Living with coyotes

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]Whether you call them coyotes or coyotes, you may have noticed these elusive animals appearing with greater frequency in cities and towns near you.

[00:00:09]Connor Nighton explains why.

[00:00:16]Cook County, Illinois, encompassing the city of Chicago, has more than 5 million residents, human residents.

[00:00:26]More than 2,000 coyotes also live here.

[00:00:29]most prowling just out of sight.

[00:00:35]Not that we're hearing a there's a siren, there's airplanes, we're in the middle of a city, >> right? So, it's deceiving because it looks like this is natural, right? And it is a little patch of nature, but we're surrounded by Chicago.

[00:00:46]>> Dr. Stanley Garrett is the principal investigator of the urban coyote research project.

[00:00:50]>> They're inside of this right now.

[00:00:51]>> They're inside that pipe.

[00:00:53]>> For the past 26 years, he and his colleagues have been tracking coyotes in the greater Chicago area. Good. That's one.

[00:01:01]>> Like these pups found in a park just 2 miles from O'Hare Airport.

[00:01:06]>> I mean, looking at this little guy, it's hard to imagine that this is something that people would be scared of, but certainly as they grow older, people are scared of them. Does that surprise you?

[00:01:13]>> They are. It doesn't surprise me. Um, that's been our history with coyotes and their and their close relatives, so wolves as well. And we have had conflicts with coyotes at times. And so, unfortunately, it's those conflicts that make the news. More coyote sightings are being reported across San Diego County these days.

[00:01:31]>> If it feels like you've been seeing more coyotes on the news, >> the coyote numbers are up in the metro area >> or in your community. It might look cute, but they say they've been very aggressive.

[00:01:42]>> Quiznos, >> a wy coyote with a nose for toasted subs wandered into a shop this afternoon.

[00:01:48]>> You're not wrong. of animal control.

[00:01:49]>> Way back in the late 1990s, uh the concept of an of a coyote living in an urban setting was basically unheard of.

[00:01:57]Um and yet they started appearing out of nowhere in suburban sites around the Chicago area. And so people began complaining or were concerned or scared.

[00:02:08]>> Rural habitat loss coupled with a decline in hunting due to decreased demand for coyote fur are thought to be responsible for the recent influx of coyotes in our cities. But they've been dramatically expanding their range for the past century. Once primarily found in parts of the West and Southwest, they're now in every state except Hawaii.

[00:02:27]>> Coyotes have been howling the original national anthem for America for almost 5 million years.

[00:02:34]>> Dan Flores is the author of Coyote America, which explores the animals natural and supernatural history. In Native American stories, the coyote is frequently presented as a deity type figure in human form. sometimes portrayed as a clever trickster.

[00:02:49]>> What is important about these stories is not the trickster part, but it's why the trick works. And the trick works because of the frailties of human nature.

[00:03:00]>> So, a parable in some ways to sort of >> parable about human nature. And that's what they're designed to do is to tell people about good behavior and bad behavior. And Coyote personifies both of those those kinds of approaches to life.

[00:03:15]When European settlers moved west and encountered coyotes and wolves, which would often prey on livestock, they did their best to wipe them out. But once wolves, coyote's natural predator, were largely exterminated, coyotes thrived in their absence. We tried everything under the sun to get rid of them. In fact, by 1931, Congress actually passed an act called the Animal Damage Control Act and appropriated $10 million to exterminate coyotes in North America. Over the years, coyotes have been hunted and trapped and poisoned. But it turns out when coyote packs are threatened, they adapt by scattering into pairs and quickly reproducing to make more coyotes. For all of our efforts to control them, humans really can't successfully control. I mean, you basically have to accept the fact that coyotes are here and you have to learn how to live with them. At night, you'll hear them surrounding uh this whole area, and you'll realize that they're everywhere.

[00:04:18]>> They're all around us.

[00:04:20]>> Andrew Lovado is the city historian of Santa Fe, New Mexico, where you'll find coyote art and signage throughout downtown.

[00:04:28]>> To have this part of the country without coyotes would be terrible. It'd be a crime. Coyotes are so ingrained into who we are and our culture. Of course, not everyone feels that way.

[00:04:41]>> Packs of coyotes targeting their dogs, and they want >> While coyote attacks on humans are extremely rare. There have only been two confirmed fatal attacks in modern history, they can pose more of a danger to small pets.

[00:04:53]>> If you're walking your dog and you encounter a coyote, uh, don't run away from it. If you have a small dog, pick the dog up and walk away. If you have a large dog, just stand still and shout at it and it should leave.

[00:05:06]Coyotes are still put down when they endanger humans, like when they run out onto an active runway at an airport, but wildlife departments have essentially abandoned the idea of getting rid of them altogether.

[00:05:17]>> Now, most people have come to the realization that uh they are part of the the urban landscape just like they are the rural landscape and um there is a certain amount of tolerance that's necessary.

[00:05:30]With some of the persecutions of the past now phased out, Dan Flores hopes that we've entered a new era with coyotes in which we move beyond tolerance to appreciation.

[00:05:44]I mean, if you stop and look at these animals and suppress your instinct to think, "Oh my god, this is something scary. It's got teeth."

[00:05:54]What you see is an evolutionary miracle straight out of the North American story. That is absolutely a gorgeous creature.