This juvenile male coyote had been previously radio collared by members of The Cook County Urban Coyote Project led by Dr. Stanley Gehrt. At around one year old, after leaving his den in a graveyard on the other side of the city to stake out new territory, he was tracked to this location behind the downtown Post Office along the South Branch of the Chicago River (Chicago, Illinois U.S.A). I used a camera trap placed for nearly four months to capture this coyote who would normally walk a wide berth around my camera. There are grave dangers for urban coyotes as they move closer to a dense urban center and a few months after I placed this camera trap, this coyote was found dead apparently by car strike.
Cities Gone Wild
Cities Gone Wild is an exploration of three savvy animals: black bears, coyotes and raccoons. Each of these urban carnivores are uniquely equipped to survive and even thrive in the human built landscape at a time when urbanization is decimating habitat for less adapted wildlife. I tracked these three carnivores in cities across the United States, to reveal how they are using our infrastructure and resources to carve out a unique place in society that might help them survive an uncertain future. Published in the July, 2022 issue of National Geographic Magazine
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