How far will coyotes go?

By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor

From city-dwelling parrots to suburban turkeys, wild animals are learning to adapt to life amid sidewalks, high rises, and garbage dumps. One in particular seems to be more adaptable than most: the wily coyote. Coyotes have spread all the way across North America, and it’s only a matter of time before they break through to South America, writes senior animals editor Christine Dell’Amore.

Their fast spread has also made them among the most persecuted animals in North America: We kill about 400,000 a year, mainly to protect livestock. And this is despite scientific evidence showing lethal control of coyotes tends to backfire, leading juveniles to mature faster and females to produce bigger litters to fill the gap.

“The more we try to keep them down, the more they succeed,” Christine says. So why are coyotes thriving when so many other species are in trouble? How far will they spread? How can we help humans and coyotes coexist? There is still so much to learn about—and from—coyotes.

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Your Instagram photo of the day

No fear of humans. A motion-triggered camera captures two Arctic wolves feeding on a musk ox carcass on Canada's remote Ellesmere Island. Explorer Ronan Donovan followed a family of 10 wolves (six adults, four pups) for more than a month. “I wanted to tell a story about wolves in a wilderness without competition with humans,” Donovan said. "Wolves ... exist in nearly the same family structures as humans and engage in many of the same behaviors: play, mourning, social learning, and hunting strategies."

Related: Nat Geo's best animal photos of 2019

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Don’t blame the beavers! The water-loving, dam-building critters are making themselves at home in the warming tundra of Alaska and northern Canada. For the beavers, the thawing permafrost is ideal. But melting permafrost releases methane, lots of it, and the new lakes created by beavers are hastening the melt, permafrost expert Katey Walter Anthony tells our podcast, Overheard. She reminds us that people created the conditions for the beaver migration, so it’s not the beavers’ fault. To hear other behind-the-scenes Nat Geo stories, subscribe to the podcast here, or, if you are spontaneous and close by, get tickets to our live podcast in Washington, D.C., tonight.

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One last glimpse

Polar return. A helicopter carries a sedated and blindfolded polar bear mom and two cubs in a net from a holding facility in Churchill, Manitoba, to return to the wild. The bears are marked in green to notify Native hunters not to shoot them.

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