0:00

Is it real? Oh yes it

0:02

is, a wild coyote in the heart

0:04

of the city. Anything can happen on the streets of

0:06

Chicago.

0:08

Not exactly where you might expect

0:10

to find a coyote. Just

0:13

before 2 o'clock, employees at this

0:15

downtown Quiznos say the

0:17

coyote simply walked in. And

0:19

why not? The front door was open.

0:22

Right into a fast food restaurant

0:24

full of people. An event so rare,

0:26

it made the evening news. Then

0:28

he went around and tried to jump over the soda cooler

0:31

and just fell back in. And he installed

0:33

himself there.

0:34

For one hour, the coyote sat

0:36

in the soda cooler. At times it

0:38

looked like he was sleeping. All the

0:41

while attracting a large crowd

0:43

of onlookers, people armed with

0:45

cell phones and cameras.

0:48

So it's not every day

0:49

that you see a wild

0:51

animal essentially say, ah,

0:55

this'll do, this is part of my territory too. This

0:57

is Professor Chris Schell, a researcher

1:00

who focuses on urban wildlife.

1:03

That is very aberrant behavior. For those

1:05

of y'all listening to this podcast, that's

1:07

not normal. So to

1:10

have that happen in downtown

1:12

Chicago was mind boggling. Why

1:14

did the coyote walk into the Quiznos?

1:17

How is it so tolerant of people? It's

1:20

not normal for a wild animal to

1:22

be less than six feet away from a human without

1:24

a care.

1:25

More questions that Chris has been asking

1:27

as part of his work as an urban

1:29

ecologist. Because most people thought that

1:32

cities were inhospitable, that they couldn't

1:34

foster any life. And what

1:36

we're finding is that no, in fact, life,

1:39

this is a Jeff Goldblum line, finds

1:41

a way. Right? Life is

1:43

finding a way in cities. So

1:45

much so that it is subverting

1:48

the

1:49

ways in which we thought about nature.

1:51

It is resulting in a paradigm shift for

1:54

how we understand our role in this

1:56

entire process.

2:01

Sometimes you start to think about

2:03

a story that you want to tell, but the story

2:06

itself takes you to unexpected

2:08

places. In this case, to some

2:10

of the biggest questions of our time

2:12

about urban ecology, race,

2:15

and our future relationship with nature, this

2:18

is one of those stories. And

2:21

really one of the most important lessons

2:23

in all of this is that we are connected to

2:25

almost everything, and by helping

2:27

to save the natural world in our cities,

2:30

it serves as a proxy

2:31

for the blueprint to saving

2:33

ourselves. Today,

2:36

we look at how a coyote in a refrigerator

2:39

can teach us to rethink our entire

2:41

relationship with nature, from

2:43

deep in the wilderness to deep downtown

2:46

in our cities.

2:49

From KUAW in Seattle,

2:52

I'm Chris Morgan. Welcome to

2:54

The Wild.

3:05

You think that's

3:08

one scat? Oh,

3:13

it's one scat, yeah. They can be huge.

3:16

Oh yeah, that's a massive quantity. Yeah,

3:18

they are not small by any means.

3:21

Oh yeah, that's wet. That's great. I'm out

3:23

with Sam Creeling. She's doing a PhD

3:26

under the guidance of Chris Schell. Sam

3:28

runs a research project called the Seattle

3:30

Coyote Study. Oh, we're going to have to

3:32

double bag that one. She

3:34

scoops a long, very soggy

3:36

piece of coyote scat into a plastic

3:38

bag. I've met her at a city park

3:40

in Seattle, tucked in between a football

3:42

stadium, a medical center

3:45

and some city housing. That

3:47

is a huge pile.

3:49

Yeah, so this one I'm going to collect.

3:51

I don't have a lot of hope for this one working out genetically,

3:54

but we might be able to get some diet genetics

3:56

off of it.

3:57

Sam's plan is to gather information.

3:59

on diet and genetics from

4:02

this scat and hundreds of other samples

4:04

just like it to help her and Chris

4:06

understand how these coyotes are

4:08

finding a way to survive in an urban

4:11

setting.

4:13

Coyotes are about as big as

4:15

a medium-sized dog

4:16

and then make it gray and

4:18

make the snout kind of elongated with big

4:21

ears. They're a part of the canid

4:23

family, a relative of the wolf and

4:26

your golden retriever, but

4:28

they usually max out at about 30 pounds.

4:30

So they're relatively small,

4:33

they just look really lanky. It's like a

4:35

lanky, a lanky dog.

