The Cellar Image of the Day

gmr2048 suggests this interesting item which was also Boing Boing'd. The new issue of Smithsonian Magazine looks at the increasing encroachment of coyote territory into urban areas. Sadly the article doesn't explain how the above shot came about, but apparently it may be something we see more often in suburbs. From the article:

Quote:

The expansion of coyotes into urban areas, though, is recent. Until the 1990s, the farthest that coyotes had ventured into Chicago was to forested reserves near the city limits. But "something happened," says Stan Gehrt, a wildlife biologist at Ohio State University, "something we don't completely understand." Within ten years the coyote population exploded, growing by more than 3,000 percent, and infiltrated the entire Chicago area. Gehrt found territorial packs of five to six coyotes, as well as lone individuals, called floaters, living in downtown Chicago. They traveled at night, crossing sidewalks and bridges, trotting along roads and ducking into culverts and underpasses. One pair raised pups in a drainage area between a day care facility and a public pool; a lone female spent the day resting in a tiny marsh near a busy downtown post office. Perhaps most surprising to Gehrt, Chicago's urban coyotes tended to live as long as their parkland counterparts. No one knows why coyotes are moving into cities, but Gehrt theorizes that shrewder, more human-tolerant coyotes are teaching urban survival skills to new generations.

The food supply is certainly there. We have bunnies living in our neighborhood. Every time I pull into the driveway at night, I spook a few of them that are in the driveway. A neighbor told us last year that they saw a fox in our back yard. We don't live in the sticks either, we're well inside the beltway.

I saw a coyote trotting thru my mom's backyard and three-THREE!-deer leaping over a two lane boulevard. The coyote was very cool--they walk so differently from dogs. The have a sprite-ful, bouncy step.

I imagine coyotes in Chicago could live quite nicely on the rats alone...

A year ago, a coyote darted across three lanes of traffic and the median on Northbound US 71 Highway (my route to work, and the major North/South highway in the Western part of the State of Missouri). Emerging from the median beneath a guardrail, it was ironed out most definitively. One urban coyote bites the dust.

Its desiccated pelt *still* lays there beneath the guardrail. If I get stuck in traffic on the way home tonight, I'll take a picture of it as I pass by. At this point, it looks like a ratty rug with a snout.

Living in montana is definitely a little different than the rest of the states. It's easy to see why this is grabbing people's attention, but the couple of places i've lived in in montana have all had bears in downtown on more than one occasion. Not to mention the other, more common animals. It's pretty cool to see animals surviving and doing well while we continue to demolish their homes.

Yawn.. I've had:

black bears
moose
cariboo

in my back yard. and regularily see:

grizzlys
wolves
lynxes

while driving just outside town.

welcome to the far north!

I caught one raiding my garbage cans a few weeks back. You can sit out by the pond late at nite and hear them howl. They seem to be in chorus. A very beautiful but haunting sound. I still don't see how all my ducks a surviving. I reckon its because they are smart enough to stay very close to the water after dark.

In Eastern PA, the coyotes are replacing the Red Foxes. Very tolerant of people and love kitty cats.

They seem to cap a bigger one every year during our local coyote hunt. The Game Commision site says 62 pounds was the biggest but I think last years was in the seventies. eek

I'm not sure I'd be taking pictures with a kid right there...ours are getting more aggressive.

offtopic but has the url changed? http://cellar.org/iotd.php just shows up blank in both firefox and ie6. I can view the forums normal, at cellar.org but IotD is just not there. Been that way for me since this past friday

BTW: The picture is a pretty impressive one. It's difficult enough to get a good shot of an animal like a coyote because they move so fast. But to get the shot just as a cute little innocent looking girl is passing in the background, and in broad daylight in the middle of a residential street is quite impressive. It's a very good shot to accompany a story about urban coyotes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt

A coyote crossed in front of my car as I was leaving the rental complex in Waltham Mass. Broad daylight there too.

Waltham? I spent many lunchtimes feeding the ducks down by the Norumbega monument.

Kinda sorta.. our dogs today are coyotes, refined. I suspect these animals will self domesticate if they are allowed. I bet if you fed one, you could pet him in three months.

Already there are breeders that cross the domesticated breeds w/ the wild ones.

IMO this will breathe a fresh breath of air into the bloodlines and possibly solving some of the newer strains of illnesses that are disabling our pets today. Just a thought.

Waltham, Massachusetts? I've spent the afternoon writing essays because I'm applying to go to school there. I don't really know much about the place yet, though, or the coyotes that live there.

In the Colorado Springs metro area (pop. 500,000 last time I had the heart to check) we have:

1) A gazillion deer - they walk down the main road of town all the time
2) a gazillion billion bunnies
3) Several jack rabbits (they prefer west and south of here)
4) Many black bears (I encountered quite a large one on my porch last
summer)
5) A phalanx (at least) of lions
6) A million red foxes with very long legs (makes 'em look coyote-like) - I saw
two downtown in the garden in front of the county court house a few
weeks ago - even the lawyers were stopping to stare at them before going
on in to court.
7) Several wiley coyotes
8) A lynx spotted by yours truly while driving up a pass just west of town.
9) An ever growing gang of bandito raccoons who take great delight in
raiding the local garbage and spreading it all over the streets for
everyone's viewing pleasure at daylight the next day
10) a jillion ground squirrels, pocket gophers, prairie dogs and other assorted
rodents, all no doubt carrying either hanta virus and/or bubonic plague
11) 506 pronghorn antelope
12) A neighborhood martin
13) 17 beaver in the local city park
14) A billion hummingbirds soon to be returning from Central and South
America, all no doubt carrying the latest and most virulent mutation of
the bird flu virus.

Coyotes?

we have coyotes all over the place. literally. i can hear some pups howling right now. i love having the little buggers around. just don't let your smaller pets wander too far on their own.

Yes Waltham in a new rental complex just to the west of 95 - Bear Hill. I spend alternative weekends there (LDR). Anyway, this complex is dog friendly so all the dog owners that want to rent an apartment end up there. Lots of dogs and the coyotes seem to just blend in.

As to self domestication - I don't think so. Coyotes are not at all easy to tame. My friend had one from a pup and it was nervy and never really got used to being indoors or around people. It was what you'd call extremely high strung and my friend could never trust it around others or even manage to housebreak it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by marichiko

A million red foxes with very long legs (makes 'em look coyote-like) - I saw two downtown in the garden in front of the county court house a few weeks ago - even the lawyers were stopping to stare at them before going on in to court.