The Cellar - 3/13/2006: Urban coyotes

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3/13/2006: Urban coyotes

http://cellar.org/2006/urbancoyote.jpg

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.:yum:

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

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

Yeah ... we always watched for them when we lived in CT. Warned my neighbors if they heard a shot out back it was probably me waxing a coyote that was looking too intently at our cats. :rar:

We actually thought we saw one down here this morning off in a field where there was obviously a dead animal and a lot of vultures .. but it could have been a large fox I guess as we saw it while doing 80 on the way to work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Griff

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

That kid doesn't look too bad.

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

I get a blank on that link?:confused:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Undertoad

That kid doesn't look too bad.

The Honda in the driveway behind her is a little fucked up, tho.