4:37

Sam is out here in the Seattle

4:39

rain collecting bags of poop among

4:41

the dog walkers and joggers because

4:44

from these samples she's able to extract

4:46

DNA, a treasure trove

4:49

of information, not just about the individual

4:51

coyote that left it there, but

4:53

also DNA from the things that that

4:55

coyote consumed, like

4:57

the plants, animals, insects and other

5:00

stuff. From that she

5:02

can then build a picture of how they're surviving

5:04

in a place you wouldn't expect them to be,

5:07

how they're adapting. I

5:09

just think it's so cool that they can live in urban

5:11

areas because so many species can't

5:14

cope with it. Doesn't

5:17

take much more time on our walk around the park

5:19

before we spot another pile of

5:22

the fecal gold. There's

5:24

a cat right there. Right here.

5:28

Oh good eye, wow that one's really camouflaged.

5:31

This one's nice because you actually can really tell

5:33

what they've been eating. So you can see this fur right

5:35

here, it's got these

5:38

like little white and gray spots and that kind

5:40

of like little bit of orangey color and

5:43

this is almost definitely a rabbit.

5:45

So these eastern cottontails that they eat a lot of.

5:48

Oh

5:48

interesting. Yeah. So this is about

5:50

each one of these sort of mini logs

5:52

here is about the size of my index finger

5:55

and sort of very pinched off at one end, which

5:58

is fairly typical is it?

5:59

coyote scat you see? Yeah,

6:02

when they're eating a lot of vertebrates and they have a lot of fur,

6:04

this is what we see. If they're eating fruit, there's

6:06

no shape.

6:08

Right, it's more sort of segmented and

6:10

blunt at the end? Yeah, exactly, or

6:12

just kind of a pile. If they're eating cherries, it's

6:14

just kind of a... I'm going to use the word

6:16

sploop to best

6:18

describe that.

6:20

Are people cordiers a scat lady yet?

6:24

I've gotten Dr. Pupologist. That's

6:27

one. Usually

6:29

coyote lady, usually not scat

6:31

lady. Okay. I don't know

6:33

which I prefer. The key thing here

6:35

is that coyotes are opportunistic when

6:37

it comes to food, meaning they'll eat just

6:40

about anything they can find.

6:42

Sam tells me it's a common misconception

6:44

that coyotes are only meat eaters. And

6:47

really they're huge omnivores, just like our dogs.

6:50

We feed our dogs dog food, which is combinations

6:52

of, you know, usually some sort of grain

6:54

and meat and other vegetables. So

6:57

coyotes are the same way. They'll eat pretty much

6:59

anything that they can get their mouths on. But

7:02

a lot of that is fruit.

7:03

Sam has found some pretty curious

7:05

contents in some of the coyote scat that she's

7:07

analyzed, like chocolate and

7:09

even cannabis.

7:11

This ability to eat whatever,

7:14

whenever is part of the reason

7:16

coyotes have done so well in urban

7:18

environments.

7:20

Coyotes are really good at kind

7:22

of making use of human dominated systems.

7:25

They're just really adaptable.

7:27

We don't exactly know when coyotes

7:30

kind of first arrived in Seattle, but they've definitely been

7:32

here for quite a while.

7:38

But it's not just Seattle. Coyotes

7:41

have been on a march to take over pretty much

7:43

all of North America.

7:45

Coyotes know how to adapt

7:47

to multiple environmental conditions,

7:49

settings, climates, and

7:52

differences in human densities.

7:57

Chris shell tells me that coyotes weren't always

8:00

the city slickers they are today. And

8:02

it's extraordinary how they've been able to

8:05

expand their kind

8:07

of natal range from what was the Great Plains

8:09

out to many, many

8:12

reaches of the

8:14

continental US.

8:16

Before European settlers came to America,

8:18

coyotes were mostly in the wide open

8:20

plains of the Midwest. Grassland,

8:23

open spaces, ideal for

8:25

running down prey, just like your dog at home

8:27

loves to chase down a ball.

8:29

So in that range, that was the breadbasket

8:32

for coyotes. And then all of a sudden,

8:34

you know, in about the last 250 years,

8:37

they have moved to either ends

8:40

of the continental US up through

8:42

to Canada and have established themselves

8:45

in Central America as well. So they don't

8:47

just stay in grasslands anymore.

8:49

Many of the coyotes' ancient canid cousins

8:52

followed land bridges to other continents.

8:55

But the coyotes stayed.

8:57

For the last million years or so, these

9:00

coyotes have developed into North American

9:02

specialists.

