Coyotes Are the New Top Dogs

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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coyotes-are-the-new-top-dogs

Near the dawn of time, the story goes, Coyote saved the creatures of Earth. According to the mythology of Idaho's Nez Perce people, the monster Kamiah had stalked into the region and was gobbling up the animals one by one. The crafty Coyote evaded Kamiah but didn't want to lose his friends, so he let himself be swallowed. From inside the beast, Coyote severed Kamiah's heart and freed his fellow animals. Then he chopped up Kamiah and threw the pieces to the winds, where they gave birth to the peoples of the planet.

European colonists took a very different view of the coyote (Canis latrans) and other predators native to North America. The settlers hunted wolves to extinction across most of the southerly 48 states. They devastated cougar and bobcat populations and attacked coyotes. But unlike the other predators, coyotes have thrived in the past 150 years. Once restricted to the western plains, they now occupy most of the continent and have invaded farms and cities, where they have expanded their diet to include squirrels, household pets and discarded fast food.

Researchers have long known the coyote as a master of adaptation, but studies over the past few years are now revealing how these unimposing relatives of wolves and dogs have managed to succeed where many other creatures have suffered. Coyotes have flourished in part by exploiting the changes that people have made to the environment, and their opportunism goes back thousands of years. In the past two centuries, coyotes have taken over part of the wolf's former ecological niche by preying on deer and even on an endangered group of caribou. Genetic studies reveal that the coyotes of northeastern America — which are bigger than their cousins elsewhere — carry wolf genes that their ancestors picked up through interbreeding. This lupine inheritance has given northeastern coyotes the ability to bring down adult deer — a feat seldom attempted by the smaller coyotes of the west.

The lessons learned from coyotes can help researchers to understand how other mid-sized predators respond when larger carnivores are wiped out. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, intense hunting of lions and leopards has led to a population explosion of olive baboons, which are now preying on smaller primates and antelope, causing a steep decline in their numbers.

[longship]

1. I hear them on many nights here

I'm in very rural MI. Their howling is unmistakeable; there always seems to be many of them. I've even seen one of these shy animals in my driveway. It ran away quickly.

I've heard that they have made inroads into city areas. One study counted many in Chicago. I would bet Detroit would be a good area, too.

I like them. Look out roadrunners.

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2. look out small humans under maybe age 12. like coyotes all u want they are dangerous nt

[Voice for Peace]

3. I don't think they're dangerous unless they're hungry.

I was living on Cape Cod and in the winter they came right into the town, looking for food, rabbits, kittycats, tiny dogs, anything. Come spring they would move back into the woods and wild lands. The ones I saw outside my house were the size of a german shepherd. Beautiful but much too thin..

[longship]

4. Well, they are nocturnal

The ones around here, where there is a lot of fresh meat to eat, are rather smallish. I don't think I've ever heard that they were the size of German Shepherds (referencing another response). Wiki says 30-34 inches in length (w/o tail). So, maybe I am experiencing some confirmation bias. The last one I saw was beagle sized.

The answer is that they are nocturnal and normally not seen too often during daylight. But here in the midst of the national forest we hear them often.