Coyotes have taken up residence at one of President Donald Trump's urban golf courses.
Humans have driven the largely nocturnal wild animals far from their normal range in the western U.S., and they've been spotted at Trump Golf Links in the Bronx, as well as Manhattan and Queens, reported The Guardian.
“The staff at the golf course think the coyotes are cool,” said Chris Nagy, a wildlife biologist and co-founder of the research group Gotham Coyote. “But there’s a point where if the coyotes are getting annoying and worrying the golfers, then they’ll change their minds.”
Ecologists have been warning of a sixth great extinction, with about a million species endangered, but coyotes have been thriving even as humans cut into wildlife habitats.
Coyotes have colonized New York and Detroit, along with other adaptable species such as raccoons, opossums and bobcats, and the grey wolf's smaller relative has been thriving at the president's $269 million golf course.
Nagy and his colleagues confirmed in 2012 that coyotes have established themselves in New York City, and they've spotted them in lower Manhattan and the roof of a bar in Queens, and one was even seen roaming around Harlem until it was corned by police in midtown.
“We’re finding coyotes like almost everything or at least can survive on almost everything,” Nagy told The Guardian.
Coyotes seem to especially like Ferry Point Park and the nearby Trump golf course.
“They were wandering all over the place in the morning,” Nagy said, “and so when the first round of golf would start, the pups were running around the course. We heard stories that the pups were taking sandwiches out of people’s golf carts.”
Killing coyotes isn't allowed in New York, but they're still wary of humans and will almost always run away when they spot people -- but they will stare down dogs when they feel threatened.
“A pack of wolves would need, like, the whole county, but not coyotes," Nagy said. They’ve lived kind of underfoot of both wolves and people for thousands of years, and so they’ve evolved to survive metaphorically running among the feet of the giants."
“They’re clever," Nagy added. "We’ve tried our best to eradicate them and they’ve thwarted us at every turn. I really admire that, I guess.”
