On Wednesday, January 11, 2017 at 3:57:18 PM UTC-8, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jan 2017 12:38:09 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

Last week on the PBS program Nova, those animals were part of the
hour-long show. Seems in the east, at least, they originated in
Algonquin National Park, which had an isolated wolf population. When
coyotes recently extended their range into the area, the coyotes and
wolves mated, and they continue to do so.

I saw that, too- quite interesting as I knew little about the urban
coyote phenomenon. My Mom lived in a suburb of Chicago and reported to
me that coyotes had been seen in town. I was skeptical but apparently
it's a thing.

Here in the Twin Cities some have been spotted, but the prairies are not
too far away to the west and south, and the Mississippi River corridor
makes for pretty convenient migration of non-flying animals into and
through the metro area. I live a more or less literal stone's throw
from an interstate smack in the middle of the Twin Cities and there was
a large grey fox living within a block of our house. Deer have been
seen in backyards here. The Mississippi River gorge is less than a mile
away which probably accounts for this. And of course we have the usual
complement of rabbits, squirrels, racoons, oppossums and a few times a
year we see red-tail hawks and an eagle or two in our immediate
neighborhood.

And the spread of coyotes has been remarkable. They now take young deer
in our forest preserve - a good thing, overall, I think. And with luck,
they may convince people to keep their dogs on leash.

Peoples is everywhere and animals are adapting to our encroachment into
their ranges with urban expansion by figuring out how to live in urban
areas themselves. In what, 40 years or so the Earth's population has
nearly doubled and will do so again in even less time (barring famine,
pestilence or an outbreak of rationality).

http://www.kcra.com/article/bear-spo...police/6421251

"I didn't know you had bears in Tracy" I said to a friend.
"Neither did we."