It’s also not known why the coyote has come. “We can’t say definitely it’s living in Central Park,” Mr. Simon said. “It might be spending time” there and living nearby.

How does a coyote get into Central Park, anyway?

“It walks there,” said Crystal Howard, a spokeswoman for the Parks Department, speculating that it came from another part of the city where coyotes have been reported.

Still, that would require the animal to cross several Manhattan streets.

Coyotes are nocturnal animals and are adept at avoiding people, Mr. Simon said. This coyote, he added, could have “just as easily slinked through backyards” before bolting down a street and into the park.

I then asked Katie Stennes, a Park Slope resident who works as the programs and communication manager at Project Coyote — a different group than the Gotham Coyote Project — about how the animal got to Central Park. (Her group helps inform the Parks Department about coyotes.)

“I assume just walking along the street,” she said.

If a coyote is very close to you …

You should try to stay at least 150 feet away from a coyote, but if you’re much closer, don’t panic.

“Act big and loud,” Ms. Stennes said, to remind it that you’re not its friend.

“Coexisting with coyotes is pretty easy,” she added. Just don’t feed them, and pick up your trash.

If you kill a coyote …

Killing a coyote might help increase the population of this pack animal, Ms. Stennes said.

That might sound counterintuitive, but she explained: “Usually, only the alpha male and female breed. But if you kill one of them, that breaks up the pack.” When a pack breaks up, its former members spread out, looking for food and mates.