CHICAGO — Coyotes usually try to avoid human contact.
Yet animal experts say an increasing number of coyotes are setting up shop in one of most dense urban labyrinths: downtown Chicago.
A mother coyote strides through a vacant lot in downtown Chicago last June. “Once they got here, they experienced higher reproduction, more food, and so now they have no reason to leave,” said researcher Stan Gehrt, who estimates that at least 2,000 coyotes live in Chicago. E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS
The seemingly incongruous marriage between coyotes and a people-packed habitat has occurred naturally, according to Stan Gehrt, an Ohio State University professor who specializes in coyote research in Cook County, which includes Chicago. Gehrt said he and his team know of no deliberate efforts to release coyotes into the downtown area.
“They’re all homegrown coyotes, all born and bred in Chicago,” Gehrt said.
via Thousands of coyotes occupying Chicago – The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.