MRG and our partners have studied the growing coyote population in New York City for a decade now, and it has been one of our most productive and popular research studies. From the beginning, we expected coyotes to flourish in NYC as they have done across North America. In addition, if coyotes can penetrate the urban jungle of the City and reach the counties of Nassau and Suffolk (i.e., “Long Island”), they will likely do even better. The landscape of Nassau and Suffolk resembles the suburban/exurban mix of Westchester, Fairfield, and other places that have proven to be excellent coyote habitat.
Until now, there were scattered reports of individual coyotes in Long Island, but never regular sightings to indicate that coyotes had established permanent territories. Now coyotes have been spotted in a few sites in western Nassau, and camera traps have confirmed the presence of a pair, although we have not yet seen evidence of breeding or pups.
MRG and other Gotham Coyote Project partners have teamed up with several other conservation groups to form the Long Island Coyote Study Group. The LICSG includes American Museum of Natural History, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Greentree Foundation, Hofstra University, Kingsborough Community College, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, Seatuck Environmental Association, and the Wild Dog Foundation.
More info can be found at https://seatuck.org/coyotes/