Researchers are sharing lessons from the unprecedented Stanley Park coyote attacks from 2020 to 2021 to help people better coexist with urban wildlife.
Coyotes are here to stay, say authors of a new study which examined contributing factors to nine months of aggressive coyote encounters that resulted in a cull of 11 coyotes in Vancouver’s largest urban park.
We spoke with Nathan Lewis, a zoology doctoral candidate, and Dr. Sarah Benson-Amram, an associate professor in the departments of zoology and forest and conservation sciences, about how people across North America can live in harmony with their four-legged neighbours.
What did your study find?
NL: The influx of park visitors during the pandemic lockdowns saw an increase in encounters with coyotes: From December 2020 to August 2021, there were 45 coyote attacks on humans involving bites or scratches, with another 63 encounters where coyotes lunged or threatened people. Before this period, only one aggressive encounter had been reported in almost 10 years.
More people in the park meant more encounters, and evidence suggests this increased the rate at which the coyotes habituated to human presence. That loss of fear emboldened them to interact more frequently and sometimes aggressively with people, but there were also other factors at play.
We found anecdotal evidence that people were feeding coyotes. Prior studies have shown habituation paired with food conditioning often results in animals acting boldly and aggressively to get food.
Why do we need this research?
SBA: Coyote attacks are very rare. A previous study documented an average of three coyote attacks on people per year across both the U.S. and Canada between 1960 to 2006. This makes them hard to study. In Stanley Park, we had a very unusual situation which presented a unique opportunity to examine the contributing factors and what people can do to help protect themselves in the future.
Research has found that culls do not permanently stop human-coyote conflict. Coyotes are here to stay. They are very adaptable and reproduce quickly to maintain stable populations. Relocating them is illegal in many places and often ends poorly for both the coyotes and humans in the relocation area.
Coyotes also provide important ecosystem balance. If you’re not a fan of rats, you should be a fan of coyotes. And balanced urban ecosystems are important for human health.
So the best approach is to learn how to coexist.
What tips did you find for coexisting with coyotes?
NL: The vast majority of encounters with coyotes are not aggressive, but nobody saw the Stanley Park attacks coming so we shouldn't wait to start seeing early signs of conflicts. We need to help prevent habituation and food conditioning by not feeding coyotes and not leaving garbage they can eat lying around.
Similarly, don’t approach coyotes. If they approach you, make yourself seem big and threatening by waving your arms, shouting, furling and unfurling an umbrella, etc.
Our university had a famous campus coyote, Kip, who walked around UBC in the middle of the day. He was sadly hit by a car in 2024 . Kip was very clearly habituated to, and had been fed by, people. As far as I know, there were never any reported incidents of Kip being aggressive to people, but there were incidents when he was aggressive to dogs in the presence of people, and that’s not normal behaviour.
When coyotes are comfortable with people, it can lead to conflicts and ultimately it’s not in their, or our, best interests.
Our study also found that running or jogging, being alone, being out at times of low human activity such as early morning or late night, and being near den sites seemed to make attacks slightly more likely in areas with coyotes.
Interestingly, age and having a dog present did not relate to the likelihood of attacks.
With this information, people can make informed decisions about when, where and how they spend time outdoors to better coexist with our urban wildlife neighbours.
This research was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ministry of Water Land and Resource Stewardship, and the Habitat Trust and Conservation Foundation.
Animal Behaviour