Coyotes at Home in American Backyards

Wild desert dog easily adapts to life in urban areas

31 August 2010

Coyotes are wild animals that began moving into metropolitan areas about two decades ago.

About two-dozen coyotes live at the Indiana Coyote Rescue Center.

Among them are Alex, Jane, and Loki, who were found as pups near a water treatment plant in Ohio. Center director, CeAnn Lambert, says the worker who found the wild dogs thought she was saving them by bringing them into the plant with her dog, who'd recently had puppies.

"She brought the dog into the treatment plant and let the coyote puppies nurse on the dog, which made them habituated to the dog and socialized to all the workers in the plant and they were deemed not releasable," says Lambert.

Whether finding their way onto airport runways in Dallas, Texas, or injuring toddlers in upstate New York, urban coyotes are becoming commonplace.

But, unless they're causing trouble, wildlife biologist Chris Anchor says most Americans are unaware that coyotes are living in their city and when they catch a rare glimpse of one, have no idea what they're really seeing.

"Quite often people will see them and just think they are someone's German Shepherd as opposed to a wild animal," says Anchor.

Coyotes are predators, which can be a cause for concern for their human neighbors.

And they are wild animals. No one knows for certain why they began moving into metropolitan areas about two decades ago, but Anchor - who oversees a forest preserve near Chicago - says it may simply be their nature.