Bruce Helmboldt reported another coyote-spotting from the suburban
freeways, and wondered whether it was looking for a less populated area. I
sometimes wonder whether the reverse is the case. In Britain, in a
well-studied population shift that initially took everybody a little by
surprise, foxes and badgers responded to the ravaging of their natural
habitat by changes in farming practices in the '60s and '70s by colonizing
city suburbs, especially older, more spacious suburbs with mature cover,
including areas remarkably close to the center of London. Notoriously,
around garbage cans in Hampstead(!) is an easier place to see a badger
these days than in their "proper" habitat. And, with reference to the
recent cougar thread.... yes, there have been reports of smaller domestic
pets being recast as groceries, or at least (and inherently more likely)
getting hurt when they tangle with foxes or badgers. Are our coyotes
doing the same thing, at least to some extent? Any knowledgable Tweeters
have hard data on this?

As a footnote, my favorite close encounter with a coyote was a couple of
miles this side of Stevens Pass one spring, when I found myself looking
slightly upwards at a coyote six feet away atop a roadside snow-bank. My
not particularly biological but always witty hiking companion, when we'd
both got over the surprise, suggested: "Hm. Looking out for convertibles,
I'll bet..."

James West