{"id":774222,"date":"2026-05-05T05:38:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774222\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:38:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:38:42","slug":"chicagos-coyotes-the-ghosts-of-the-city-help-balance-urban-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774222\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago\u2019s coyotes \u2014 the \u2018ghosts of the city\u2019 \u2014 help balance urban ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (WGN<\/a>) \u2014 Chicago is a city of nearly 3 million people, 77 neighborhoods and 1,700 coyotes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ghosts of the city, they\u2019re out there,\u201d said Stanley Gehrt, an Ohio State University professor and researcher. \u201cThey\u2019re basically invisible to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gehrt has spent more than a quarter century not only seeing them but also studying them since they first arrived in the area in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI assumed I would be here for one year. There would be nothing to study, and I would move on with my career somewhere else,\u201d Gehrt said. \u201cThe last thing I expected to be studying here in the Chicago region was coyotes.\u201d<\/p>\n

To his amazement, he found a world of urban coyotes along with a fascinating question: Why are these predators of the wide-open western plains moving into densely populated cities?<\/p>\n

The conventional wisdom held that humans were encroaching on wild habitats, forcing a migration to the metropolis, but Gehrt\u2019s research found the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s actually a case of coyotes moving into our domains, not the other way around,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy is that? Once they move into the Chicago region, what we found, to our surprise, is that their survival rates are higher than they are out in the country or more rural areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In rural areas, only 15% of coyotes survive one year; in Chicago, 65% do.<\/p>\n

One reason: unlike rural areas, Chicago doesn\u2019t allow hunting and trapping.<\/p>\n

But even more important, the coyotes find plenty of food while helping to control the city\u2019s rodent and rabbit populations.\u00a0 And, surprisingly, they\u2019re not eating human food.<\/p>\n

Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNot only are they not eating it,\u201d Gehrt said. \u201cThey\u2019re avoiding it. Because it\u2019s there. It\u2019s present for them to take and they ignore it. They prefer the more natural foods because of their fear of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are some of the revelations in a scientific study that has lasted 26 years and counting.<\/p>\n

Some basic questions were answered years ago:<\/p>\n