How do coyotes live so close to people? Coyotes live in forests, grasslands and deserts, and even in cities. Coyotes now range from Panama in the south through Mexico, the United States and Canada.

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 their activity to be more active at night, when human activity is minimal. In the Cook County study, coyotes as a general population consistently avoided areas associated with humans.

In California's Santa Cruz Mountains, coyotes are becoming more nocturnal in areas with human recreation. Animals shifted toward night activity whether or not people actually posed a direct threat.

In the Cook County study, between one-third and one-half of the coyotes studied each year were solitary. Solitary coyotes travel over large areas, up to 60 square miles, covering many municipalities, and their home ranges average 10 square miles (26.8 square kilometers).

In Minnesota, males may roam over territories as large as 36 square miles, though females usually stay within about six square miles. In Big Bend National Park a coyote's home range is 40 to 100 square miles. Coyote packs in Cook County average less than 2 square miles (4.95 square kilometers) and reach as much as 4.3 square miles (11.1 square kilometers).

In natural habitat fragments, coyote home range boundaries usually follow the borders between parks and the development around them. 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.

A 2021 conference study compared urban coyotes from Greater Los Angeles with rural coyotes from Fresno County. It found trends toward wider snouts, longer skulls and a stronger molar bite force in urban coyotes, though the differences were not statistically significant. The study also found that urban coyotes have greater variation in upper jaw shape.

Biologist Stan Gehrt tabulated that vehicle collisions accounted for 70 percent of the Chicago coyote deaths he counted, as reported in 2006. Urban coyotes in Illinois typically live less than two years, with vehicle collisions the most common cause of death. Biologist Stan Gehrt says coyotes in Chicago definitely learn how to cross roads.

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, and it found a positive link between coyote survival and human population density.

Coyotes began spreading across North America around 1920, and over the last hundred years or so they have spread east. They crossed the Panama Canal in 2010, moving into Central America. Scientists reviewed more than 12,500 records covering 10,000 years to map how coyotes spread across North and Central America. The eastward spread was likely helped by the growth of human agriculture and the breaking up of forests.

Coyotes have adapted well to places that people have changed. As of November 2026, the IUCN Red List rates the coyote as Least Concern, because coyotes are common and widespread thanks to their extraordinary adaptability.

Words to know

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