9:04

And while other large mammals have been on the

9:06

decline, the coyote seems to have

9:08

cornered the market on population growth.

9:11

Chris tells me it's only a matter

9:13

of time before coyotes even make their

9:15

way into South America,

9:17

a place they have never been.

9:20

There are a few things that have enabled this

9:22

widespread expansion. First, we

9:24

killed off almost all the wolves. Wolves

9:28

and coyotes are cousins that don't really get

9:30

along. These two canid species

9:32

were competing for similar resources. But

9:35

the bigger, more dominant wolves kept

9:37

the coyotes out of the wolves' territory.

9:40

So wolves will oftentimes, if they see

9:42

a coyote, they will chase it out of

9:44

its territory or kill it. And that's oftentimes

9:47

to save resources, to essentially

9:50

conserve the same number

9:52

or type of resources that the two individual

9:54

organisms eat.

9:56

In other words, if you're a wolf, the

9:59

coyote is your concern. competitor and

10:01

has to be eliminated. But as

10:03

white settlers moved west, they practically

10:06

eradicated wolves and this created

10:08

a vacuum for the coyotes

10:10

to fill. The coyotes

10:12

were basically free to move into terrain

10:14

that wolves would have kept them from entering before.

10:18

Mountain lions were also widely exterminated,

10:21

which left their niche for the coyote to exploit

10:24

too. And the other

10:26

main factor in the coyote's success was

10:28

landscape conversion. European

10:31

settlement meant that a lot of dense forest

10:33

land, which is not ideal for coyotes,

10:36

was converted into open agricultural

10:38

land and urban developments, perfect

10:41

for coyotes and the diversity of prey

10:43

they enjoy.

10:45

Think rodents, think rabbits

10:48

and the like. And that would help a

10:50

ton for coyotes in their diet. So

10:53

it was kind of this dual exercise of

10:55

wolves weren't around anymore, which left a lot

10:57

of space for coyotes. And then now all

10:59

of a sudden these coyotes have more food

11:02

resources as a function of land

11:04

cover change. Who wouldn't take over the continent

11:07

with all that? You're feet, right?

11:09

That's like bingo. If

11:11

you're a coyote, you're thinking, okay, this is the best possible

11:14

world of these. That's just

11:15

opened up to me here. It's the new frontier for them,

11:17

right? In every direction, really. Yeah. And we like to joke

11:19

that coyotes, when they came into more human

11:21

dominated environments was essentially

11:23

like them walking into a country kitchen buffet. They

11:26

could choose a whole bunch of different things

11:29

that they would love to eat, right? Okay. Maybe

11:31

you can get the natural prey items, get

11:33

the small mice or get the

11:36

Norway rats, but then you also

11:38

could dine on berries. You also could dine

11:40

on say human food subsidies, whether

11:43

it's dog food that's left out by people

11:45

or trash that maybe was left on the floor

11:47

and anything in between. So

11:51

pretty good look for the coyote.

11:59

Grizzly back had just wander in and adjust

12:02

to city life.

12:03

Chris attributes the coyote's success

12:06

in cities to what he calls the Goldilocks

12:08

Effect. They're not too

12:11

big to the point where if they're seen

12:13

by people, they raise

12:15

alarm for the entirety of a city.

12:17

Take for instance, any mountain

12:20

lion moving through any city.

12:22

Alarm bells would be going off, wildlife

12:25

officials would be called in to remove or

12:27

kill a mountain lion in a major city.

12:29

But coyotes fit this niche where they

12:32

are just big enough to assume

12:35

the apex predator role inside

12:38

of cities. So they don't get out competed

12:40

by larger carnivores. See what I'm saying?

12:43

So they're just small enough. I love it. That's

12:45

the Goldilocks. Yeah, exactly. That's

12:47

the Goldilocks Effect. They're just small enough to not be perceived

12:50

as a tremendous threat to the entire

12:52

community. But they're

12:54

just large enough to not be bullied

12:56

out of their ecological niche by

12:58

other carnivores.

13:01

So we know that coyotes can adapt.

13:04

They're happily making cities like Chicago,

13:06

LA and Seattle home. But

13:09

now Sam Creeling's research is

13:11

revealing something else. She's looking

13:14

at way more than just what coyotes are eating.

13:17

She's digging deep into their DNA

13:19

too.

13:19

And with that we can tell a whole bunch of information

13:22

about who they are, how related are they

13:24

to each other, are they genetically

13:26

what we'd say like kind of healthy. Are

13:29

we seeing good gene flow across the city?

