Things I Know I Know

Seed article on urban coyotes:

Way, who has been studying coyotes in urbanized parts of Massachusetts since 1998, calls most resident urban coyotes "low-key animals." To succeed in cities, coyotes must learn to be invisible, avoiding peopled areas where they are likely to be spotted. Urban coyotes are more active at night than their rural counterparts; Way's studies have shown that coyotes cover 15 to 25 km (10 to 15 mi) a night as they range through a roughly 26-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) territory.

Most coyotes live in family groups: five or six adults and their pups. Since coyotes only dig dens during April, when they are raising young, they cover a territory. The packs have favorite places to bed down, but they will switch resting spots several times in a day, and vary those locations from day to day. In Chicago, researchers found coyotes favoring hideouts behind post offices and shopping malls, in backyards, under decks, in culverts or easements between highways, in golf courses and cemeteries, and even in the ornamental shrubs of a parking lot.

The article also says that coyotes in cities do a good job of controlling deer, rat, mice, and even Canadian geese populations.