Coyotes are cool?

[Batsto]

 

Urban Coyotes: Why We Should Value Rather Than Freak Out Over Them

Alpha coyotes, the 20 percent of the species who reproduce, are more visible now that it's mating season. But don't fret if you see them.

Posted Wed, Jan 22, 2025 at 7:41 pm ET

Coyotes, well-established in San Francisco, where this photo was taken, and urban areas since the 1990s, help control populations of disease-carrying mice, voles and other small mammals, and also help control nuisance populations of deer and Canada geese. (Shutterstock/Matt Knoth)

Anytime a coyote darts into a grocery store and video of a cop yanking it from a produce case by its tail goes viral, the stories are bound to be as wild as this often misunderstood and maligned mammal.

The tales are often exaggerated “coyote-pocalypse” urban legends with false claims of out-of-control populations that pose grave dangers to kids and pets.

The true story of urban coyotes — all coyotes — is one of intensely sentient and caring individuals whose family structure is remarkably similar to our own. Coyote couples are faithful to one another until parted by death — something that can be said for only a handful of animals — and together raise their pups to adulthood and send them out into the world to start their own families.

“There has been no explosion in population,” Stanley Gehrt, the principal investigator in a long-running Urban Coyotes Research Project in Chicago, told Patch, dispelling one of the biggest myths about these city-slicker populations.

Coyotes that live in wooded areas near neighborhoods and cities are more visible during the first three months of the year because it’s mating season. Most of the time, people living near coyotes aren’t aware of them. Gehrt said.

“We may see a temporary increase in local populations at this time of the year as coyotes that were young in the spring venture out on their own without their parents,” he said. “It’s easier to see them right now because vegetation has dropped and if you do have snow, they’re even easier to see.”

It’s a good idea to take commonsense precautions like walking dogs on leash and not leaving them outside unattended, something Gehrt said responsible dog owners should be doing anyway. Coyotes are part of the dog, or Canidae family, and as they are protecting their territory from other coyotes, they may see the family pooch as a threat. While it’s inaccurate to say that coyotes never attack children, it’s exceedingly rare, Gehrt said. Also, cats that spend time outdoors “are actually really good at figuring out where coyotes are” and avoid those areas, he said.

With those concerns set aside, there’s no reason not to appreciate what coyote advocacy and conservation groups say are their often overlooked benefits in urbanized areas and the richness of their culture.

One of the things to appreciate most about coyotes is their loyalty to their families.

Coyotes Don’t ‘Cheat’

Gehrt, a professor and wildlife extension specialist and the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University and chair of research for the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, began his study of urban coyotes Cook County, Illinois, in 2000.

In all those years, he’s never documented a time when these monogamous-for-life coyotes “cheated” on their mates.

Behaviorally, wolves and foxes are monogamous, too, but genetic testing shows “a significant amount of cheating goes on,” Gehrt said. 

“Wolves will cheat,” he said. “The foxes cheat like crazy, too.”

Coyote couples are in it for the long haul.

They only mate during the three months the female is in heat, but are together year-round. 

“They’re together year-round and defend their territory and raise their young,” Gehrt said. “They do that all year; they don’t just do it during the mating season.”

‘Monogamy Pays Off’

Females can have large litter sizes of 11, 12 or 13 pups.

“This is where being monogamous pays off,” Gehrt said. “The big payoff is in the parenting.”

Males are as invested as females in rearing. Gehrt and his colleagues have documented cases where a young female is killed while her unweaned young were still in the den. They survived.

“The male was able to raise them,” he said. “He can’t lactate, but they were ready to wean, and he was able to bring them off.”

Subordinates — siblings from a previous year’s litter remaining with the pack — may also assist in raising pups that lost their mother, though research on that is still evolving.

Male coyotes are equal partners with females in raising pups. (Adam Wilding/Shutterstock)

Females Decide Litter Size

Coyotes have a remarkable ability to regulate reproduction in cadence with the ebb and flow of nature — for example, the availability of food and habitat and territorial competition from other coyote family groups.

Also, only alpha males and females — about 10 percent to 20 percent of coyotes — reproduce. Because of that, their reproduction rate is actually quite low, Gehrt said.

Females who do reproduce can have large litters of a dozen pups or smaller, more manageable litters. It’s her choice.

“An alpha female can produce a large litter if the situation warrants it, but will change litter size based on conditions,” Gehrt said. “Raising pups and lactating is the most energetically expensive thing she will do all year, and she needs to be able to scale that.”

How Many Coyotes Are In A Pack?

A pack, or family, consists of alpha parents and two or three subordinates from the previous year or years.

Most young coyotes leave as soon as they reach sexual maturity, some going next door and others traveling hundreds of miles to avoid over-populating a territory.

“Some young will try to stay, but only if they don’t become sexually active,” Gehrt explained. “What they’re giving up when they don’t become sexually active, that’s big in terms of the evolution of natural selection. Giving up a year of mating to stay with the parent is a significant strategic decision.”

Eventually, though, the offspring have to get on with their lives.

“They either have to leave, or the parents have to leave,” Gehrt said, explaining his team has documented incidents in which the parents give up parts of their territory, handing off the “family home,” as it were, so their offspring can start their own families.

“It’s very complicated. Every coyote is not the same,” he said. “There’s a lot going on that most of us don’t understand.”