13:31

Good gene flow would mean good genetic

13:34

diversity, say from one city park

13:36

to another. This genetic diversity

13:39

helps keep a coyote population strong

13:41

to help them avoid disease and to

13:44

adapt to changes over time. Sam's

13:47

study looks at how genes are flowing

13:50

throughout the city and how movement

13:52

and reproduction might be affected

13:54

by things like highways or other

13:56

city infrastructure.

13:58

Seattle is kind of a special case where we're

13:59

surrounded by water and that kind of adds another

14:02

interesting element. I kind

14:04

of have a theory that urban areas act as

14:07

kind of pseudo-islands genetically,

14:09

so we'd expect to see limited

14:11

new individuals coming into the city and limited

14:14

kind of gene flow around the city.

14:16

Sam is expecting to find that these urban

14:19

populations of coyotes in Seattle show

14:22

reduced gene flow and genetic

14:24

diversity, and that the very DNA

14:26

of these coyotes will start to change

14:29

over time.

14:30

So theoretically in an urban area we

14:33

could have urban

14:35

coyotes as kind of like a different

14:38

group than non-urban coyotes.

14:40

In fact a recent study similar to

14:42

Sam's but in California found

14:44

just that.

14:46

The DNA of coyotes in Los Angeles

14:48

is distinct from their country cousins.

14:51

There isn't really evidence yet that this means they're

14:53

adapting into a new species, but

14:56

it does signal that there are elements of the

14:58

urban landscape that alter coyote

15:00

population dynamics. Overall,

15:04

Sam is hoping that her research into coyote

15:06

dia and genetics will reshape the

15:08

predominantly negative view the public

15:10

has of these canids. Do

15:13

you think that wild animals belong in our cities?

15:16

So this might go against your

15:18

whole podcast's title, but

15:21

I don't believe in wilderness. I

15:23

know! I

15:25

think wilderness is kind of a

15:28

dichotomy that doesn't necessarily exist,

15:30

so it kind of inherently says

15:33

things are wild or not wild. Things

15:35

are animal or human. Where

15:37

I kind of view urbanization

15:40

in cities as kind of this great confluence of

15:41

both. Nothing

15:44

in this world is untouched by human hands.

15:47

Sam tells me it's time we start viewing

15:50

our cities as wild places.

15:52

They are functioning ecosystems in

15:54

and of themselves. And I think that's kind

15:56

of a narrative that maybe a lot

15:58

of people don't expect.

15:59

Well,

16:02

let's explore that right after the

16:04

break.

16:20

I'm Wella Paskin, the host of

16:22

Dakota Ring, Slate's podcast about cracking

16:25

cultural mysteries. We have a whole

16:27

new season coming up, including a proper

16:30

Cold

16:30

War caper. Did Peter Falk,

16:32

star of the old TV show, Colombo, really

16:34

team up with the U.S. government to help

16:37

quell a communist revolution?

16:38

I got a ton of people put on your guns. And

16:41

why is it so hard to park your car,

16:44

even though we've built so much parking?

16:47

You can hear these episodes and more on the new season

16:49

of Dakota Ring, wherever you listen

16:52

to podcasts.

17:00

Early one evening, a few weeks ago, I made

17:02

this recording.

17:07

Two coyotes from a pack that

17:09

lived just down the hill from me.

17:14

I live in a pretty rural area on

17:16

the edge of the city of Bellingham. We have

17:18

bears and cougars passing through too,

17:20

so it's wild, but it's not wilderness.

17:24

And it's not the city either. It's

17:26

on the spectrum somewhere in between.

17:29

One thing was very clear

17:31

to me during my conversation with Chris Schell

17:33

over Zoom. He puts no limits

17:36

on his definition of wilderness.

17:38

It means everything to him,

17:40

literally. I have wilderness behind

17:43

my head as we're on this call with

17:45

plants just in front of the window

17:47

pane. Wilderness to me can

17:50

mean something as small as a small

17:52

plot of grass, a piece

17:55

of wood for fire, or it can mean a small

17:57

base of wood.

17:59

lot

18:01

because wilderness isn't something

18:03

that's separate from us.

18:05

That even includes the gray infrastructure

18:08

of our cities, causeways, skyscrapers,

18:11

sidewalks.

