It's peak pupping season, which means more visible and territorial coyotes guarding their dens.

Why it matters: Pupping season can lead to more sightings and potential confrontrations with your dog.

Driving the news: The Presidio Trust recently closed sections of the Park Trail and Bay Area Ridge Trail to dog walkers through October after pups were spotted in the area.

• Similar trail closures have happened in past years in Bernal Heights and McLaren Park, though this year's season has so far been "pretty quiet," with no additional closures planned yet, Deb Campbell, a spokesperson at SF Animal Care & Control, told Axios.

Threat level: Nearly all serious coyote incidents in San Francisco involve dogs, Campbell said.

• Off-leash dogs are especially vulnerable, and small dogs are often sought out as prey. But even leashed dogs can trigger defensive behavior if they get too close, she said.

Zoom in: Keep your dog leashed, stay calm and back away slowly if you cross paths with a coyote. Pick up your dog if it's small. Do not attempt to run away.

• "Hazing" — the practice of making yourself big and intimidating — is also an option.
• "Escorting" occurs when adult Canis latrans follow people or pets, often baring their teeth, stiffening their posture or making noises to steer them away.
• "It's protective, it's not aggression," Campbell said. "But if a dog doesn't get the message, then it could turn into something more."

Coyotes mostly live in San Francisco's parks and open green spaces and are an important part of the urban ecosystem, where they help control rodent populations, per the city's Recreation & Parks department.

• They like quieter, sheltered spots, such as overgrown or untended yards, as den sites.
• They're most active at night and around dawn and dusk.

Pro tip: Never feed coyotes — it makes them lose their natural instincts to hunt, draws them into neighborhoods and increases the chances of close encounters.

What's next: To report a sighting or an incident, contact SF Animal Care & Control at 415-554-9400.

Tell a dog owner

An AI startup that lets users make music from prompts has opened an office in downtown San Francisco, Axios has learned.

The big picture: Suno's expansion is another sign of the AI boom fueling downtown's comeback, and brings to the city a company at the center of recent fights over using copyrighted music to train AI models.

Driving the news: Suno's new office opened last week in SoMa, near Mission and 2nd.

• Opening doors in San Francisco "will be critical as we continue to scale," co-founder and CTO Georg Kucsko told Axios via email.
• The Cambridge-headquartered company launched in 2023 and is "investing especially heavily in our machine learning team to develop our frontier music model," according to Kucsko.
• The startup is planning to grow headcount by 70% across engineering, product design, data science and machine learning teams, and expects to double its workforce this year.

Between the lines: The company has been embroiled in legal challenges over its product.

• The Recording Industry Association of America sued Suno in 2024 on behalf of Warner Music Group (WMG), accusing the company of "wholesale theft" by allegedly using copyrighted recordings to train its model without permission.
• Suno maintains that its platform is focused on creating new music and constitutes "fair use" under U.S. copyright law.

Suno says it's meant to help users make new music and denies requests that reference specific artists or non-AI-generated music.

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✈️ Mayor Lurie will visit Shanghai and Seoul next month in his first international trip since taking office. (SF Standard)

🏆 The James Beard Foundation named eight Bay Area finalists in their annual restaurant and chef awards. (Eater SF)

🎧 A former 1970s Fotomat kiosk in the Haight has been transformed into a tiny DJ radio station and community music hub. (SFGATE)

🥫 Thousands of immigrants in California lost access to SNAP benefits this week due to new federal restrictions and eligibility changes. (KQED)

🏣 The Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative has purchased the historic Empress of China building. (SF Chronicle)

In San Francisco, even the most traditional holidays come with a wink.

• For many, Easter means pastels, egg hunts and maybe a church brunch. But for us here in the city, it's all about satirical drag nuns, sexy Jesuses and adults hurling down a giant hill on tricycles.

😎 That's why we love it. Here's what's happening this weekend.

Saturday

🐣 Easter egg hunts: This one is for the kids. Expect the usual family-friendly activities and maybe even a visit from the Easter Bunny.

• Salesforce Park: 10am- 1pm at 425 Mission St.
• Bayfront Park: 9am at 16th St & Terry A. Francois Blvd.

Sunday

👒 Easter Bonnet Parade: This self-described "curated afternoon of of style, civility and presence" invites you to come dressed in your most whimsical, avant-garde or unapologetically bold headwear.

• 11am-2pm at Washington Square Park.

🌈 Hunky Jesus & Foxy Mary contest: This year's theme for this unquestionably serious Easter celebration is "Love Thy Neighbor," focused on what connects us and not what sets us apart.

• Join The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — our irreverent order of queer nuns — from 10am- 4pm at Dolores Park.

🛞 Bring Your Own Big Wheel: This wonderfully weird tradition stems back to 2000 on Lombard Street, but was later moved to its present racing location on Vermont Street in Potrero Hill.

• Located at Vermont & 20th streets. Kids race begins at 2pm, but it's the adults who you really don't want to miss from 3- 5pm. Register here to participate.

Looks like our readers are getting smarter. You all did better on last week's quiz — only about 31% of respondents got a score of 1/3.

• To our surprise, the highest-scoring question was about April Harper Grey's new album.

Kudos to Lyndsey R., Laura G. and Auriel A. for being the first to submit perfect scores!

Here's another chance to get a 3/3: Click here to test your knowledge of this week's news.

• Send a screenshot of your perfect score to [email protected] for a shoutout in next week's newsletter.

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