Watching City Coyotes: teacher key

Coyotes, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. Scientists in Cook County, Illinois, study how coyotes live in a big city. Learn what they eat, how much room they use, when they are active, how they survive and where they have spread.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did researcher Paul Morey examine to learn what coyotes eat?
   • Old maps
   • 1,429 scats (answer)
   • Fruit trees
2. What share of the Cook County coyotes studied each year were solitary?
   • All of them
   • Between one-third and one-half (answer)
   • None of them
3. In the Chicago area, what chance do coyotes generally have of surviving one year?
   • 6 percent
   • 100 percent
   • 60 percent (answer)
4. In natural areas coyotes are active by day or at dawn and dusk, but in Chicago mostly at night. What does this show?
   • Coyote activity can differ from place to place (answer)
   • Coyotes cannot see by day
   • Chicago has no coyotes
5. What does solitary mean?
   • Living alone (answer)
   • Very fast
   • Active at night

Words

• solitary: living alone
• scats: animal droppings
• nocturnal: active at night
• collars: neck bands