Coyote Booms, Bear Attacks, and How Climate Change Is Wreaking Havoc on the Animal Kingdom

While many species struggle through the habitat changes brought on by drought, ocean acidification, and the expansive ecological damage associated with climate change and fossil fuel extraction, some species, like the coyote, are adapting — even thriving — in this human-dominated era.

This year a black bear killed a hiker in New Jersey for the first time in over 150 years as the bear population grows and spreads throughout the state.  Polar bear attacks on humans are increasing in areas around the Arctic.  And a new hybrid between coyotes and wolves, the coywolf, is rapidly expanding across the East as it combines the prowess of a wolf and cunning of a coyote — a bad combination for deer, another species that is thriving across suburban America.  This inter-species breeding of the coywolf is brought on by human-driven stresses on species, such as habitat loss, over-hunting, and climate changes that lead to things like drought.
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The question of how to save a species is never easy, but figuring out how to live with them can be just as hard.  When water becomes scarce, animals already accustomed to entering urban or suburban areas will do so more frequently, and more desperately.

“During periods of drought, coyotes and also bobcats, mountain lions, and bears may be attracted to urban areas to take advantage of the artificial sources of water found there,” Lynsey White Dasher, director of humane wildlife conflict resolution at the Human Society, said.  According to Dasher, coyotes are “opportunistic omnivores” that primarily eat rodents in urban areas but can also easily switch to scavenging when conditions change. “For this reason, they are probably much better suited than most wild animals to deal with the impacts of climate change,” she said.
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With a growing body of evidence, like a recent study by the National Science Foundation, that the record drought in California is directly tied to climate change, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the state’s water woes are here to stay.  Scientists have determined that climate change makes heat waves stronger and more frequent, which exacerbates drought.  This effect is amplified by the reduction in precipitation that is already happening due to climate change in the southwestern United States.

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