Even if, as it turns out, your door is in a city.

A study begun in 2000 has found thriving populations of “urban coyotes” in Chicago — findings the researchers say are likely to apply to other major US metropolitan areas as well. “We couldn’t find an area in Chicago where there weren’t coyotes,” said Stanley Gehrt of Ohio State University.

Read more here, including some interesting bits about how urban coyote behavior is different than coyotes that live in rural environments.

I saw my first coyote as a kid. I was walking through a little clearing behind my parents’ and there he was, standing along the hedgerow that marked the east end of the property. We stared at each other for what seemed like several minutes, then he was gone.

I live in the ‘burbs now, but they’re around. I’ve heard them in the back yard on summer nights. I also know where they den so I’ll try to get a picture of them, come summer, to post here.