CHICAGO – Lots of coyotes are out and about in Chicago and its suburbs, and experts say there’s no cause for alarm.

Coyotes have been spotted along the Magnificent Mile, in the Streeterville neighborhood, in the Montrose Beach Dunes, on frozen water in Humboldt Park and outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in recent weeks.

According to Chris Anchor, a wildlife biologist for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, people are seeing more of the species lately because mating season aptly peaked Feb. 14. Coyotes, who are instinctually territorial, are therefore patrolling their land more often.

“Everybody in the Chicagoland area lives within the territory of a family group of coyotes,” Anchor said.

Another reason for these omnivores’ more obvious visibility is that prey becomes scarce in the winter, causing them to travel farther for food, said Seth Magle, senior director of Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute. He added that coyotes help the environment by eating rabbits, geese and other animals that would otherwise overpopulate the area.

Preschool teacher Kelsey Davies said she has seen one or two coyotes on her street in Evanston eight times over a recent stretch of 10 days. “What I tell them is, ‘Please eat all the bunnies in my yard. Help yourself,’” she said.

Davies, 50, said the high number of coyote sightings is rare for her neighborhood. Before the past few weeks, she hadn’t seen a coyote on her street in years. She said she now sees them most often at night, when the species is most active, and occasionally hears them howl along to ambulance sirens.

“They don’t bother us. I’m not going to bother them,” Davies said. “I feel like we can live together.”

They look at her and her goldendoodle on their nightly walks, but Davies said the coyotes aren’t aggressive and usually walk away. But Davies said she understands why her neighbors who have small dogs worry.

Despite the fears of some people, experts say the coyote diet does not include humans or pets.

“If coyotes were truly an issue, you would already know about it,” Anchor said. “It would be a huge public service social issue.”

Anchor and Magle stressed that coyotes are almost always peaceful toward and even afraid of humans. Anchor said that it’s far more likely to be bitten by a dog than a coyote — only one person gets bitten by a coyote in North America in an average year.

The two also noted that coyotes are all around people, even those living in densely populated areas. Coyotes look for places to hide where they won’t be disturbed by people. In cities during the winter, they’ll sleep in cemeteries, on golf courses and in patches of shrubs, Magle said.

Anchor added that there are families living at Navy Pier and the Museum Campus.

“They’re thriving in our cities … but they’re doing it by avoiding us,” Magle said.

Between 2,000 and 4,000 coyotes live in Cook County, according to Stanley Gehrt, a professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University and researcher with the Urban Coyote Research Program.

Coyotes returned to the area in the late ’70s and early ’80s after being driven out by human development and population growth for nearly 100 years, according to Anchor. White-tailed deer, beavers and Canada geese also came back to the area, Anchor said.

Gehrt said experts aren’t sure why coyotes returned to urban areas. “What makes it even more of a mystery is that that same pattern occurred in cities across the Midwest and the Eastern U.S.,” he said.

Gehrt said coyote numbers have remained relatively stable for the last decade or so because the species self-regulates its population. Coyotes can have litters of four pups or as many as 13. Since both parents — who mate for life — remain involved in raising the pups, the litter sizes can increase as long as there’s enough available food.

It’s a common misconception that city coyotes have become dependent on human food, Gehrt said. The species still hunts its natural prey.

Coyotes have the potential to become dangerous to people when they associate humans with food and stop being afraid of them, making it important to keep trash secured and refrain from feeding coyotes, Magle said. In the very rare case that a coyote approaches a person, it’s best to make loud noises to scare it away, he added.

Anchor said while coyote attacks on pets are rare, they are more common than attacks on humans. He recommended keeping dogs on leashes and cats indoors.

Magle said more people are learning to appreciate urban wildlife. When he started working at the Urban Wildlife Institute 16 years ago, he would get calls asking him who would “do something” about the coyote. Now, the calls he gets about coyotes are mostly from people who are enthusiastic and want to share their sightings.

“Maybe your knee-jerk reaction is like, ‘Oh, that doesn’t belong here,’ but then when you think about it, you’re kind of like, ‘Why not? Who decides that?’” Magle said. “‘Maybe a city can be a place for wildlife.’”

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