Coyotes Chicago Residents, Not Cartoons

By Alicia Dorr in Miscellaneous on Feb 23, 2006 10:01PM

As you may have heard, the escalating reports of coyotes prowling the streets of Chicago have culminated in a title: the downtown coyote capital of the country . This may sound ridiculous to those of you who haven't been paying attention, but with 2,000 coyotes (pronounce it "kI-Ot" for added fun) roaming this urban jungle, it is actually true.

Most of the time it doesn't really affect anything; coyotes rarely attack humans. So we may have been neglecting our coyote beat a little lately, but the rest of Chicago's news sources sure haven't been. It's all fine and dandy when the critters are roaming out of sight, but when coyotes attack dogs it's a totally different story. You know how people can be about their dogs.

So a veritable culture of fear has been brewing in some circles over this coyote business, and people are finally taking matters into their own hands. Everyone feels a little safer on the prairie with a coyote head hunter roaming around, who we hope looks like Chuck Norris, and the likes of resident coyote expert Stan Gehrt, who doesn't. This way no one has to feel bad for the coyotes, who have just been looking for a place to crash all these years.