Coyotes are classified as carnivores but their diet varies greatly. Pet owners need to be particularly careful because coyotes will prey on cats and small dogs. There have been occasional cases where dogs have been attacked even while on leash. Coyotes have been expanding their range over the past 100 hundred years. Although coyotes have been in British Columbia for many years they are relatively new to places such as Vancouver.
Coyotes prefer grasslands and living at the edges of forests.
Urban development and farmland create new habitats, Railroad lines, hydro-wire corridors and highways provide the pathways for coyotes to travel. It is not surprising that the coyote does well in an urban environment. Golf courses, parks, granaries and fields attract the rodents coyotes feed on. The more forest land that is cleared for development, the more habitat space for coyotes, who don t live in dense forest. Also, other predators such as cougars, bears and wolves usually move away from human occupied areas providing coyotes with an unchallenged food supply.