The coyote, Canis latrans, is North America’s most adaptable carnivore, thriving in nearly every habitat from wilderness to dense urban centers. Their increasing presence in suburban neighborhoods has led to a public perception that their numbers are out of control. This frequent visibility introduces a complex question: are coyotes truly “overpopulated,” or are they simply exhibiting high population density in specific areas where they are highly visible?
Defining and Measuring Coyote Population Density
From a wildlife management perspective, “overpopulated” suggests an animal population has exceeded the environment’s carrying capacity or is causing unacceptable levels of conflict with human interests. Coyotes are often thought to be overpopulated because of how frequently people see them. This high visibility is often a function of high population density in a small area, not a continent-wide population explosion. The actual number of coyotes per square mile is difficult to determine, especially in urban environments where they are secretive and nocturnal.
Estimating coyote density requires specialized scientific methods. Researchers utilize techniques such as non-invasive fecal DNA analysis, which allows for individual identification and population estimates using mark-recapture statistical models. Tracking collars and camera traps provide data on movement, survival rates, and home range size, offering insight into how well coyotes are surviving in a given area.
Another common method is the use of howling surveys, where scientists elicit a response from coyotes using an artificial howl to estimate the number of active family groups. Rural coyote densities are typically low, often ranging from 0.3 to 1 coyote per square kilometer. In urban areas like Chicago, researchers have found densities to be three to six times higher than in rural counterparts, explaining why human-coyote encounters have become so common.
Factors Driving Coyote Range Expansion and Success
The coyote’s success is due to its incredible adaptability paired with significant human-caused changes to the landscape. Since the early 1900s, the coyote’s geographic range has expanded by an estimated 40%. This is at least twice the expansion rate of any other North American carnivore during that period, allowing colonization of new territories, including the eastern United States.
The extirpation of apex predators like wolves and cougars set the stage for the coyote’s expansion, a phenomenon known as the mesopredator release hypothesis. With their main competitors and predators gone, coyotes were ecologically released, allowing their populations to increase and their range to broaden into formerly unsuitable habitats. Furthermore, hybridization with remnant wolf and domestic dog populations in the east introduced new genotypes that may have contributed to larger body size and successful colonization of eastern forests.
Coyotes possess incredible dietary flexibility. They are omnivores capable of consuming rodents, rabbits, fruit, insects, and carrion. Urban coyotes readily utilize human subsidies, feeding on unsecured garbage, pet food left outdoors, and the small mammals attracted to human development.
Their social structure and reproductive biology also make them highly resilient to population control efforts, a mechanism known as compensatory reproduction. When a population is subjected to high mortality, such as through widespread culling, the remaining coyotes respond by increasing their reproductive rate. This can involve younger females breeding sooner and the breakdown of established social structures that normally suppress breeding in subordinate individuals.
Mitigating Human-Coyote Conflict
Managing human behavior is the most effective way to reduce conflict. Non-lethal management strategies focus on removing attractants and re-establishing a coyote’s natural wariness toward people. Securing all outdoor food sources, including garbage, compost, and pet food, is the most important step for minimizing coyote presence in residential areas.
Hazing techniques are physical or auditory actions designed to scare coyotes away and reinforce their natural fear of humans. If a coyote is spotted nearby, people should stand tall, wave their arms, shout loudly, and throw small objects near the animal, but never at it. The goal is to make the experience unpleasant for the coyote, ensuring they associate human presence with an immediate negative consequence.
Community education programs teach residents how to properly haze coyotes and secure attractants. Consistent, community-wide hazing is important because coyotes can quickly become accustomed to a single, repetitive stimulus. Fencing, especially with roll bars at the top or buried mesh at the base, can also provide effective protection for pets and livestock.
Lethal management is typically reserved for aggressive individuals or areas experiencing significant livestock predation. However, widespread culling to reduce the overall population is largely ineffective due to the coyote’s compensatory reproduction and immigration. When coyotes are removed from an area, neighboring coyotes quickly immigrate to fill the void, and the remaining females produce larger litters. Lethal control does not provide a long-term solution to conflict and can even lead to increased numbers of transient, non-territorial coyotes, which can sometimes escalate conflicts.