Historically, human encroachment on wildlife habitat and loss of habitat have negatively impacted many wildlife species, but the coyotes aren’t one of them. Coyotes have benefited from human alterations to the landscape. While historically we’ve displaced coyotes in some places where cities and towns grew, at the same time coyotes have been spreading across the continent, perhaps more successfully than any other mammal except humans.
The last U.S. census in 2010 shows that California is still over 80 percent open land– plenty of habitat for the coyote to thrive.
In the past 20 years, a dramatic reversal of this encroachment process has occurred: coyotes are actually encroaching on our habitat, and they are doing so at an unprecedented rate. In metropolitan areas, predominately human habitat, we have created safe, superior habitat for them. They aren’t forced to live among us– they choose to live among us. Therefore, we (i.e., property owners, city administrators, wildlife professionals) should be dictating where and how coyotes live, not vice versa.
At some point, we need to draw a line on the asphalt and warn coyotes that they are now entering “people country.”
Theresa Hew
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