When Did Coyotes Become City Slickers?

Highly adaptable coyotes originally roamed the open plains and deserts in the central and western U.S. They expanded east as widespread logging and agricultural development cleared the landscape. At the same time, humans were exterminating their main predators, wolves and cougars, allowing coyote populations to expand their home range.

Coyotes have been well-established in U.S. urban areas for the last three decades or so.

That’s partly because development on the perimeter of cities encroaches on coyote territories. But it’s also because in cities, “the food is always good,” Gehrt said.

That may be garbage carelessly disposed of by humans, but it’s more likely they’ll turn up their noses at our discarded food. Primarily they are carnivores who feed on disease carrying mice, voles squirrels and other small nuisance mamals, but in some areas, fruit and fruit insects make up a large part of their diets. 

“They will eat some of our food, but the majority of coyotes in cities avoid human foods and prefer their natural diet,” Gehrt said. “In Chicago, 25 to 30 percent have significant human food available, but there are individual differences in preferences, even in the same territory or pack. Some will not take it no matter what, even if it’s sitting right in front of them.”

Coyotes — and most wildlife — don’t need human help to survive, and it’s best not to offer it by setting up feeding stations.

“Coyotes have a natural aversion and fear of us that has been engrained for quite a while,” he said. “Food is the one caveat that can change that. If they associate us or our properties with food, that can change coyote behavior, and that’s when you end up with more conflicts.”

In simple terms, don’t feed the coyotes.

Coyotes Do Good Work

Before coyotes became firmly established in urban areas, some larger nuisance animals had no predators. Coyotes have restored some of the balance missing from the ecosystem prior to their establishment in the Chicago area, and it’s the same across the country, Gehrt said.

For example, coyotes are a primary predator of white tail deer fawns, which have become overabundant in cities and, as adults, cause more injuries to people than other wildlife species, Gehrt said.

Coyotes are the primary cause of death of fawns in the early hours of their lives. It’s an unpleasant aspect of the circle life “we don’t like to see because fawns are so cute and cuddly, but it’s really important,” Gehrt said. “We’re supposed to lose some. If coyotes don’t get them, nothing will.”

Fawns that make it four or five weeks without being killed by a coyote have an almost 100 percent survival rate, he said.

Coyotes also control Canada geese populations. They’re supposed to be migratory birds, but some are living year-round in cities, fouling green spaces with excessive droppings, behaving aggressively toward humans and causing other problems.

“Half of all goose nests are taken by coyotes in nesting season, slowing the growth of Canada geese populations or causing a plateau,” Gehrt said. “They’re the only species that does that. No other takes goose eggs out of the nest because geese are so aggressive and protective.”

Gehrt and his team used hidden cameras to spy on coyotes so they wouldn’t know they were being filmed. Over the period of several years, the researchers were able to document how quickly coyotes can flip their diets and the focus of their prey from one species to another.

“Coyotes were taking nests left and right,” he said. “Eggs are a huge resource, extremely nutritious, highly rich in protein and calories they need, and super easy to get. All they have to do is walk up and take them.”

Some take the goose eggs to other locations as part of their family caretaker role. If there are too many to eat, the coyote puts the leftover eggs in a hole and covers it up and retrieves it later.

• Related: Cop Yanks Coyote By Its Tail From Produce Shelf [Video

[bucky]

The only cool coyote is a dead coyote

[TDietz]

Females are in heat for 3 months!!?

Only the alpha’s breed?

Ive become very skeptical of the science in my old age 

[vdep217]

It's California based so it has no real bearing.  It's a liberal who knows only emotion.  And will only pull that facts that meet their agenda.

Edited January 26 by vdep217

[Bucksnbows]

11 minutes ago, TDietz said:

Females are in heat for 3 months!!?

Only the alpha’s breed?

Ive become very skeptical of the science in my old age 

It’s true of coyotes and wolves. 

[jumpthestring]

Just came back from a hike and saw tons of tracks in the snow.

[GetOutdoors]

2 hours ago, bucky said:

The only cool coyote is a dead coyote

 

I like a coyote in teh suburbs eating all of the cats that the blue haired's feel the need to feed.  Stray cats are a blight on dozens of other species impact hundreds more.  

Down town yotes eat cats, so i am good with them.  

 

 

[GetOutdoors]

2 hours ago, Batsto said:

“Half of all goose nests are taken by coyotes in nesting season, slowing the growth of Canada geese populations or causing a plateau,” Gehrt said. “They’re the only species that does that. No other takes goose eggs out of the nest because geese are so aggressive and protective.”

 

This is false.  

[TDietz]

No deep dive just a quick google 

[FRANKIED]

I saw these little coyotes in Woodland Park 

[kohunter]

AWWWW!!!!

[mazzgolf]

They *are* cute. But so are squirrels, and I still had no problems putting a pellet in one's ear this morning.  

Save a turkey (and maybe a squirrel, too), kill a yote  

 

Edited February 19 by mazzgolf

[KBfishing]

Fawns, cats, and turkeys are on the menu for them in NJ. Most of NJ does not have a population problem with any of those three. 

[huntyctyboy]

Stray cats leading killer of birds . Munch away 

[bowguide]

Kalifornia.....They know so muchI love watching the videos where the coyotes run off with their little pansy dogs and they flip out