How coyotes made their homes in Americas cities

Coyotes are not generally the first things that come to mind when you picture urban wildlife. Pigeons, rats, raccoons, squirrels — they’ve burrowed deeply into the ecosystems of cities. Urban humans are used to guarding their trash cans against raccoons, feeding pigeons in the park*, or running in terror from a defiant rat on the sidewalk. They all come with the territory.

But across North America, coyotes have been staking their claim on cities as well. Decades of humans clearing forests and killing off apex predators like wolves helped coyotes expand their range across most of the continent, and they’ve proved remarkably adept at carving out territories within urban areas. Coyotes, like rats or raccoons, are generalists: their food and...

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