18:14

Even in those cracks you start

18:16

to see things grow out of the

18:18

cracks and it's an important reminder

18:20

that life is all around us and wilderness is all around

18:22

us if you just take the time to look for it. So

18:25

much so that we start to decenter ourselves

18:27

as a species and recenter everything

18:29

around us. Understanding that the same

18:32

atoms that create us are in

18:34

fact the same atoms that create the things that

18:36

we see across the way. I love that

18:38

reminder for all of us that we are made up

18:40

of the very same substances, all natural

18:43

things around us. That's

18:44

amazing as a connector isn't it? It's a really good

18:46

place to start. If

18:48

that's your foundation, like we should be saying

18:50

that to kids in kindergarten as we're teaching them ecology

18:53

in kindergarten, right? You know where that's

18:55

their understanding of the world around them that it's just

18:57

made of the same space to us as you are. And to

19:00

be fair my six and my four-year-old have really

19:03

helped me come back to that

19:05

narrative because they see nature

19:07

with fresh eyes, right? They aren't shackled

19:10

by the traditional notions

19:12

of what ecology should

19:14

be. They are growing up in an urban

19:16

environment where ecology just is. And

19:19

imagine that if ecology just is

19:22

from Jump Street,

19:23

from when you are young, then

19:26

everything around you is ecology.

19:29

Just what is ecology

19:31

in this context?

19:33

Ecology at its base level is

19:35

a study of organisms in

19:37

relationship to other organisms and organisms

19:39

to their environment.

19:41

And then in that definition why

19:44

would the city not be something we

19:46

study? Because we are interacting

19:48

with each other, interacting with other non-human

19:51

organisms and interacting with our environment.

19:53

Hence urban ecology.

19:55

It's the same thing. We just do it in a different

19:57

system.

19:59

understanding the notion of what their home can be,

20:02

Chris is expanding the ideas of

20:04

ecology, and what we include

20:06

in our conversations around communities

20:09

and cities. But

20:11

Chris didn't always think this way. He

20:13

told me he grew up with a mind for science,

20:15

but took the long road to find his calling

20:18

with urban coyotes. But

20:21

I'll say, like, many

20:23

of the folks that may be listening to this and

20:25

are people of color and interested in wildlife

20:27

sciences, when I was growing

20:30

up as an undergrad and

20:32

a graduate student kind of being academically

20:34

raised, a lot of what

20:37

I was thinking about in science was

20:40

medicine.

20:41

He had a family in the medical field, so it

20:43

seemed like the obvious choice. He

20:45

enjoyed studying the brain and behavior

20:48

and set his sights on becoming a neurosurgeon.

20:51

Of course,

20:51

as

20:53

a high schooler, you don't know. You

20:56

don't know that that's the hardest

20:59

level of the medical profession

21:01

to achieve. But whatever. I said, fine,

21:03

we'll go with it.

21:05

As Chris puts it, he tried for a hot minute

21:07

to volunteer at hospitals during his undergrad,

21:10

but quickly realized that medicine was

21:12

not for him. But in the summer

21:14

of his sophomore year, he went to the Dominican

21:17

Republic for an immersive environmental science

21:19

program

21:20

to study tarantulas.

21:22

After that, he was hooked on

21:24

environmental studies.

21:26

Then 15 years ago came grad school

21:29

and time to choose a specialty.

21:31

Remember the coyote in the cooler?

21:33

During his grad school interview at the University

21:36

of Chicago,

21:37

there were about 10 different professors that

21:40

came up to me and said, hey, had you heard

21:42

about this Quiznos coyote?

21:45

You should really take a look into this, Chris. I think you're going

21:47

to like this Quiznos coyote story. And

21:50

that's when I

21:51

went down the rabbit hole. Right. Or

21:54

the coyote. Pivotal. Wow.

21:56

Okay. God, that video, that

21:58

that one coyote,

21:59

it knew the effect that it's had on

22:02

your life saved us from another darn

22:04

brain surgeon. Right. Yeah,

22:06

it was one of those inflection

22:09

points, right?

22:13

That coyote in a cooler moment

22:15

marked the beginning of a long relationship

22:17

with this species for Chris. He

22:20

told me he admires their flexibility

22:22

and how they persist in a myriad

22:24

of environments, even where ecosystems

22:27

don't look healthy enough to support them.

22:30

What would you say to someone who says coyotes

22:33

don't belong here? I'll say that the question

22:35

of whether or not coyotes belong here doesn't matter.

22:38

It doesn't matter. They're here. They're not going

22:40

anywhere. So we need to be able to

22:43

build creative, imaginative, proactive

22:45

strategies that allow us to coexist

22:47

with these species. And it would be

22:49

a crying shame if we didn't figure

22:51

this out because having coyotes

22:54

in the city

22:56

is a great benefit. Coyotes

22:58

perform a lot of ecosystem services

23:00

for us in cities. They help to keep down

23:03

the rabbit population that might want to eat the

23:05

carrots in your garden. And they

23:07

eat the rats that might otherwise try to live

23:09

in your basement.

