Quote:

---

ON THE LOOSE: URBAN COYOTES THRIVE IN NORTH AMERICAN CITIES

COLUMBUS , Ohio – Even in the largest American cities, a historically maligned beast is thriving, despite scientists' belief that these mammals intently avoid urban human populations.

This animal's amazing ability to thrive in metropolitan areas has greatly surprised scientists, says Stanley Gehrt, an assistant professor of environmental and natural resources at Ohio State University. Gehrt is in the sixth year of a multi-year study of coyote behavior in urban Chicago.

Since the study began, Gehrt and his colleagues have found that urban coyote populations are much larger than expected; that they live longer than their rural cousins in these environments; and that they are more active at nighttime than coyotes living in rural areas.

Coyotes also do some good – they help control rapidly growing populations of Canada geese throughout North America.

And while his coyote research is concentrated in Chicago , the results likely apply to most major metropolitan areas in North America . Gehrt has even seen a pack of about a dozen on Ohio State 's campus in Columbus .

The study began in Chicago in 2000 when Gehrt was a research biologist for the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee , Ill. In the 1990s the foundation was increasingly inundated with complaints about coyotes taking pets and reportedly stalking children.

The number of calls grew, and in the late 1990s the Cook County Animal Control agency asked Gehrt to gather information on coyote populations in metropolitan Chicago .

The study was only supposed to last for a year.

“Nine million people live in the greater Chicago area,” said Gehrt, who is also a wildlife extension specialist at Ohio State . “We didn't think very many coyotes could thrive in such a highly urbanized area. We also thought that the few animals that were causing problems were probably used to living around people.”

The problem with studying coyotes in general is that the animals are incredibly difficult to catch. They quickly learn how to avoid traps. But Gehrt and his colleagues distributed their traps widely throughout the greater Chicago area and successfully caught several animals. They put radio-tagged collars on the captured coyotes and then let them go.

The original estimates of the greater Chicago coyote population were woefully low. The researchers had expected to find a few small coyote packs here and there throughout the city, with total population numbers in the range of several dozen. But the animals were everywhere.

“We couldn't find an area in Chicago where there weren't coyotes,” Gehrt said. “They've learned to exploit all parts of their landscape.”

Since the beginning of the study, the researchers have caught and tagged more than 200 coyotes. They estimate that there may be somewhere between several hundred and a couple thousand coyotes living in Chicago .

Some of the animals live in city parks, while others live among apartment and commercial buildings and in industrial parks.

The funding agency, Cook County Animal Control and Conservation Medicine Coalition, renews the study every year because the researchers keep finding results that surprise them. This spring, Gehrt will publish the first round of papers from the last six years' worth of research.

Researchers found that, in Chicago , the annual population growth of Canada geese was reduced to an average of 1 to 2 percent per year, down from the 10 to 20 percent growth rates of a few years ago. Also, while coyotes can clean out several goose nests in one night, they don't actually eat all of the eggs. Rather, they usually carry the eggs away from the nest and bury them, saving the eggs until later, Gehrt said.

Coyotes prefer to hunt alone, but often form packs to defend territories. Gehrt estimates that roughly half of all urban coyotes live in territorial packs that consist of five to six adults and their pups that were born that year. These urban packs establish territories of about five to 10 square miles – a fraction of the area that a rural coyote pack would cover. Consequently, the population densities in the urban area are usually three to six times higher than rural populations. Those urban coyotes that don't hunt in packs can cover ranges of 50 square miles or more, often in just one night. “The first solitary coyote we tracked covered five adjacent cities in a single night,” Gehrt said.

“A coyote may eat the food that's left outside for a pet,” Gehrt said. “It's not uncommon to see a coyote pass through an urban or suburban neighborhood.

“But most coyotes aren't thrilled about being seen by people,” he continued. “Urban coyotes are more active at night than their rural counterparts, so humans don't see a lot of their activity. In many cases, coyotes are probably doing us favors that we don't realize – they eat a lot of rodents and other animals that people don't want around.”

---

Quote:

---

When coyotes snarl and bark, yelp and howl just a few yards from your front door, the chills go straight to the base of your spine. I've seen this pack roam the city streets near my house. It's just a few miles from downtown Phoenix, and a few feet from a desert park. Darren Julian, who tracks urban wildlife for the Arizona Game and Fish Department, says this area is a sanctuary for urban coyotes.

Here, "coyotes and other wild animals have a place to escape and not be bothered," Julian says. "[They'll] hide under many of these creosote bushes or paloverde trees, but then go find food sources in your yard."

Julian says a pack of coyotes can claim up to 3 square miles of territory. Sometimes the only evidence of their existence is a hairy pile of scat left behind in some alleyway. They hide in overgrown yards. They den in oleander hedge rows and prowl the streets looking for colonies of feral cats to munch on.

---

Quote:

---

Animal Care and Control officials in San Francisco have a few words for people who have spotted coyotes recently in Golden Gate Park and Bernal Heights: "We know."

And: "Don't feed them."

And: "No, they won't eat your kids."

Well, they're not likely to.

Nearly every day, Guldbech said, her office has been getting calls -- and e-mails, and more calls -- from folks both excited and scared about the small, skittish canines.

Recently, the calls have become increasingly frantic, Guldbech said, prompting her to speak out in the hope that San Franciscans and their new neighbors can coexist peacefully.

"For whatever reason, they are here," she said, noting that all of the surrounding counties are home to the animals. "If we don't domesticate them, they probably will move on. If people leave out dog and cat food, they will keep eating it and they will not hunt. And when I say hunt, I don't mean -- they are not going to eat your child -- I mean wild rabbits, ducks in the park."

Because coyotes do sometimes hunt cats and small dogs, animal officials suggest feeding pets indoors and bringing in small animals around dusk and at night, prime hunting time. For those in Bernal Heights and near Golden Gate Park, they also recommend securing trash cans with a fastening lid or bungee cord.

There have been reports of coyotes in the Presidio and Bernal Heights for a few years now, but it wasn't until about six months ago that officials began receiving calls about coyotes in Golden Gate Park, Guldbech said. Wildlife officials now believe there are one or two coyotes living in the park, and at least one residing on Bernal Hill. In all, she said, four or five probably call San Francisco home.

Guldbech assures callers that the local coyotes have never shown any aggressive behavior. But that's about all officials know about them. They aren't sure why they are here now, or where they came from.

Officials are not considering trapping, killing, spaying, neutering or in any way bothering the coyotes unless they do become aggressive toward people, Guldbech said. In fact, feeding, harassing or injuring the canines is illegal, though officials do suggest making loud noises or spraying them with a hose if they are frequenting residential areas.

Most of the more freaked-out calls have been coming from the park, she said. In Bernal Heights, by contrast, neighbors have adopted their local coyote as a sort of pet.

Sharon Beals, who lives in Potrero Hill but walks on Bernal Hill in the early mornings, said she has been seeing a coyote there for about two years now. Beals believes someone is feeding the animal.

The first time she saw the small wild dog, Beals said, she was "completely fascinated, awestruck, honored."

---