Jan. 15--Wildlife ecologist Stan Gehrt and several colleagues fitted six Chicago coyotes with GPS collars and four with "crittercams" around their necks in 2013 and 2014 to study the urban predator.
This is what he found, according to an article in the National Geographic:
--One GPS-collared coyote named 748 and his mate raised a litter of five healthy pups inside a secret concrete den in the parking lot of Soldier Field.
--Footage of the animals hunting revealed they eat a surprisingly large amount of wildlife, such as songbirds and rabbits, instead of the suspected people food and garbage. (One video sequence showed a coyote burying a squirrel carcass for later use.)
--Urban coyotes have to dodge people and vehicles -- and the GPS data reveal they do it deftly. Chicago coyotes have learned to negotiate roads, sidewalks and railroads usually without being seen or hit, despite tremendous traffic volume.
--City coyotes have larger home ranges than suburban coyotes do, up to 3.4 square miles compared with 0.4 square mile, probably because sizable parts of their habitats are too hard to use or defend, such as popular shopping streets.
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