23:10

Chris tells me this can be a mutually

23:13

beneficial relationship.

23:15

We might as well just keep it going and figure

23:17

out ways for us to change our behavior

23:19

in the same vein as

23:22

us figuring out ways to change their behavior.

23:25

In other words, when we think about our

23:27

cities, we need to think of them as functioning

23:30

ecosystems. It goes beyond

23:32

just the coyote.

23:33

Chris says we are all interconnected

23:36

and how we decide to use the land has

23:38

an impact from where we put roads,

23:41

construct buildings, and even

23:43

what we plant in our own yards.

23:46

So completely disregarding our

23:49

part in this equation essentially

23:52

is missing the entire link

23:55

of how we exist on this planet and

23:57

are a part of this planet and why that's

23:59

criminal.

23:59

is because for a long

24:02

time, we have thought of ourselves as

24:04

a species separate from nature, which

24:06

is

24:07

part of the reason why up until

24:10

the 1990s, the majority of ecological

24:12

research was outside of cities.

24:15

ALICE

24:15

The relationship that Chris has developed

24:17

with coyotes runs deep beyond

24:19

the science. He tells me

24:22

he has a kind of kinship with them.

24:25

Seeing coyotes living in these urban environments,

24:27

similar to the Black experience

24:29

in America, and how

24:32

essentially coyotes have made

24:34

lemonade out of lemons, which is

24:37

very analogous to the ways in which Black

24:40

people and Black community has created

24:42

solutions, really creating

24:45

something out of nothing. Coyotes

24:48

are oftentimes in cities and loved by

24:50

many, but hated by a lot.

24:58

So for instance, many of the folks that

25:00

have cats and have their pets

25:03

that are injured or killed

25:05

by a coyote attack will

25:07

instantly jump to vilify the

25:09

entire coyote population or all

25:12

coyotes generally and say that they need to be eradicated,

25:14

that they're vermin, that they're pests.

25:17

And that

25:19

stereotyping, it's also something

25:21

that the Black community faces day

25:23

in and day out.

25:25

And yet finding a way to persist through

25:27

all of that chaos across

25:29

many different cities, environments,

25:33

institutions, right, is akin

25:36

to what it's like to be Black

25:38

in America. ALICE

25:40

Chris now heads up his own research

25:43

lab at the University of California, Berkeley,

25:45

with a laser focus on the intersection

25:48

of society, ecology,

25:50

and evolution,

25:51

to try and understand how coyotes

25:54

and other species are rapidly adapting

25:56

to life in cities.

25:59

is predominantly black,

26:02

queer, fem, and we have these

26:04

conversations quite extensively

26:06

because of the fact that we see

26:08

a lot of what we love

26:11

about our people, our community,

26:14

ourselves, our ancestors, imbued

26:16

in this species.

26:18

I only have half of your story, too. I

26:20

can't relate to the things that you relate to as a

26:22

person of color, and that whole element

26:25

to it is just something I want to understand

26:28

and lean into and learn more about

26:30

and know about, you know, like

26:32

all of us should be doing, especially

26:35

when it comes to this, like you say, this all-inclusive

26:37

science-called ecology, right? Right, and

26:40

that's the way it should be,

26:41

all-inclusive, right?

26:43

Chris says it's not only a parallel story

26:46

between coyotes and underrepresented

26:48

members of society. It's essential

26:51

to have these views in ecology,

26:53

especially when it comes to urban ecology,

26:56

because for so long, the impact

26:58

that systemic racism and oppression

27:00

have had on nature and wildlife in

27:02

cities has been invisible.

27:05

Chris points to redlining as an example.

27:08

Redlining was a discriminatory

27:10

practice the US government used in the 1930s to

27:13

help mortgage lenders determine areas

27:15

considered risky for investment.

27:18

Color-coded maps drew red lines

27:20

around black and immigrant neighborhoods,

27:23

suppressing home loans and development in those

27:25

areas.

27:26

And Chris's research sees that

27:28

reflected in the green spaces that existed,

27:31

then and now. So if we just

27:33

take, for instance, the parks that exist

27:35

within redline neighborhoods,

27:38

there are fewer parks, the parks are smaller,

27:40

and they have less plant diversity. You

27:43

may be asking, OK, well, why is that important?

27:46

Well, if they have less plant diversity, that

27:48

means that they can host less

27:50

wildlife diversity.

