This page presents the three most important scholarly sources I located while researching urban coyotes and human-wildlife coexistence. Respectivly, these studies help explain how urbanization fragments habitats, how coyotes adapt behaviorally to city life, and why their flexibility allows them to survive in human-shaped landscapes. ​

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Riley, Seth P. D., et al. “Effects of Urbanization and Habitat Fragmentation on Bobcats and Coyotes in Southern California.” Conservation Biology, vol. 17, no. 2, 2003, pp. 566–576.

Wildlife ecologist Seth P. D. Riley and his colleagues, affiliated with the National Park Service and the University of California system, published “Effects of Urbanization and Habitat Fragmentation on Bobcats and Coyotes in Southern California” in the peer-reviewed journal Conservation Biology. The study examines how urban development and habitat fragmentation influence the movement, distribution, and survival of bobcats and coyotes in Southern California. Using radio telemetry and habitat analysis, the researchers found that increasing urbanization alters wildlife movement patterns and creates barriers that limit habitat connectivity. This article provides foundational evidence that human expansion reshapes the environments coyotes depend on, creating many of the conditions that later studies identify as drivers of behavioral adaptation. It serves as the environmental starting point for understanding why urban coyotes must adjust to life in human-dominated landscapes.

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Breck, Stewart W., et al. “The Intrepid Urban Coyote: A Comparison of Bold and Exploratory Behavior in  Coyotes from Urban and Rural Environments.” Scientific Reports, vol. 9, no. 1, 2019. 

Stewart W. Breck and a team of wildlife researchers from the USDA National Wildlife Research Center published “The Intrepid Urban Coyote: A Comparison of Bold and Exploratory Behavior in Coyotes from Urban and Rural Environments” in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports. The study investigates whether urban coyotes behave differently from rural coyotes and concludes that urban coyotes tend to be bolder and more exploratory. Researchers measured behavioral responses through controlled experiments comparing urban and rural populations. This article demonstrates that coyotes are actively adapting to urban environments rather than simply occupying them, helps explain how urban living changes coyote behavior and contributes to increasing interactions between coyotes and humans.

 

Young, Julie K., et al. “Persistence and Conspecific Observations Improve Problem-Solving Abilities of Coyotes.” PLOS ONE, vol. 14, no. 7, 2019.

Julie K. Young and her colleagues from the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services published “Persistence and Conspecific Observations Improve Problem-Solving Abilities of Coyotes” in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE. The study explores how coyotes solve novel problems and whether observing other coyotes improves their performance. Through a series of puzzle-solving experiments, the researchers found that persistence and social observation significantly increase problem-solving success. This article is valuable because it explains the cognitive flexibility that allows coyotes to adapt to changing environments, including cities. Together with Riley et al. (2003) and Breck et al. (2019), this study helps illustrate how environmental change, behavioral adaptation, and problem-solving abilities are connected within the broader literature on urban coyotes.