New co-host Amy Briggs made her debut in today’s episode of the Overheard at National Geographic podcast, the second episode of season three titled “The Unstoppable Wily Coyote.” She joins host Peter Gwin for an exploration of a species that is thriving like never before as the natural world is further developed.
One of this episode’s three special guests is Chrsitine Dell’Amore, an editor at National Geographic who’s been tracking this story in major cities like Chicago where a coyote being tracked with a collar was attracted to a noisy construction site. Another guest is Mary Ann Bonnell, a Natural Resources Specialist in Denver, Colorado, who has seen a huge increase in coyote encounters since first seeing one in the 1990’s.
In 2004, Denver received just two reports of Coyotes in the area. By 2009, the number had increased into the thousands with reports of attacks against pets such as dogs and cats. Mary Ann Bonnell is personally trying to change human behavior in the area, teaching residents how to safely scare a Coyote to get them to back up at least ten feet. The technique is called hazing, which involves lunging towards the animal a few steps while yelling to startle them back.
Zoologist Roland Kays offers insight into how the coyote became such an incredible mesopredator with some insight into how they lived during the ice age. As humans have torn down forests, bigger predators that would usually hunt coyotes are no longer around to keep their population in check, leading to a rise in their numbers.
One of the concerns for the future is coyotes migrating to South America and becoming an invasive predator for their local endangered species. The conversation with all three guests talks about what humans need to do to fix the problem long term because as listeners will hear, there’s not a single simple solution.
You can listen to this unique conservation story and read a transcript on the official website for the Overheard at National Geographic podcast.