Seeking the coyotes of Portland
Lily Roberts
PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — Live in a city, and you’re bound to come across a coyote eventually. Commonly mistaken for wolves, these bushy-tailed creatures have found a way to coexist with humans not just in rural areas but in practically every city in North America.
That’s where groups like the Portland Urban Coyote Project come in. The initiative was launched at Portland State University in 2010 with the goal of tracking coyote activity. Current director Zuriel van Belle has seen the project blossom since stepping on in 2013. While the team is still small, the project has expanded from a simple website for reporting sightings to a full-fledged resource that systematically records coyote interactions, maps them and provides educational resources to the Portland community.
In an interview, van Belle outlined what questions visitors can expect to see when using the organization’s Coyote Observation Form. Questions like: What was the coyote doing? How many did you see? How did you feel about the sighting, and why did you feel that way?
“That helps us understand the nature of the interactions between the person and the coyote, because our data is really about when humans and coyotes come into contact,” she added. “Whether that contact means a coyote running by, or more direct contact.”
Since the project’s inception, people have reported more than 17,000 coyote sightings in the Portland metro area.
That’s a lot of data to digest. Members of the Portland Urban Coyote Project — including biologists, geographers, researchers and volunteers — analyze these sightings and share their findings using educational tools like an interactive map.
A quick glance at the map shows coyotes all over the city, with hundreds reported every year.
Even that figure is likely an incredibly small sample of the true population.
These canines fit so well into cities like Portland because of their smaller size and opportunistic nature. These features helped them bounce back from the 1800s, when cattle owners placed bounties on the heads of both coyotes and wolves.
In the case of coyotes, “they were able to fill in niches that wolves really couldn’t,” van Belle said. She noted the so-called trickster animal originated in prairies of the southwestern United States but have since expanded as far afield as Alaska and South America.
“It’s because they can really adapt. For example, they often like to be active at dawn and dusk,” van Belle said. “But if that doesn’t work, like if there’s a predator or traffic or lots of people, they can change that and go to a nocturnal schedule.”
Coyotes are also omnivorous and always ready to adapt their diets. In rural settings, they might eat berries, snakes and rabbits. In cities, they can enjoy rodents, fallen fruit in yards, goodies from trash cans and even the occasional cat.
They can live practically anywhere, making homes in forgotten places like industrial areas, fire lanes between backyard fences and grassy brush near highway ramps. In that way, van Belle said, coyotes are kind of like humans. They’re incredibly adaptable, ready and able to adjust to most ecosystems.
A new chapter
That invasion of coyotes into human spaces is what inspired the foundation of the Portland Urban Coyote Project.
Over the years, the project has also leaned into studying the relationships between people and coyotes. Recent sighting surveys have asked visitors questions like how they felt about seeing the coyote, whether they enjoyed the experience and why.
There does sometimes seem to be a snowball effect with reports: Neighborhoods will suddenly have an eruption of sightings all at once.
That probably doesn’t mean that coyotes have suddenly moved into an area, van Belle explained. More likely, one person probably spotted a coyote and told their neighbors, who then became more vigilant. Coyotes can be easy to miss — but keep an eye out, and they’re all around.
The group’s public surveys capture people’s ambivalent relationship with this charismatic animal. If a person loves wildlife and loves seeing it in the city, they might report their coyote sighting as a good experience.
Bad experiences are typically labeled as such due to a concern for neighborhood safety. Many stem from fear that a coyote might attack small dogs and cats or even kids.
“What’s really interesting to us is that in a lot of cases, these two kinds of descriptions actually aren’t different people,” van Belle explained. “They see a coyote and feel that it’s really cool but also wonder: ‘What do I need to know to keep myself safe?’ That kind of nuance and complexity is something that we try to address through our education.”
Aside from its extensive map tool, the Portland Urban Coyote Project also offers an online interactive tutorial that walks visitors through misconceptions about coyotes.
The group provides printable fact sheets, workbooks, slideshows and flyers to promote coyote awareness. In the view of advocates like van Belle, educating communities about how to coexist with coyotes is essential in creating a safe environment for both humans and coyotes. “So, we visit community centers and neighborhoods when requested to make sure they have information, because it really does make a difference.”
Besides, if a coyote becomes too comfortable around humans, it usually ends up being killed. To keep both Portlanders and these wild dogs safe, the Portland Urban Coyote Project offers three main pieces of advice: Remove food sources, supervise pets and scare away bold coyotes.
Do not feed coyotes. Instead, if a coyote seems friendly, yell at it. It helps keep these animals wild.
Leash small dogs and build a ‘catio’ for cats, allowing these pets to experience the outdoors without risking their lives. “Even if you love coyotes, this is what you should do,” van Belle said. “That way, they can keep living in the spaces humans don’t occupy. Right beside us, but not in contact with us.”