Coyotes have conquered North America

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are a mammalian anomaly: Whereas most species are in a state of decline, the wily mammal is thriving in northern boreal forests, tropical rainforests, and everywhere in between, The Washington Post reports. For millennia, coyotes were found in the western two-thirds of North America, from Canada to Guatemala. But since 1900 they’ve spread like wildfire, popping up in Alaska, along the eastern seaboard, and in Panama, according to a study published today in ZooKeys . Scientists compiled records of coyote locations over the past 10,000 years—using things like fossil discoveries and biological surveys—to map out how the species has spread. The researchers say coyotes likely benefited from forest fragmentation and the widespread eradication of larger predators, like wolves.