Skip to content
Coyotes have expanded their territory to 49 U.S. states — making it critical for humans to learn to live better with them, and to understand how they help keep ecosystems in balance. (Photo: twildlife / iStock)

Coexisting More Peacefully With Coyotes

Even as other U.S. predator species have declined, coyotes have thrived — making it more vital to ecosystems than ever that humans learn to live with them better.

by Dalvin Aboagye
Share:

As human activity over the centuries has drastically altered the American landscape, the makeup of wildlife in the country has shifted in step. Some animal populations have dwindled as we encroach further into their natural world. Yet others, like the humble coyote, have not only survived, but also even thrived wherever we’ve set up shop.

Despite more than 56,000 coyotes being killed nationwide by the USDA’s Wildlife Service in 2022, and over 400,000 of them being killed annually by hunters between 2014-2018, their numbers and range have swelled over the last century to include 49 states in total.

Their growth over the years is a testament to their success, adaptability, and ability to flourish over a period when other predator species have struggled.

Southwestern folk traditions have long revered the coyote, which is highly intelligent, adaptable, and capable both of living in packs and thriving alone. (Photo: Lux Blue / iStock)

“The intelligence and flexibility that evolution bequeathed this small wolf was undoubtedly most important of all. Southwestern Hispanos have a rich folk tradition about coyotes and have long said that the only thing smarter than a coyote is God. It is a certainty that only humans and a handful of other species are capable of the variety of lifestyles coyotes can lead, from living with a pack and cooperating cleverly to attain group goals to slipping into the cracks of the world to fend for themselves as lone individuals,” historian and writer Dan Flores explains in the introduction to his 2016 book Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History.

Over the last century, coyotes have ventured far beyond their original Western territory to locales as far north as Alaska and as far east as New York City and Long Island

“It’s still quite a small number, but they’re kind of making their way to finding all the little green spaces that are suitable for them in the city,” says Chris Nagy, director of research and education at the Mianus River Gorge and co-founder of the Gotham Coyote Project. “Now they’ve even made it into Long Island, and it’s significant ecologically because there really weren’t coyotes here. A thousand years ago, there were wolves, and those were eradicated.” 

Coyote pups will grow into predators — yet with fewer thriving predator species, they perform important ecosystem services, like helping keep numbers of ticks down. (Photo: mlharing / iStock)

While the populations that Nagy and his team have monitored out in the city are still small, they’re bound to grow as the red and brown creatures, no bigger than a medium-sized dog, live as generalists in an urban environment, Nagy explains. These opportunistic omnivores will eat everything from fruit, nuts, and vegetation to small birds and mammals like rabbits, rodents, squirrels, and sometimes larger prey like deer.

More importantly, their omnivorous nature makes them an important part of the ecosystem. As one of the few thriving predator species left, they could help stave off the spread of tick-borne illnesses by eating the prey that carry them, says Alex Wolf, a conservation scientist at Scenic Hudson. 

“They do a fair bit of scavenging and that in and of itself is an important role for them to be fine ecologically,” Wolf explains. “For larger animals like deer, if they’re road-killed, it may be hard for smaller species — crows and things like that — to really get into being able to scavenge a larger animal without coyotes coming along and sort of breaking that carcass apart a little bit and helping other smaller scavengers kind of gain access and utilize the nutrients there.”

Coyotes’ scavenging habits can be helpful to other animals and the larger ecosystem. (Photo: Carol Hamilton / iStock)

Unfortunately, those behaviors have made coyotes the target of fear and derision; stories of coyote sightings in the Hudson Valley and beyond come with fears of them attacking livestock and pets (or even people, although those cases are vanishingly rare). “That does happen, so you know, we have to acknowledge that. But diet studies done in suburban southern New York state have shown that more than 50% of their diet is white-tailed deer, either carcasses or hunted,” Wolf says. 

The negative publicity has done little to stop these persistent creatures from flourishing right alongside humans. In New York State, their numbers are estimated to be between 20,000 to 30,000, and past evidence indicates that the indiscriminate killing of coyotes might’ve actually increased their numbers by disrupting social structures and increasing breeding levels. With that in mind, experts like Nagy and Wolf stress that we learn to coexist with coyotes by minimizing the chances of negative encounters with people and pets

“You have to be careful with your pets, and you have to not feed them and not try to be buddies with them,” Nagy says. Making sure your trash is secured gives them less of a chance to snack on your garbage, and be mindful of leaving pet food or birdseed sitting outside too long to avoid further contact. 

In some parts of the U.S., pet owners are specifically warned about how to stay coyote-conscious. (Photo: Ajax9 / iStock)

“So just being cognizant of reducing attractants around your home can go a long way to making sure that all of those wild species are staying more wild and staying away from you and your house and your pets,” Wolf says. 

It’s safe to say that coyotes are here to stay. That’s not changing. What can change, though, are our behavior and attitudes toward them. 

“One of our taglines for the city project is, ‘New York’s newest immigrant,’” Nagy notes. “Those kinds of things get people to think symbolically or more ethically — things revolving around intrinsic value versus instrumental value. I think that leads to a stronger response and a stronger care for nature and the species that I’m working on.”

Habitat loss can push wild animals like coyotes further into urban areas. (Photo: Carol Hamilton / iStock)
Dalvin Aboagye is a writer based in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. When he’s not enjoying the warmth and sunlight of summer, you can find him scrambling to survive yet another cold winter in the Catskills. He’s written for the Times Union, the River, Thrillist, and more.
Related Stories Plants + Animals

Explore More — Viewfinder +

Climate Solutions
How to Get in on the Refillability Game
Land + Air + Water
Restoring Resilience to Mawignack Preserve
Land + Air + Water
Can Hops Make a Comeback in New York?
A close view of a hop growing on a vine. Behind it is a red barn.
Land + Air + Water
Protecting Forests by Managing the Exploding Deer Population
Climate Solutions
Floatovoltaics Makes Waves Approaching the Valley

Search Viewfinder:

Latest Posts

Subscribe!

Get the latest articles delivered right to your inbox  — for FREE!