The Wall street Journal reporting on our friend Stan Gehrt's decade long study on the Urban Coyotes in and around Chicago................Keep up the good work Stan!

 

Coyotes Establish Residency in Chicago

Bushy-Tailed Predators Settle In From the Suburbs to Downtown but Can't Seem to Stay Off the Ice; On the Trail of No. 356

 

 CHICAGO—A dramatic rescue of a coyote floating on a chunk of ice hundreds of yards offshore in Lake Michigan just before Christmas drew glowing headlines and TV reports in the local media.

The reception is a bit icier when the bushy-tailed predators show up in someone's backyard.
Dennis Fath, a homeowner near the suburb of Schaumburg, Ill., said Rocky, his 10-pound bichon frise, was killed by a coyote in 2009. "I grew up in farm country," he said. "You know what they do to coyotes there."

Canis latrans sightings and the sounds of their cries and yelps have become common around Chicago in recent years. After showing up in forest preserves in the suburbs, they moved on to Lincoln Park and other green areas of the city itself. They have been spotted prowling the streets of the downtown Loop late at night. One even wandered into a Quizno's sub shop there one afternoon in 2007.

At least three times in recent years, coyotes have been spotted on ice chunks in the lake. In December, an animal control officer on a fireboat was able to pull in one such critter. The coyote, dubbed "Holly," is now recuperating from frostbite and is expected to be released into the wild in the next few months, said Dawn Keller, founder and director of Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation.

There are at least 2,000 coyotes living in Cook County, which includes Chicago, said Stan Gehrt, an associate professor of wildlife biology at Ohio State University, who has led a major study of the county's urban coyote population since 2000. "It's a natural experiment," said Mr. Gehrt, who has shared his research with city agencies, wildlife groups and citizens from Portland, Ore., to New York City. "It's not something that people designed or have been involved with." Coyotes generally grow to between 30 and 35 pounds and are native to the plains and deserts west of the Mississippi. They moved eastward in the 19th and 20th centuries as wolves, their biggest natural predator, were all but wiped out. In recent decades, the animals have settled in cities from Florida to Nova Scotia.

Mr. Gehrt has captured and gathered information on nearly 500 coyotes in the Chicago area. On many, he places a radio collar that lets him monitor their movements. His first subject, Big Mama, was part of the study for 10 years until she died of natural causes last April.
He said the creatures usually steer clear of people and feast on rodents, geese and small deer.

Only one coyote during Mr. Gehrt's study was found to habitually kill pets, and that one was trapped and killed amid a neighborhood outcry. No people have been reported hurt in Cook County by coyotes during the study, he said. But nationally there are three to five attacks a year, most resulting in minor injuries. Most problems crop up when coyotes become too comfortable around people after someone feeds them.

Mr. Fath, the owner of a small shampoo company, said Rocky's death made him more concerned when another coyote was drawn to the neighborhood last fall to feast on squirrels, which were themselves being fed by several area residents. Around Thanksgiving, he asked neighbors to send an email if their pets were harmed by the coyote. He didn't receive a single email. About a month ago, the coyote moved on, Mr. Fath said. He dropped his effort to have it removed, but he still thinks that studying the coyotes is the wrong approach. "I thought their job was to control and protect people from wild animals, not release them back into a suburban area," he said.

Donna Alexander, head of animal and rabies control for Cook County, said the coyote study is part of $160,000 the county spends annually to track diseases in a wide range of wild animals that could spread to pets and people. "We're not releasing them back into urban areas," she said. "The animals are trapped in forests and other natural areas and then tracked to see where they go."

On a recent day, Mr. Gehrt steered a beat-up Ford Ranger through the streets of Schaumburg trying to pick up the radio signal of coyote 356, a female who had recently broken away from her pack and might be looking for a mate. "It's a good time of year if you like coyote soap operas," he said Mr. Gehrt stopped the truck as the coyote's radio collar signal grew stronger. He unfolded a hand-held antenna to continue the search on foot. He eventually located the coyote beneath the porch of a two-story home on the edge of a golf course. He folded up the antenna and headed back to the truck. "You don't want to raise the alarm," he said. "That could be bad for the homeowner and bad for the coyote."

She might stay for 20 minutes to hide from a threat or be huddling near the house for warmth if, for instance, she has mange, a skin disease. "Sometimes it's best to wait and see," he said.
Sure enough, a few days later, coyote 356's signal was found back in the territory of her old pack.