Coyotes Entering Urban Areas Across the United States, Making Themselves at Home
OutdoorHub Reporters 12.04.12
It’s a real-life Jumanji–kind of. In Chicago, Illinois, some residents are amused by them. In Clearwater, Florida, locals fear their wild new neighbors.
Coyotes have been spotted in both those cities in very unusual places. In Illinois, coyotes have been living in Cook County for at least the past decade. On November 23, at least two coyotes were spotted wandering around Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
It’s not like the baseball field is out on the city’s edge. In fact, it’s only a few blocks from Lake Michigan and it’s surrounded by bars, restaurants, city lights and cars. It wasn’t even the first time Chicago residents had spotted the canines–a resident described one time when she saw one sitting on her friend’s front lawn in the city late at night.
The most recent sighting was on a bustling Friday night when freelance photographer Will Byington was just across the street shooting a concert. He ran outside with his camera when he geard of the coyotes’ presence.
“It was literally like they were out for a stroll in Wrigleyville on a Friday night. They didn’t seem phased by the traffic, by honking horns, by people yelling at ’em,” Byington told FOX 32 in a phone interview. “They were just checking out Wrigley Field.”
View video footage of where Byington spotted the coyotes and see the photographs he captured below.
httpv://youtu.be/jswA9637Y7A
Much further south, residents in Clearwater, Florida are not happy with their uninvited guests. In the residential areas of the city, people fear that the coyotes living in an abandoned mansion in the Glenwood neighborhood may go after their children or pets.
The coyotes, along with a 5-foot “aggressive” lizard and numerous rats, have staked out the overgrown house and the animals are getting braver, venturing out in broad daylight. Some witnesses report seeing pups around the property as well. With anxiety on the rise, residents are asking authorities to step in.
See photographs of the coyotes and mansion in the video by WTSP 10 News in Tampa below.
