As homelessness increases around the world, more unhoused people are turning to parks and other urban green spaces to seek shelter. However, these places are also home to animals that live in and around urban areas.

This sets the stage for potentially dangerous interactions between humans and urban wildlife such as coyotes. Unhoused people face the risk of contracting disease from wild animals, while animals can be displaced by human presence.

Recent work by my colleagues and me shows that this issue contributes to human-wildlife conflict, with important ecological and social consequences. To explore conflict between homeless communities and urban wildlife, we focused on coyotes in Edmonton.

One of the most successful carnivores of the Anthropocene, coyotes thrive in cities. They have a remarkable capacity to live alongside humans, as well as an ability to get into trouble with people; conflict includes property damage, disease transmission, attacks on pets and, rarely, people.

Data we examined from the Edmonton Urban Coyote Project showed that the number of coyote conflict reports in the city is increasing. These include interactions in which coyotes intimidated, approached or attacked humans or their pets.

Key to our work were the harsh winter conditions in Edmonton. Consistent snowfall transforms the city into a canvas that records the details of coyote life, which can be read footprint by footprint, telling us what they eat and where they go to find safety.

Cold temperatures also encourage people........

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