How to help
Anyone interested in contributing data to the project as a citizen scientist is invited to do so atinaturalist.org/projects/denver-coyotewatch, or download the iNaturalist app at Google Play or Apple's App Store.
Researchers are launching a major new study of coyotes in the Denver metro area, including Boulder and Broomfield counties, that will include the use of genetic analysis to determine whether the animals' lineage could be predictive of bold or aggressive behavior.
The project, which will last over at least the next three years, involves some of the same partners and will build on the findings from a metro area study that spanned 2010 to 2014, the results of which are credited with reframing how wildlife managers approach one of the more challenging issues they face in the urban environment.
The Denver Urban Coyote Project is led by Chris Schell, working under a three-year post-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation, with partners such as Colorado State University and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as well as county and municipal entities possibly including Boulder and Boulder County.
"We're interested in understanding the hormonal and genetic factors that are correlated with boldness, tolerance or aggressive behaviors in coyotes," Schell said.
t"If we can determine a link among biological and behavioral factors, it will go a long way to determining how human behavior fits into the equation and how coyotes adapt to cities."



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 Matheson, Boulder's urban wildlife conservation coordinator, said a decision about the city's role as an official partner is pending.
Much like numerous other Front Range communities — from Broomfield to Erie to Lafayette, Longmont and beyond — Boulder has become increasingly aware of conflicts that can arise from coyotes sharing the fast-developing urban and suburban landscapes with the people living in them.
Matheson has documented six occasions of coyotes biting people in Boulder in the past five years. In the same time, five coyotes have been put down in the city in association with those bites. A sixth was killed because it was diseased.
Nearly all of Boulder's aggressive coyote behavior was recorded in a 2-mile area of the city roughly flanking Boulder Creek between Foothills Parkway and 55th Street.
"We're in the process of learning more about the (proposed) animal handling and the objectives, and what it would take to be a participant and the costs associated," Matheson said. "But absolutely, I'm considering it and intrigued by some of their hypotheses."
Susan Spaulding, senior wildlife biologist for Boulder County Parks and Open Space, learned of the new study recently. She said Thursday that her department "would be willing to definitely consider partnering" in the effort as well.
Behavior learned or inherited?
The previous metro area study was under the leadership of Stewart Breck, a research wildlife biologist in carnivore biology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins. He is also affiliated with CSU's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology.
The human-coyote conflicts in recent years along the Boulder Creek Path ultimately were believed to be attributed to a small group of animals. And Breck believes the new study, expanding on what his work already has revealed, may help show why such concentrated reports of aggression might occur.
Lauren Schevets walks her dog Chester past a cardboard cutout of a coyote during the Broomfield Trail Adventure at the Metzger Farm Open Space in June
Lauren Schevets walks her dog Chester past a cardboard cutout of a coyote during the Broomfield
 Trail Adventure at the Metzger Farm Open Space in June 2013.
 (David R. Jennings / Staff photographer)
"We're really excited about the prospects of really understanding more," Breck said. "Are these the behaviors of problem individuals. Are they learned? Or is there a genetic component? That really forms the basis of the question."
Colorado Parks and Wildlife's role will be to provide tissue samples from coyotes it may have cause to put down, and it would also need to issue permits for researchers' scientific collections, be it from cadavers or animals that are collared or trapped live.
"They're kind of looking at almost a nature-nurture kind of thing," said Larry Rogstad, wildlife manager for Parks and Wildlife's Area 2, which includes Boulder County.
"Is there a genetic component to behavior in coyotes that predisposes some coyote groups or families toward accommodating close proximity to humans better than others?" he said. "Or is there a predilection that may be genetically connected to aggressive behavior in some coyotes toward humans and nonaggressive behavior in other coyotes?"
Using public to expand data pool
The study also aspires to turn metro area residents into citizen scientists who can make a key contribution through their own observations.
A website has been created called Denver CoyoteWatch through iNaturalist, which people will be able to download to a smart phone, and can be used to report coyote observations and encounters of any kind, at any location, throughout the study area.
"Anybody and everybody who has Internet connectivity or Android or Apple phones can download the iNaturalist program and become a partner of the Denver CoyoteWatch project," Schell said.
"When they log on and become a partner on the project, they can report whatever they saw and whatever it was doing," Schell said.
Those making reports can make use of a 1-to-7 scale to record the animal's behavior, ranging from simply seeing an animal to being bitten by one.
"The more we report, and the bigger the network becomes, the more we can get an idea of variation of behavior through the seasons, times of day, whether there are areas that are hotbeds, if some cities have more attacks than others," Schell said.
Through Friday, however, the new site had registered only three reports, because, as Schell noted, "The word isn't out yet."
As awareness does spread and data is collected, it is hoped that researchers' understanding of Canis latrans — an animal that has often confounded mankind through the settling of the North American continent and by now has colonized virtually every American city — will expand considerably.
Breck is already credited, through the study he led locally from roughly 2010 through 2014, with shedding surprising new light on coyotes in the urban environment.
"Essentially, Stewart found that these coyotes are adapting to the people in Denver and because they are so good at learning the habits of people, they are thriving," Schell said.
In evolutionary biology, behavior typically changes over thousands of years. Coyotes on the Front Range, however, are exhibiting modifications in their behavior over the span of just a few years.
Breck used an example of coyotes knowing not to cross Interstate 25 during times of day when traffic is heaviest.
"They're learning fast enough and passing it on to their puppies," Schell said. "You now have a generation of coyotes that know how to cross highways. We're artificially selecting for a particular type of coyotes, just like we artificially select for a particular breed of dog."
Talk of 'personality' now OK
Matheson is intrigued by the idea that urban coyote culture may be changing — and doing so relatively quickly — and that research might show "that there are some genetic predispositions to boldness or shyness that may be selected for in the urban environment that is encouraging more bold coyotes in the urban environment."
"That's a hypothesis. If we are better understanding what is happening, we can better coexist and reduce human-coyote conflicts."
Mary Ann Bonnell, visitor services supervisor for Jefferson County Open Space, was involved in the recently concluded coyote study and is a partner in the new one.
"It's funny, but when I was in college, you weren't allowed to say animals had personalities. It was considered anthropomorphizing in the '80s," she said. "Now it's perfectly acceptable to say its personality is investigatory, or its personality is shy.
"You can imagine if you had some kind of way to tie a genetic profile to these animals that seem to display a bold personality, wouldn't that be interesting, to say you could predict that this particular lineage is more predisposed to bold, or investigatory behavior? That's not proven. That's just a thought."