JOHN YANG: In cities across America, it's becoming increasingly common to see coyotes in parks, golf courses, or other green spaces.

While residents don't universally welcome them, for the most part, people in coyotes coexist peacefully.

Earlier this year, the New York Times documented the return of coyotes to San Francisco after a long absence.

Reporter and photographer Loren Elliott worked on that story, and Christopher Schell is an urban ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Loren, there are so many captivating images you got for this story.

I think one in particular of a coyote staring into the lens of the camera.

How did we able to do that?

How did you get so close?

LOREN ELLIOTT, Independent Photojournalist: I was able to make that photograph using a remote camera.

So a lot of folks have asked me, you know, how could I get so close to that coyote?

And the answer is that I physically wasn't that close, and it would be unethical to be that close to a coyote.

What I did is I took a camera with a radio transmitter, and I set that camera down, concealed it.

It had no sound.

There's no clicking of a shutter.

There's no flash, so that it would be minimally invasive.

And then I waited for a long period of time from a distance about a hundred yards away with a remote trigger in my hand.

And when that coyote walked up to inspect that camera, out of curiosity, I was able to trigger the camera from a distance and make that image.

JOHN YANG: There's also a photo of some pups, a coyote playing with pups.

I understand there's an interesting backstory to that.

LOREN ELLIOTT: Yeah.

That photograph was also made with a remote camera.

When coyotes are raising their young at a den, that's a very sensitive situation.

And so I set up a remote camera under the supervision of a wildlife biologist, and then was able to basically conceal myself in the nearby forest a pretty far distance, so that I wasn't in any way an invasive presence to those coyotes.

And after three, four hours, finally, those pups came out, and I was able to just barely spot them from where I was at a long distance and trigger that camera.

JOHN YANG: Christopher, a lot of people think of this as wildlife encroaching on human territory, but isn't it really the other way around?

Haven't we encroached on their territory?

CHRISTOPHER SCHELL, University of California, Berkeley: Well, the answer is a bit of both.

So it is, in fact, the case that cities and development is expanding in cities, not just in North America, but across the globe.

So a lot of habitat is being encroached upon by human disturbance.

However, coyotes are unique in the sense that they are, in some ways immigrating into cities, Looking for more opportunities for resources or habitat with less competition from other predators.

JOHN YANG: You also say that you're quoted in the story, as a matter of fact, saying that coyotes keep the rest of the ecosystem in check.

Explain that.

CHRISTOPHER SCHELL: Oftentimes, when we think about ecosystems, we think about all of the component parts.

And one of the most important component parts are these apex predators.

Why?

Because these predators, through their movement, through how they interact with prey, species and other carnivores, they dictate how animals use space and time.

And that oftentimes means that there's more space for more organisms when those predators are present.

Here's the thing.

When cities pop up, Most of those apex predators can't persist in these human dominated environments, except for organisms like coyotes.

So they have started to move into multiple cities, assume that role of the apex predator, and start to reshape the ecology of cities such that they feel this de facto role that then increases the biodiversity and the flow of other organisms throughout the system.

JOHN YANG: Let's be concrete about this.

What are the prey in urban areas for coyotes?

CHRISTOPHER SCHELL: Right.

So coyotes are omnivores, meaning that they're able to eat a whole host of different things, everything from, say, rats and pocket gophers and in some instances, skunks, to, yes, human food subsidies, like trash or refuse or in some cases, when it's left out, dog food or cat food.

So the animal is able to eat a wide variety of different foods in order to persist and thrive in cities.

JOHN YANG: Loren, in order to get the pictures you did, you had to sort of track these coyotes, find out where they were.

Did that teach you anything about their behavior?

LOREN ELLIOTT: Absolutely it did.

Being able to spend such an extended period of time working on this story, I really learned a tremendous amount about the patterns of these animals.

And I think that humbled me to the fact that they can be unpredictable in the sense that sometimes I would go out multiple days in a row and not see a coyote.

But in other instances, I absolutely saw patterns and found that specific coyotes would show up at the same spot to hunt day after day.

And in getting to observe their behavior over an extended period of time, it really gave me an appreciation for how they go about surviving in an urban environment.

JOHN YANG: Chris, if someone were to see a coyote out on the.

On their walk, should they be afraid?

CHRISTOPHER SCHELL: No, they shouldn't be afraid.

If anything, we should have a healthy respect for the animals when we see them sort of sharing space with us.

But oftentimes we stress education and we talk about tools that we can use to help people successfully coexist with the organisms.

Everything, as Loren had mentioned, from understanding the behavioral patterns of the animals, we where they navigate, particularly, for instance, we oftentimes talk to the community about this escorting behavior, where animals will walk alongside or behind a human being or a dog for an extended period of time.

And that behavior is not necessarily threatening.

It is one that demonstrates that the animal is trying to make sure that itself, its kin, its offspring are safe and trying to understand the patterns of human behavior.

So just like we're trying to understand how to coexist with these animals, they are doing the same with us.

So we use these educational tools, outreach to improve management and to improve coexistence.

JOHN YANG: Photographer Loren Elliott and urban ecologist Christopher Schell, thank you both very much.

CHRISTOPHER SCHELL: Thank you.

LOREN ELLIOT: Thank you for the time.