Predators That Have Adapted to Urban Environments

People are always hearing about habitat loss. It’s an all-too-common story: as human development continues to encroach on the wild, countless species find themselves with less access to the habitats they can thrive in. But not every species is quite as imperiled by the shrinking of the wild. For some opportunistic predators, urbanization has actually given them hugely productive new ecological niches to exploit. For better and for worse, these five urban-adapted predators have made the most of life in the concrete jungle — some perhaps even in your own backyard.

Coyotes

If you live in a temperate region of North America, you’ve no doubt heard chatter about coyotes. Maybe you’ve even seen a couple in your own backyard. Weighing in at about 40 pounds and usually standing around two feet at shoulder height with a tawny coat that helps them blend in with rural foliage but not urban streetscapes, coyotes are a ubiquitous nighttime sight in some regions. You might mistake one for a particularly skinny runaway German Shepherd; they're so common. These superbly adaptable canines have colonized nearly every major metropolitan area in North America, changing their behaviors and taking advantage of new food sources to live in man-made environments.

One of the most critical factors in the coyote’s infiltration of urban environments is the species’ willingness to eat almost anything. And you’ve probably heard about them dining on city dwellers’ pets: countless owners of outdoor cats, rabbits, chickens, and even wayward lap dogs have stories to tell about pets taken by coyotes. However, according to an ongoing research project based in the Chicago metropolitan area, unfortunate pets are a tiny proportion of what urban coyotes actually eat. They’re much more likely to snack on rodents, birds, and wild rabbits. They’ve also been known to snag fruit from ornamental fruit trees. But they’re not above tapping into less natural food sources: studies have shown that garbage might make up 38% of the average urban coyote’s diet.

They’ve also learned to adapt to human habits to an extent. Coyotes tend to avoid people, so they’ve become more active at night than their rural counterparts. Some populations have also become skilled at crossing the road, waiting for gaps in traffic to ensure they’re not hit by cars. Some of them have even learned how the flow of traffic works, appearing to anticipate which direction oncoming traffic is coming from.

However, coyotes also get bolder as they coexist with humans, so it’s important to keep some basic safety considerations in mind. Firstly, if you live in an area with a coyote population, it’s wisest to keep your pets indoors, especially cats. And secure your garbage as much as you can. It's always ideal not to create any easy food sources. To avoid conflict with coyotes, it's also ideal to keep your distance. And if you can't, it helps to make as much noise as possible. A 2021 study in the Canadian city of Edmonton showed that around 80% of urban coyotes retreated immediately when humans exhibited deterrent behaviors, so making yourself look and sound intimidating should do the trick.

Black Bears

Although you’re not likely to see one ambling through Central Park, some cities in North America have seen an uptick in urban bear sightings. To some, they're a welcome sight: though they can weigh in at up to 600 pounds, black bears' round ears, ambling gait, rotund bodies, and fluffy coats have inspired countless plush toys and brought enjoyment to many who've encountered them.

A highly publicized case in May 2025 saw residents amused by the appearance of a bear outside a Kansas City Taco Bell. In a 2023 viral video, a black bear in Mexico rudely made off with a child's birthday picnic. Urban bears are here to stay, and to many, the often-entertaining nature of these encounters can obscure the risks involved. However, as some people in peripheral urban areas of North America are beginning to find black bears, they are a little less cute from a less safe distance.

It’s no accident that black bears are getting closer to people: human spaces provide bears with unprecedented access to food. One study showed urban bears to be, on average, 30% heavier than their rural counterparts, who didn't have access to human food sources. Some have even stopped hibernating, owing to the abundance of food year-round in urban areas. But while the life of an urban bear may sound cushy, city life comes with a high mortality rate for bears - mostly due to the risk of being hit by cars.

That said, it's easy to incentivize bears to stay away. If you don’t provide them with a ready food source, they’ll likely not cause you any trouble. Use bear-proof trash cans if you live in an area with an active bear population, and perhaps consider taking down that bird feeder — bears like to snack on bird seed. If you happen to encounter a black bear in town, back away slowly. Once you’re at a safe distance, make as much noise as you possibly can to scare the bear off.

Red Foxes

If you live in the UK, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the issue of human-fox relations in urban environments. Like coyotes and black bears, foxes are highly opportunistic predators that will eat about anything they can fit in their mouths and have craftily adapted to urban environments. How well? Well enough that a population of urban foxes has been observed digging burrows in the rooftop garden atop a London office building in a posh London neighborhood.

