part, but boy do we miss you now.
There have been a few recent news articles reporting on the feeling some people have that there are more coyotes than ever this year. Our project gets reports of coyotes every year, and every year we have more reports during the fall and winter. Coyotes have lived in the city of Portland for at least 50 years and, at this point, their population is probably relatively stable. If you live in a neighborhood where it feels like there are more coyotes all of the sudden, it probably means coyotes have become too comfortable around people—not that there are a bunch of new coyotes in the area. Coyotes thrive in the forgotten areas of neighborhoods and coyotes, people, and pets are safer if they continue to avoid close proximity with people.
Be sure to remove food sources (never feed a coyote), supervise pets, and scare off bold coyotes. A few clarifications: ●Our project received the highest number of reports in 2016 and 2017 (around 2,500 each year). We haven't reached that number yet in 2024, but probably will by the end of the year. ●More reports doesn't necessarily mean there are more coyotes. ●Reports indicate that people are seeing coyotes, know about our project, and decide to report their sighting.
●Coyotes and wolves are related, but have important differences. Coyotes and wolves along with jackals and domestic dogs are all in the same genus, Canis, which means they are closely related. Gray wolves are around 70-120 pounds and do not live in the Portland metro area, western coyotes are around 25-40 pounds and are year-round residents of the Portland metro area. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) are different species.
*The jump in sighting reports from 2014 to 2015/2016 demonstrates how much our data relies on people knowing about our project. The main reason for the jump in sightings was a few major new articles/interviews and other awareness-raising activities. As many locals will tell you, coyotes were here in the city long before our project existed.
Read articles from The Oregonian, FOX 12 Oregon, and Courthouse News.
Learn more on our research and learn pages.
Seeing more coyotes? by Zuriel van Belle
Read: The Oregonian/OregonLive Helps to Explain Why You Might See More Coyotes in Fall and Winter10/3/2024 Listen: Project Director, Zuriel van Belle, talks about Coyotes in Portland on KPSU's PDX-Earth9/11/2024  PDX-Earth, Episode 70PDX-Earth is KPSU's "environmental radio show that discusses eco-news, interviews thought leaders and experts, offers tips on reducing your carbon footprint, and plays world music each Wednesday on Portland State University's KPSU."
The coyote segment with Doug Cress and Zuriel van Belle begins at 34:40. Project director, Zuriel van Belle recently talked with the SE Examiner. How do we live with Portland's permanent coyote residents? Remove food sources, supervise pets, and scare away bold coyotes. Read the full article here.  |
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Our project is run by a small team of researchers and community members who are passionate about understanding how humans and coyotes interact and providing evidence-based information about living with coyotes. We want to make sure our project stays sustainable and useful so we want to hear from YOU. Thank you!