Are coyotes leading larger carnivores to the big city?

• Position: Your Life

About five miles from Chicago O'Hare International Airport, scientists have located the smallest known coyote territory ever observed. For at least six years, a coyote community has maintained its existence within about one-third of a square mile.

"That's an indication that they don't have to go far to find food and water. They're finding everything they need right there in the suburbs of Chicago. That just amazes me," marvels Stan Gehrt, an environmentalist who has led the tracking of coyotes around the Illinois city for 12 years.

Coyotes are the largest of the mammalian carnivores to have made their way to, and thrived in, urban settings, Gehrt points out. "The coyote is the test case for other animals. Raccoons, skunks, foxes--they've already been able to penetrate the urban landscape pretty well. The coyote is the most recent and largest. The jury's out with what's going to happen with the bigger ones."

The bigger ones include wolves, mountain lions, and bears. Mountain lions have been seen on the fringes of cities already, and one was shot near the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago.

Gehrt estimates that about 2,000 coyotes live in the Chicago metro area, along with 9,000,000 people in some 250 separate municipalities. At times, this coexistence can cause uneasiness among humans but, in Gehrt's opinion, all species of urban dwellers probably are going to have to get used to it. "It used to be rural areas where we would have this challenge of coexistence versus conflict with carnivores. In the future, and I would say currently, it's cities where we're going to have this intersection between people and carnivores.

"We used to think only little carnivores could live in cities, and even then we thought they couldn't really achieve large numbers, but we're finding that these animals are much more flexible than we gave them credit for and they're adjusting to our cities.

"That's going to put the burden back on us: are we going to be able to adjust to them living with us or are we not going to be able to coexist?"

The tricky part of any government-sponsored eradication program is the question of cost versus benefit. When the study began in 2000, several communities around Chicago trapped and killed coyotes found within their boundaries. Gehrt figures that only 10% of communities have such programs in place now.

"I think those programs will go away, too. It costs money, and it upsets some residents who want coyotes living there. So, there is...