Though they're only about the size of a house cat, standing an average of sixteen inches tall and weighing in at 8-15 pounds, red foxes are superbly tenacious. Their bushy red tails and pointy ears can be seen disappearing behind many a bush in suburban Europe. Known for popping up in home gardens, foxes are omnivores who’ll eat insects, birds, small mammals, garbage, the occasional domestic bird or rabbit — the list could go on.

And, while bears and coyotes get most of their human-sourced food by scavenging, many people willingly feed foxes. What’s not abundantly clear is whether those folks take as kindly to foxes when they find dead rodents buried in their gardens, courtesy of a fox visitor leaving them for later. While some sources say that feeding foxes is harmless, it can encourage them to approach humans and is best avoided. In Nottingham Trent University’s 2025 study of red foxes in Britain, scientists used stable isotope analysis of fox whiskers from urban and rural areas. They found that human-derived food (like discarded food, pet food, and garbage leftovers) made up about 35% of the diet of urban foxes, compared to only about 6% for rural ones.

While foxes pose little danger to humans, you may want to take certain safety precautions to protect the foxes from reliance on human food sources. Don’t leave your garbage where a fox could get it, and secure all outdoor pet enclosures thoroughly. The same goes for gardens, where foxes are known to irritate homeowners by digging. Foxes are excellent climbers and can squeeze into very tight spaces, so don’t underestimate their capacity to - pardon the pun - outfox your efforts to keep them out.

Wild Boars

Once, wild boars were a favorite food of the monied across Eurasia. As unappealing as they might seem, with their puggish snouts, curved tusks, and stocky builds, their meat was a delicacy the rich would pay untold sums to serve at their dinner tables. But those days are over, and now, cities from Hong Kong to Rome see occasional incursions of these omnivorous feral pigs. Potentially weighing as much as 300 pounds, wild boars are strong, fast, and intimidating.

And in many urban areas, sightings are on the rise. A boar recently caused a panic when it wandered across subway tracks in Busan, South Korea. A herd of wild boar has taken up residence in a park in the Spanish city of Malaga, sparking widespread safety concerns. Why? That can mainly be chalked up to two things: the boar’s omnivorous diet and its potential for extremely rapid population growth.

Boars can eat just about anything, which is a distinct advantage when adapting to city life. They’re not reliant on scarce wild prey or large territories in which to catch it. And they reproduce quickly, which becomes an issue when humans don’t want a species around. But the tantalizing prospect of trash and agricultural crops to eat continues to push boars into urban areas. Without natural predators like wolves to keep their numbers down, boars — which can produce an astounding 16 offspring in as many months — are seemingly unstoppable.

But, while wild boars are extremely strong and can do a lot of damage when provoked, they don’t tend to approach humans on their own. Staying away and keeping your trash secure to avoid giving them an easy food source goes a long way. Also important: secure your fences if you have a yard, as wild boars can easily destroy weak fences while searching for food. If you do encounter a boar, back away slowly, and don’t worry: while dangerous, they’re not nearly as aggressive as they’re made out to be.

Peregrine Falcons

You may have seen pictures of handsome white-chested birds plummeting like feathered missiles from the top floors of New York City skyscrapers. You can thank the peregrine falcon for those epic shots: with a natural preference for high cliffs, they’ve adapted seamlessly to urban environments. Though their brown wings and white undersides don't have the same camouflaging effect among the skyscrapers as they do in more rural climes, these birds have had no issue fitting their immense four-foot wingspans into the tight confines of city living.

Because peregrine falcons nest on cliffs, the increasing height of city buildings allows them to expand their range into areas where natural cliffs have never been present. In the absence of a bluff, a skyscraper will do. They also benefit from the city lights, which allow them to hunt at night for prey species that previously had no nocturnal predators and remain vulnerable out in the open at night. These artificial “cliffs” and new food sources allow them to expand both their range and their diet, allowing population numbers to explode and reducing the birds’ vulnerability to natural disaster or habitat loss.

And urban dwellers are quickly growing to appreciate their new neighbors. The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has even set up live streams of its local nesting pairs so residents can see what they're up to. It makes for a stark contrast to the wariness and even outright fear that often meet urban bears, foxes, and coyotes. One study across Great Britain (2006-2016) compared the breeding success of peregrine falcons nesting in urban versus rural sites. Urban falcons produced more fledglings and had higher overall nesting success, largely because prey density was greater in urban areas—even though prey diversity was lower.

Finishing Thoughts

Although urbanization has been bad news for a number of species, it’s provided others with options they never had before. Though these options aren’t always good for the animals in question, they nevertheless present fascinating evidence of these five species’ ability to adapt to changing circumstances. And in a future marked by human encroachment on the wild, these resourceful species may just come out most unscathed for better or for worse.