Editing Coyote (section)

==Range==
[[File:Coyote subspecies distribution map.svg|thumb|left|The range of coyote subspecies as of 1978: (1) Mexican coyote, (2) San Pedro Martir coyote, (3) El Salvador coyote, (4) southeastern coyote, (5) Belize coyote, (6) Honduras coyote, (7) Durango coyote, (8) northern coyote, (9) [[Tiburón Island|Tiburón Island coyote]], (10) [[plains coyote]], (11) mountain coyote, (12) [[Mearns coyote|Mearns' coyote]], (13) Lower Rio Grande coyote, (14) California valley coyote, (15) peninsula coyote, (16) Texas plains coyote, (17) northeastern coyote, (18) northwest coast coyote, (19) Colima coyote, (20) [[eastern coyote]]<ref name=range/>]]

[[File:Coyote expansion past 10,000 years.jpg|thumb|Coyote expansion over the past 10,000 years<ref name=hody2018>{{cite journal|doi=10.3897/zookeys.759.15149|pmid=29861647|pmc=5974007|title=Mapping the expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) across North and Central America|journal=ZooKeys|issue=759|pages=81–97|year=2018|last1=Hody|first1=James W|last2=Kays|first2=Roland|doi-access=free|bibcode=2018ZooK..759...81H }}</ref>]]
[[File:Coyote expansion by decade.jpg|thumb|Coyote expansion over the decades since 1900<ref name=hody2018/>]]

Due to the coyote's wide range and abundance throughout North America, it is listed as [[Least Concern]] by the [[International Union for Conservation of Nature]] (IUCN).<ref name="iucn status 11 November 2021" /> The coyote's pre-Columbian range was limited to the Southwest and Plains regions of North America, and northern and central Mexico. By the 19th century, the species expanded north and east, expanding further after 1900, coinciding with land conversion and the extirpation of wolves. By this time, its range encompassed the entire North American continent, including all of the contiguous United States and Mexico, southward into Central America, and northward into most of Canada and Alaska.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/science/coyotes-americas-spread.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524194914/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/science/coyotes-americas-spread.html |archive-date=2018-05-24 |url-access=limited|title=Coyotes Conquered North America. Now They're Heading South |date=2018-05-24|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-05-25 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> This expansion is ongoing, and the species now occupies the majority of areas between 8°N (Panama) and 70°N (northern Alaska).<ref name="iucn status 11 November 2021" />

Although it was once widely believed that coyotes are recent immigrants to southern Mexico and Central America, aided in their expansion by deforestation, Pleistocene and Early Holocene records, as well as records from the pre-Columbian period and early European colonization show that the animal was present in the area long before modern times. Range expansion occurred south of [[Costa Rica]] during the late 1970s and northern Panama in the early 1980s, following the expansion of cattle-grazing lands into tropical rain forests.<ref name="mihart2004"/>

The coyote is predicted to appear in northern [[Belize]] in the near future, as the habitat there is favorable to the species.<ref name="mihart2004">{{cite journal|author=Hidalgo-Mihart, M. G.|title=Historical and present distribution of coyote (''Canis latrans'') in Mexico and Central America|journal=Journal of Biogeography |year=2004 |volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=2025–2038|url=http://www.ots.ac.cr/bnbt/27408.html|doi=10.1111/j.1365-2699.2004.01163.x|bibcode=2004JBiog..31.2025H |s2cid=56048806 |access-date=January 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525110604/http://www.ots.ac.cr/bnbt/27408.html|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Concerns have been raised of a possible expansion into South America through the [[Isthmus of Panama|Panamanian Isthmus]], should the [[Darién Gap]] ever be closed by the [[Pan-American Highway]].<ref name="rosa2010">{{cite book|last1=De la Rosa|first1=C. L.|last2=Nocke|first2=C. C.|year=2010|title=A Guide to the Carnivores of Central America: Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation|chapter=Carnivore Evolution: Central America and the Great North-South Migrations|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-78951-7|chapter-url={{Google books|plainurl=yes|id=x5ihAwAAQBAJ}}}}</ref> This fear was partially confirmed in January 2013, when the species was recorded in eastern Panama's [[Chepo District]], beyond the [[Panama Canal]].<ref name="mendez2014">{{cite journal|author=Méndez-Carvajal, P.|year=2014|title=Mammalia, Carnivora, Canidae, ''Canis latrans'' (Say, 1823): actual distribution in Panama |url=https://checklist.pensoft.net/article/18897/ |journal=Check List|volume=10|issue=2|pages=376–379|doi=10.15560/10.2.376|issn=1809-127X|oclc=828104819|access-date=January 26, 2015|doi-access=free}}</ref>

A 2017 genetic study proposes that coyotes were originally not found in the area of the eastern United States. From the 1890s, dense forests were transformed into agricultural land and wolf control implemented on a large scale, leaving a niche for coyotes to disperse into. There were two major dispersals from two populations of genetically distinct coyotes. The first major dispersal to the northeast came in the early 20th century from those coyotes living in the northern Great Plains. These came to New England via the northern Great Lakes region and southern Canada, and to Pennsylvania via the southern Great Lakes region, meeting together in the 1940s in New York and Pennsylvania.<ref name=heppenheimer2017/>

These coyotes have hybridized with the remnant gray wolf and eastern wolf populations, which has added to coyote genetic diversity and may have assisted adaptation to the new niche. The second major dispersal to the southeast came in the mid-20th century from Texas and reached the Carolinas in the 1980s. These coyotes have hybridized with the remnant red wolf populations before the 1970s when the red wolf was extirpated in the wild, which has also added to coyote genetic diversity and may have assisted adaptation to this new niche as well. Both of these two major coyote dispersals have experienced rapid population growth and are forecast to meet along the mid-Atlantic coast. The study concludes that for coyotes the long range dispersal, gene flow from local populations, and rapid population growth may be inter-related.<ref name=heppenheimer2017/>