How do coyotes live so close to people? Coyotes live in forests, grasslands and deserts, and even in cities. As of November 2026, the Urban Coyote Research Project in Cook County, Illinois, is based on more than 20 years of research by Dr. Stanley D. Gehrt and his team, and it estimates that 1,500 to 2,000 coyotes may live in the county.

In natural areas, coyotes tend to be active in the day or at dawn and dusk, but in Chicago they confine most activity to the night. In the Cook County study, coyotes in urban environments switch to be more active at night, when human activity is minimal.

A study of 62 species found that mammals were 1.36 times as nocturnal when people were nearby. Eighty-three percent of the case studies in that analysis showed some increase in night activity when people were around.

In the Cook County study, coyotes as a general population consistently avoided areas associated with humans. In natural habitat fragments, coyote home range boundaries usually follow the borders between parks and the development around them.

Between one-third and one-half of the coyotes studied each year in Cook County were solitary. Solitary coyotes travel over large areas, up to 60 square miles, covering many municipalities. Their home ranges average 10 square miles.

Coyote packs in Cook County average less than 2 square miles and reach as much as 4.3 square miles. Other studies found that coyote territory sizes decrease with more urbanization when enough food is available.

In the Cook County project, researcher Paul Morey examined 1,429 scats to learn what coyotes eat. Ninety percent of a coyote's diet is mammals, and small rodents were the main food of city coyotes. City coyotes sometimes eat food that people leave out, such as trash.

In the Chicago area coyotes generally have a 60 percent chance of surviving one year. Juvenile coyote survival in Cook County is about five times higher than the 13 percent reported for rural juveniles.

A study published in 2024 used tracking data from 214 coyotes in the Chicago area between 2013 and 2021 to see what affects how long city coyotes live. It found a positive link between coyote survival and human population density.

Coyotes began spreading across North America around 1920. Over the last hundred years or so they have spread east, and in 2010 they crossed the Panama Canal, moving into Central America.

The spread of coyotes to the east was likely helped by the growth of human agriculture and the breaking up of forests. Scientists suggest the spread to the north and east may have been the result of wolves being removed. Coyotes are typically excluded from areas where wolves live.

Coyotes have adapted well to places that people have changed. Biologist Stan Gehrt says coyotes that were born and raised in cities prefer cities.

Words to know

• nocturnal: active at night
• solitary: living alone
• urbanization: growth of cities
• scats: animal droppings
• agriculture: farming