The coyote (Canis latrans) is a highly visible and adaptable North American predator, increasingly encountered in suburban and urban areas across the continent. This remarkable spread into regions where they were historically absent has led to the common public perception that the coyote is an invasive species. Understanding the true nature of their expansion requires examining the strict biological definitions scientists use to classify a species’ presence in a new environment. The answer lies in the history of the continent and the specific criteria used to define an ecological invader.
Defining the Term “Invasive Species”
The term “invasive species” carries a precise biological and policy-based meaning often misunderstood in public discourse. To be classified as invasive, a species must meet two specific criteria. First, the species must be non-native, or alien, to the ecosystem under consideration, meaning it was introduced outside of its natural geographic distribution. Second, the species’ introduction must cause, or be likely to cause, economic harm, environmental harm, or harm to human health. Not all non-native species are invasive; many domesticated plants and animals are non-native but are not considered invasive because they do not meet the harm criterion. The official classification combines geographical origin and detrimental impact.
The Coyote’s True Native Status and Geographic History
The coyote is unequivocally a native North American mammal, a fact that immediately contradicts the primary requirement for invasive status. Fossil and archaeological evidence confirms coyotes have been present on the continent for thousands of years, with their range established well before European colonization. Before the 20th century, the coyote’s historical range was generally restricted to the arid west, the Great Plains, and parts of Mexico. They were historically absent from the dense deciduous forests of the Eastern Seaboard and the northern taiga forests. The modern presence of coyotes across the entire continent, from Alaska to Panama and the Atlantic to the Pacific, is a relatively recent phenomenon, largely occurring since the early 1900s.
Why Coyotes Expanded So Successfully
The dramatic expansion of the coyote’s range is a complex biological phenomenon driven by human activity and the coyote’s inherent adaptability. The most significant factor facilitating their spread was the widespread extirpation of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) across most of North America. The removal of this larger apex predator created an ecological niche vacuum, reducing predation risk and allowing the smaller coyote to colonize new territories unhindered by a dominant competitor.
Coyotes possess exceptional behavioral flexibility, enabling them to thrive in human-altered landscapes, including suburban and urban areas. Their omnivorous and generalist diet allows them to utilize a wide variety of food sources, from small rodents and deer to discarded human food. Furthermore, the conversion of once-forested landscapes in the East to agricultural and fragmented habitats created environments more suitable for the coyote.
Hybridization with other canids also played a role in the eastern expansion, particularly in the northeastern United States and Canada. As they moved eastward, coyotes interbred with remnant populations of wolves and domestic dogs, introducing new genetic material. This hybridization resulted in the “coywolf” or Eastern Coyote, a larger canid better suited for the forested environments it now inhabits.
The Official Classification: Range Expansion vs. Invasion
Given the criteria for an invasive species, the coyote’s current status is officially classified as a native species undergoing a massive range expansion. Since the species is native to North America, it fails to meet the fundamental requirement of being non-native or alien. The movement of the coyote from the western plains to the eastern forests is simply a shift in distribution within its native continent. The expansion was largely facilitated by human actions, specifically the elimination of their primary natural competitor, the wolf. While coyotes may cause localized economic and environmental harm—meeting the second criterion for invasiveness—they cannot be truly invasive because they are not alien to the larger North American ecosystem.