Coyote (Ashley Peterson NDGF)
As urban areas grow and habitats are lost, animals like coyotes are spending more and more time in urban environments and dealing with urban challenges. An ongoing study seeking to learn how urbanization changes coyotes has found that the city coyotes are a bit savvier at problem-solving than their country cousins, according to pipe puzzles deployed for 4 weeks at a time across 26 sites in Edmonton and 14 sites in Elk Island National Park. The puzzles involve a pipe that a coyote must rotate until a treat pops out after passing obstructions, and are meant to gauge their cognition. Across 461 videos of coyotes encountering the puzzle, 140 of them featured interest or interaction, and in 13 videos, the coyote actually solved the puzzle. This is remarkable for the wary animal, and all 13 of them were solved by city coyotes.
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