Coyotes are increasingly popping up on Long Island — one of the few US land territories they have yet to colonize — thanks in part to a surprising talent and New York City rats.
There have been at least five breeding pairs of the non-native species found in northwest Nassau County alone this year, in addition to further sightings further east, according to Michael Bottini of the Seatuck Environmental Association.
“They’re actually quite good swimmers — that’s probably how they’re getting over to Long Island at its west end from The Bronx,” said Bottini, who noted that one was rescued from the East River two years ago, to The Post.
Coyotes may also subtly be part of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, using large railway crossings to make their way eastbound.
There had been some sporadic individual sightings in neighboring Queens and in the Island’s tony Hamptons in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but a 2016 incident became one of the species’ potential environmental game-changer locally, experts said.
A breeding pair with eight pups and a yearling were thriving near a LaGuardia Airport employee parking lot in Queens because of the all-you-can-eat buffet of rats it offered.
“The area is known for having a huge rat population,” Bottini said of the northwest Queens waterfront. “Eight pups, that’s a large litter — and large litters usually reflect a lot of prey resource in the area.”
Then “the employees started noticing these cute coyote pups, and people started tossing them food,” he said.
The coyotes soon “lost their fear and started associating people with food.”
Soon after, things became coyote ugly.
The Port Authority “felt it was a dangerous situation” and captured and killed all but one of the 11 coyotes, Bottini said.
But “it’s possible” the lone survivor who got away trekked east of Citi Field and a few miles over into Nassau, helping to launch a brood, he said.
A few years later, in 2021, four pups and a breeding pair were confirmed in Manhasset, and that group has since grown in the past four years.
Where coyotes have been seen on Long Island
Along with the Gold Coast, there have been several sightings of coyotes in the eastern reaches of Suffolk County, such as in the Hamptons, according to a map by the Long Island Mammal Survey.
There has also been a known solo coyote on Fire Island for a few years. Fisher’s Island, a Suffolk County land mass 2 miles south of Connecticut, has also seen a coyote population swim over from the mainland.
Still, Bottini said there is a caveat to the rise of doorbell-camera sightings.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s more than before; it means we could be seeing them on camera for the first time,” he said.
“It could also be the same individual around,” Bottini added, saying such is likely the case for the Southampton and Water Mill area.
He insisted that the “fairly good-sized carnivore” rarely attacks people and is instinctively skittish of humans.
Regardless, he said it’s wise to keep pets away and use your head if you see a coyote.
“The way to maintain that natural fear is not to feed them,” he said. “Keep the wild in wildlife.”
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