27:53

That means there will be fewer wildlife species

27:55

in those areas. Chris tells

27:58

me that this has impacted the relationship. that

28:00

people in these communities have when it comes

28:02

to the wildlife around them.

28:04

You can imagine for many of the communities

28:06

of color, many of the communities I've been

28:09

in and interacted with that I'm a part of,

28:11

they may see wildlife, right? They

28:13

may see

28:15

rodents, raccoons,

28:17

other species like pigeons as pests because

28:20

they're causing considerable damage

28:23

and us not giving any credence to

28:26

their experiences

28:27

and invalidating

28:29

their perspectives is essentially just

28:32

reifying the maps that were

28:34

created over 60

28:35

years ago. These

28:37

race-based redline maps were

28:39

abolished in the 1960s, but

28:42

the effects of that housing segregation

28:44

created inequalities that we still

28:46

see today.

28:48

Take air pollution, for example. Residents

28:50

of Seattle's South Park neighborhood will

28:52

live eight years less on average than

28:55

the rest of the city.

28:56

These areas where redlining held

28:58

back family wealth and urban development

29:01

have higher rates of cancer, higher

29:04

rates of asthma, preterm births,

29:07

less tree canopy cover,

29:09

less nature.

29:11

Chris calls these negative factors disturbances.

29:15

So take all of those disturbances together

29:17

and any urban ecologist, any wildlife ecologist

29:20

will quickly realize, oh,

29:22

all of these disturbances are

29:25

concentrated

29:26

in one area of a city? Of

29:29

course we're not going to be able to see wildlife be

29:31

able to establish themselves in those areas

29:34

because they're trying to deal with

29:36

just living in the city generally. And then all

29:38

of a sudden in that one hotspot

29:40

of the city, there are all of these disturbances

29:43

all at once.

29:44

Are you able to bring, I mean,

29:46

your experiences as a black man

29:49

and being part of the black community, do

29:51

you have the opportunity to bring what

29:53

you've just told me, bring people

29:55

into the fold of coyotes for the reasons you've

29:57

just explained? Does it get that direct? the

30:00

opportunity to present that to youth

30:03

in the black community, for example, as a species

30:05

that they might be interested in or like

30:08

you in some ways have

30:10

a kinship with, like you said. Right.

30:13

I think

30:14

just being able to take

30:16

the science that I have learned in

30:19

predominantly white spaces and

30:21

being able to share that with my family and

30:23

friends back at home has been some

30:26

of the most profound,

30:28

and I call it work, but really it hasn't

30:30

been work. It's been me sharing

30:32

my life

30:33

with the people I grew up with, the

30:36

people I'm in community with.

30:38

Chris had an experience with his own family

30:40

that shows how the knowledge he's bringing back

30:42

helps his community.

30:44

His mother lives in LA and one

30:47

morning she let her small dog out into the

30:49

backyard to go for a pee. She

30:51

carried on getting ready to go to work, turned

30:53

around and right there

30:55

was a coyote

30:57

on top of the cinder block fence in her backyard.

30:59

And the coyote was eyeing the dog

31:04

as if to say, Oh, you're

31:07

alone. So of course my

31:09

mom's dog makes a lot of noise.

31:11

My mom runs outside and

31:15

she had told me

31:16

that she raised herself

31:19

up,

31:19

made a lot of noise and walked

31:22

straight towards the coyote. She

31:24

would have never done that in the past. And

31:27

she's told me as much. His mom

31:29

scared the coyote away by being dominant.

31:32

It's called hazing or reverse of conditioning,

31:35

teaching the coyote,

31:37

making it back away.

31:38

So my mom effectively hazed a

31:40

coyote and then she proceeded to tell

31:42

me I would have never known to do

31:45

that if you weren't doing

31:47

this work, Chris. So that made me just

31:49

take a minute to think about even

31:52

in those small little moments that

31:56

I feel like I'm making a difference in

31:58

a way that allows for for people

32:00

in my community, specifically my family,

32:04

to coexist with wildlife. And here's

32:06

the kicker to all of this, right? With

32:08

climate change, with increasing,

32:10

say, drought, wildfires, flooding,

32:13

there are lots of wildlife species

32:16

that are going to start interacting with people more

32:18

and more frequently. So having these

32:20

conversations is necessary.

32:24

Bingo.

32:32

There we go. Beautiful.

32:35

Pretty fresh, too. A popular coyote scout. Yeah,

32:39

this is actually quite nice. Back

32:41

on the front line in the city park with Chris's

32:43

protege, Sam Creeling, we

32:46

find one more coyote scout for her genetic

32:48

sampling study. She's slowly

32:51

figuring out the puzzle of the urban coyote

32:54

as these creatures reshape themselves

32:56

for city life in Seattle.

