Wile E. Coyote may have been most often seen in wide open spaces, but a new study from researchers at the University of Washington suggests that coyotes are choosing city life over life in the wild.
Wildlife ecologist Laura Prugh, a professor of environmental and forest services at the University of Washington, was the lead author of the paper. She compared the density of coyotes in Seattle to study areas in rural Washington by collecting and analyzing their scat and using genetics to identify individual animals. She was surprised to find their density in Seattle was nine times higher than in the wild.
“I think the most important reason is all the food,” she said.
Based on analysis of their scat, she said the Seattle coyotes consume a diet that is more than twice as diverse as in the rural areas. It includes large amounts of berries and other fruit and lots of rabbits.
Another important factor, Prugh said, is that coyotes may feel safer in the urban environment, because of the lack of large carnivores like wolves and cougars. Then there is the human component.
“People in more rural and wild areas often don't like coyotes because they prey on livestock, and so they're a lot more likely to shoot them,” she said.
The study shows urban coyotes frequent areas with lower densities of humans. And they are less likely to be killed or go hungry than their wild counterparts.
Prugh and her team also studied factors that might influence coyote density within the city and found they prefer areas with fewer people. The study is published in the journal Environmental Research: Ecology.
