How coyotes made their homes in America’s cities

Illustration by Alex Parkin Coyotes are not generally the first things that come to mind when you picture urban wildlife. Pigeons, rats, raccoons, squirrels — they’ve burrowed deeply into the ecosystems of cities. Urban humans are used to guarding their trash cans against raccoons, feeding pigeons in the park*, or running in terror from a defiant rat on the sidewalk. They all come with the territory.
But across North America, coyotes have been staking their claim on cities as well.