32:58

There's also something to be said for

33:02

how adaptive coyotes are and how

33:05

well they're able to cope

33:07

with change. Coyotes

33:10

are a mirror to ourselves. So

33:13

we can look at the advances

33:15

that coyotes make and understand ourselves as

33:18

well.

33:19

And then for the coyote, they'll continue

33:21

to expand and adapt. They're

33:24

pretty good at it. After all, they've

33:26

been doing it for a million years. For

33:28

the rest of us, it's about recognizing

33:30

the impact we have on our natural world,

33:33

whether it's outside or inside

33:36

of the city.

33:38

There

33:38

is no place on this planet that is not

33:40

touched by people. So if we

33:43

disregard that part of the equation, we

33:46

will almost always fail.

33:50

It makes me think about the future and

33:53

how our understanding of urban wildlife

33:56

might be needed even more in the future.

33:58

It's almost a year.

33:59

certainty that urbanization and urban

34:02

development is going to continue. It's almost

34:04

a certainty that the human population

34:06

is also going to continue to grow. And

34:09

because of those realities, it's

34:12

important for us to acknowledge and recognize

34:15

the fact that many wildlife species

34:17

are going to have to grapple with interacting with us.

34:20

Along the way, we might even be able to

34:22

learn from the coyote. It's

34:25

a paradigm shift that we face in

34:27

our relationship with nature, where

34:30

every species is valued as part

34:32

of an ecosystem and absolutely

34:34

including those that find themselves making

34:37

a life in the urban parts of our planet.

34:40

Building better future cities that

34:42

will be more hospitable to both people and wildlife.

34:46

We may not get to see it Chris, right?

34:48

With you and I, Oomers,

34:51

Gen Xers, Millennials,

34:53

Gen Zers, we may not see that. We

34:57

may not see the fruits of our labor. And

34:59

yet we

34:59

have to work hard in order

35:02

to prepare our kids and

35:04

our kids kids for a future that's going to look

35:07

very different or for giving

35:09

them the same flexibility that that coyote

35:11

has to adapt to whatever is next.

35:15

Knowing full well that part of our

35:17

mission is to make sure

35:19

that we help continue to reconnect

35:21

them back to the planet so we

35:23

can start healing the planet. So

35:26

we can start again healing ourselves.

35:54

For some lovely coyote content

35:56

head over to our Instagram at the wild

35:58

pod and you can find me

35:59

at Chris Morgan Wildlife. The

36:02

Wild is inspired not just by nature

36:05

but by the people who work in it, love

36:07

it, protect it. The Wild

36:10

is a production of KUAW in Seattle and

36:12

me, Chris Morgan, with support from

36:14

Wildlife Media. Our producers

36:16

are Matt Martin and Lucy Sucek. Jim

36:19

Gates is our editor.

36:20

A very special thank you for their kind

36:23

financial support to Jill and Scott Walker,

36:25

Rose Lettwin, Ellen Ferguson, Anna

36:28

Kimball, John Taylor, Paul Lister,

36:31

Mark Wilkins and Rebecca Badger, Bob

36:33

Yellalese, Barbara Stollman and

36:35

Annie Mize. Our

36:37

production team includes Juan Pablo Chiquiza,

36:40

April Craig, Michaela Gianotti Boyle,

36:43

Tatiana Latre, Kyra McDermott,

36:45

Darcy Riggin-Schmidt and Brendan

36:47

Sweeney. Our theme music is by

36:49

Michael Parker. I'm Chris Morgan.

36:52

I hope you're enjoying The Wild. We love

36:55

making it for you so feel free

36:57

to share it with a friend or two. You might just

36:59

inspire them and it helps us too. Thanks

37:02

so much for listening and take care of

37:04

each other.

37:17

I told some random

37:20

people that I saw a coyote and they're like I

37:22

just ran into someone that was looking for coyotes.

37:24

I was like who are

37:26

they and she was like I think

37:29

they're they're from some podcast maybe

37:31

I was like and they they mentioned the word

37:33

wild I was like the wild podcast. If

37:35

you're looking for coyotes I just saw coyote. So

37:37

yeah, there's the coyote.

37:39

Two men of color vanished after

37:42

last being seen in the same deputies patrol

37:44

car.

37:45

I knew something was wrong. Your mother

37:47

knows. It's the strangest

37:49

case, the most unsettling case. Listen to

37:51

the Last Ride podcast, part of the NPR

37:54

Network.