Module 12: Urban Wildlife

Funded by the City of Long Beach and City of Culver City, Module 12 - Part I, “Urban Coyotes”, provides students the opportunity to explore topics related to Coyotes, Canis latrans, including coyote ecology and resiliency, population dynamics, traits/adaptations/behavior, biodiversity, and wildlife management. Coyotes are a common topic in urban centers all across North America. As coyotes compete for resources including space and food, coyote sightings in urban areas are only going to increase. With strong wildlife management programs in place, cities can mitigate contact with coyotes, while still ensuring their survivability. The goal of this Part I is to provide the history of the coyote-human coexistence. Coyotes and humans have cohabitated for centuries, and as coyotes have been pushed into cities by habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, and other mitigating factors, an increase in coyote presence in cities has resulted. Lesson 5 of this Module will have a Special Focus on a local wildlife management coyote case study being conducted by CURes in Long Beach and Culver City, California.