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One of our wonderful Coyote Crew members, Stephanie Sandmeyer, wrote this article about living with coyotes in the Hillsdale neighborhood. Thanks, Stephanie!  
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Read/Print/Distribute "Coexisting with Coyotes" a zine from Coyote Crew member, Hunter Currey7/17/2025 "Coexisting with Coyotes" by Hunter Currey
We are thrilled to share this charming and informative zine from Hunter Currey—we are so lucky to have Hunter as a Coyote Crew member! We recommend printing and folding a paper copy for yourself and for friends—it is easy and fun! Please share this far and wide!
Coexisting with Coyotes by Zuriel van Belle
Coyotes Among Us: Secrets of the City’s Top Predator, A virtual presentation with Dr. Stan Gehrt5/29/2025 Dr. Stan Gehrt is principal investigator of the largest, and longest, study of coyotes in the Chicago area, which has involved the monitoring of over 1,600 coyotes over a 25-year period. In this virtual presentation, he will discuss the things we have learned from these animals living among millions of people, such as how they move across the landscape while avoiding us, how they interact with each other, and how they function as predators in the urban ecosystem. Dr. Gehrt will also discuss the risks and the benefits of having a top predator within the city, and how our relationships with them may evolve into the future. 
There have been a few recent news articles reporting on the feeling some people have that there are more coyotes than ever this year. Our project gets reports of coyotes every year, and every year we have more reports during the fall and winter. Coyotes have lived in the city of Portland for at least 50 years and, at this point, their population is probably relatively stable. If you live in a neighborhood where it feels like there are more coyotes all of the sudden, it probably means coyotes have become too comfortable around people—not that there are a bunch of new coyotes in the area. Coyotes thrive in the forgotten areas of neighborhoods and coyotes, people, and pets are safer if they continue to avoid close proximity with people.
Be sure to remove food sources (never feed a coyote), supervise pets, and scare off bold coyotes. A few clarifications: ●Our project received the highest number of reports in 2016 and 2017 (around 2,500 each year). We haven't reached that number yet in 2024, but probably will by the end of the year. ●More reports doesn't necessarily mean there are more coyotes. ●Reports indicate that people are seeing coyotes, know about our project, and decide to report their sighting.
●Coyotes and wolves are related, but have important differences. Coyotes and wolves along with jackals and domestic dogs are all in the same genus, Canis, which means they are closely related. Gray wolves are around 70-120 pounds and do not live in the Portland metro area, western coyotes are around 25-40 pounds and are year-round residents of the Portland metro area. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) are different species.
*The jump in sighting reports from 2014 to 2015/2016 demonstrates how much our data relies on people knowing about our project. The main reason for the jump in sightings was a few major new articles/interviews and other awareness-raising activities. As many locals will tell you, coyotes were here in the city long before our project existed.
Read articles from The Oregonian, FOX 12 Oregon, and Courthouse News.
Learn more on our research and learn pages.
Seeing more coyotes? by Zuriel van Belle
Read: The Oregonian/OregonLive Helps to Explain Why You Might See More Coyotes in Fall and Winter10/3/2024  School is back in session and in full swing! Check our For Educators page to access our free curriculum kit which includes a workbook, answer key, and companion slides. This work was generously supported by Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District—thank you!
The materials in these free resources are based on content in our tutorial and are intended for use inside and outside the classroom. We hope this workbook will be useful for teachers, homeschoolers, parents, after school programs, summer camps, and more! In an evaluation, we found that classroom visits using our materials increased student knowledge about coyotes substantially and improved attitudes toward coyotes slightly. Evaluation Details We visited a local elementary school to pilot our classroom materials. We distributed questionnaires before and after two in-class visits using the workbooks and companion slides to three fifth-grade classes (n=62) to measure any changes in knowledge and feelings toward coyotes.
Teachers found our materials informative and engaging but indicated that what they highly valued was the in-classroom visit from a researcher. Our capacity to visit classrooms is extremely limited, so future work bridging the gap between students and researchers is warranted. |
Coyote NewsVisit this page for news coverage and updates about the Portland Urban Coyote Project (PUCP). Archives
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Our project is run by a small team of researchers and community members who are passionate about understanding how humans and coyotes interact and providing evidence-based information about living with coyotes. We want to make sure our project stays sustainable and useful so we want to hear from YOU. Thank you!