Urban Coyotes

They lurk among us - in wrecking yards, parks, ravines and dilapidated garages - but they are so  cunning, you will probably never know they are there.  In recent decades, Coyotes have moved from their traditional wilderness territories into suburban and even downtown locations in cities across North America, from LA to New York, from Vancouver to St. Johns.

They have been spotted in and around New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Washington D.C., Calgary, Toronto, Hamilton, Vancouver and Ottawa, but the most remarkable development is that their lifestyle remains unchanged.  Coyotes are renowned as one of nature's most adaptable creatures.  They are extremely intelligent and learn quickly.  Where once red foxes roamed, coyotes now swagger.

They are built like Collies, but with light gray or tan coats and black tips on their bushy tails, and their average weight is 9 to 15 kgs (20 to 33 lbs). Coyotes are not exactly discernible diners, with a typical menu including sheep, poultry, deer, rodents, rabbit, snake, foxes, carrion, birds, frog, grass and grasshoppers.  Recent additions are small dogs, cats, (their kibble), doughnut, sandwiches, fruits and vegetables..

Coyotes are also not snobby about their mate choices.  They have been known to breed with wolves and domestic dogs (the bigger the better), producing from 6 to 10 pups, sometimes twice a year. Aside from recent incursions into urban areas, their natural territory is open grassland, but with a top speed of almost 65 km/h and the ability to scale fences 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) high, they are hardly confined to a limited area.

In the Cook County Coyote Project, 250 Coyotes were ear-tagged, and 180 were fitted with radio collars in and around Chicago.  To their astonishment, researchers found urban coyotes roamed over home territories of 80 to 95 square kilometres in the course of a few days, and they were extremely stealthy about it.  There were no places in the Chicago area where there were no Coyotes.

You wouldn't know they were there unless you had radio collars on them scientists observed.  It was estimated there are actually thousands in Chicago.  In the Ottawa area, the NCC has confirmed there is a permanent Coyote population in Gatineau Park, north of the city and in the Green belt which surrounds the city in a southern arc.

The many ravines in Toronto are now home to resident Coyotes.

The widespread debut of Coyotes in North American cities can be traced back to  1990.  They appeared in disparate urban areas almost simultaneously.  The big question is why coyotes turned into city dwellers in the first place.

One theory holds that when hunting and trapping of Coyotes dropped off in the 1990s, their  populations exploded and they were forced to expand into metropolitan areas.  Others speculate that as cities grew and amalgamated vast rural areas, tendrils of urbanization stretched out and this provided corridors connecting the city to traditional coyote territory.

In eastern rural Canada where coyote/wolf hybrid (brush wolf) populations are predominant, the smaller pure coyote is killed off (much like the red fox) or forced into urban areas where they are safe from predation.  Because the fox and the pure coyote can live off smaller prey and garbage, they are able to thrive alongside humans whereas the larger brush wolves cannot. 

It was found that urban coyotes actually live longer than their country cousins as there is no trapping, hunting, nor bears, cougars nor wolves in the cities.  In a perfect word where there would be no fatalities, a lone female could spark a population explosion of about 1000 coyotes within three years of entry into a new territory.

This estimate is based on a Coyote fecundancy where females breed as yearlings and will whelp twice in a year with as many as 9 or 10 pups per litter.  Also, unlike wolves, an alpha female Coyote will tolerate another  lactating female in the pack.

However, in the real world, the chances of a coyote making it into its second year is 30% in the country, and about 60% in the city.   A Coyote in captivity has been known to live for 18 years.  In the wild, they are lucky to live to the ripe old age of 6.

The word "coyote" was borrowed from Mexican Spanish, which in turn, borrowed the term from the Náhuatl (Aztec) word "cóyotl",  which meant "singing dog".

There are an estimated 20 million coyotes and coyote hybrids (brush wolves) in Canada.
Their present extent covers every province including Newfoundland, all of which was accomplished by their own efforts.

The yapping sound of Coyotes has become familiar with eastern Canadians over the past century, and is now commonplace where once it was a uniquely western phenomenon.