In Cities, Coyotes and Foxes Are Learning to Get Along

Under a dimly lit streetlight in Madison, Wisconsin, a woman witnessed a standoff between a fox and a coyote—two predators that have made the city their home. In an email to wildlife researcher David Drake at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she described the brief (and quite frankly, anti-climatic) interaction: For about 15 seconds, they stood face-to-face, about 10 feet part. They then turned around—and sauntered off in the opposite direction.

Since asking the public to help track Madison’s wildlife in 2014, Drake and his team at the Urban Canid Project have received similar anecdotes, with coyotes and foxes coming near each other, but without any incident. Perhaps nothing remarkable to the average observer, but as Drake will tell you, “There’s something unusual going on here in the city.”