Urban coyotes – why now?

Whyte Ridge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2023 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like me, you’ve probably noticed more worrisome incidents of aggressive coyote behaviour over the past few years, including two recent, separate attacks on children in North Kildonan. I was quite baffled about this apparent increase, so put on my professional biologist hat and checked out come current literature.

Coyotes are native to the prairie and desert regions of central and western North America. When Europeans colonized North America several hundred years ago, logging, and agricultural activities opened large areas of suitable habitat for coyotes. The removal of wolves, bears and cougars as apex predators also resulted in an abundance of prey. Coyote populations increased and competition for space and resources gradually became an issue.

Unlike in rural areas, where farmers typically perceive coyotes as threats and work to maintain their timid behaviour, many urban residents view them as an interesting curiosity, even feeding them, in some instances. Like black bears, this has allowed coyotes to develop less timid behaviour — to become “habituated” to urban environments. This learned behaviour is then passed on to their offspring, who take advantage of the food and shelter available in urban areas as they grow up and raise their own pups. There are plenty of food sources available, including rodents, geese, fallen fruit from trees, garbage in driveways, pet food on porches , even bird seed from garden dispensers.

As coyotes help control urban pests such as geese, rodents, and feral cats, they have been described as a positive sign of a healthy urban ecosystem. But their interactions with cats, small dogs and, as in recent case, even children that are the cause of concern. Risks to humans are likely greater in the spring and early summer, when coyotes are rearing their young. In addition to being very protective during this period, they have many more mouths to feed and are more aggressively searching for food.

So, what can we do about this? Unfortunately, trapping them and moving them outside of the city is not always successful, because they may try to find their way back to their established territory. Even permanent removal of individuals may not solve the problem, as those coyotes in adjacent territories will have more food and produce more pups, who will move into the available area.

From my perspective, the main tools are education, vigilance — especially during spring and early summer —keeping dogs on leashes and ensuring food items are unavailable on your property.

One key issue relates to behaviour in the event of an encounter. Apparently, the best approach is not to run, but to make eye contact and back away until you are a safe distance from the coyote. If necessary, it is recommended that you to try scare them by yelling, waving your arms, and throwing objects.

If we can stop making food so accessible and try to re-instill their natural avoidance of humans, hopefully these issues will not become more frequent.