No longer a bachelor: Lonely coyote from Central Park finds romantic partner

After roaming Central Park alone for four years, a coyote has now been joined by a fellow coyote who recently arrived from an unknown area, animal observers report.

Researchers with the Gotham Coyote Project say the match likely occurred late last year, when they first spotted the female. They have waited to confirm that there are now two coyotes in the 840-acre green space because the wily animals are easily double-counted and images from field cameras are analyzed months after they were first captured. Experts said the new pair is the latest sign that the urban carnivore is expanding its territory to more city parks.

“The overall story is pretty clear: Give them (the coyotes) enough time and they will be everywhere,” said Chris Nagy, co-founder of the Coyote Project.

His group’s trail cameras provided official documentation of a rumor that had been circulating among nature lovers in Central Park for nearly a year: the male coyote was no longer a bachelor.

The male coyote arrived in the park in 2019. The Gotham Coyote Project believes his new partner likely followed the same path: trotting along the railroad tracks along the West Side Highway, moving from one green space to the next until she settled in the most wooded parts of Central Park.

Young coyotes venture out of their parents’ den on their own between the ages of six months and one year.

So far, the coyotes have not had any children. Nagy and his coyote friends have found neither a den nor any pups.

“A single coyote might dig a den in the hopes of finding a mate, but he doesn’t really use it unless he has the young,” Nagy said. “They’ll sleep under a bush or in a log or something.”

City life may have prevented the couple from settling down and becoming parents.

“There are a lot of eyes in Central Park, I don’t see any way they could hide a hiding place,” Nagy said.

Nagy’s theory is that the coyotes tried to build a den but couldn’t maintain it because Central Park is so busy. Coyotes reuse their dens every year. However, when humans find a den, a pair will leave the den for good and find a new home.

Nagy and his team say they will continue to monitor their trail cameras for signs that the coyotes have had a litter.

At Alley Pond Park in Queens, a pair of dogs are caring for their first litter, born in the spring, according to Nagy.

“We’ve had a single coyote there (at Alley Pond) for a couple of years. We finally got a second one and we actually took pictures of the cubs,” Nagy said.

Coyotes’ territory has been expanding into the Big Apple for more than 20 years, primarily across Westchester. Human development has displaced the animals, forcing them to migrate across Bronx parks on the city’s outskirts and into surrounding boroughs and Long Island.

The Gotham Coyote Project has been tracking the elusive dogs since 2010. The research team relies on data from field cameras attached to trees in city parks, citizen reports and coyote scat. Nagy’s team uses their scat to analyze movements, diet and DNA and has been able to track their spread from Westchester to the Bronx and beyond. Nagy says the coyotes in the city – and those spreading from Queens to Long Island – are all related.

Coyotes are territorial animals, so there are always one or two coyotes or a single family in parks.

Like many New Yorkers, local coyotes have had to adapt their living conditions. Some have been spotted on golf courses in Queens and Long Island, which are suitable because they are usually surrounded by wooded areas and are visited by relatively few people.

Alley Pond Park is ideal for a coyote family, Nagy said, because it doesn’t get many visitors and parts of the park aren’t easily accessible to humans.

And while there are currently no coyote cubs in Central Park, Nagy says there’s a chance that could change.

“If I see more than one adult coyote in a place where we haven’t seen them before, I expect a den in the spring,” Nagy said.