Coyote

Coyotes are the ultimate generalists: they eat everything from rabbits to berries to garbage, thrive in habitats from deserts to suburbs, and adjust behaviors to human schedules. This flexibility makes them extinction-resistant - when environments shift, specialists die but generalists switch. But coyote biology reveals a deeper principle about ecosystem architecture: removing predators often makes things worse for prey.

As mesopredators, coyotes suppress smaller predators - foxes, raccoons, skunks - through direct killing and territoriality. When humans remove coyotes to protect livestock, fox and raccoon populations explode, increasing predation on ground-nesting birds and small mammals. This mesopredator release can make coyote removal more harmful to prey than coyote presence. The lesson: predator control often has cascading unintended consequences opposite to the intended goal.

Yellowstone demonstrates coyote limits. When wolves were eliminated in the 1920s, coyotes couldn't substitute - they were too small to control elk populations. When wolves returned in 1995, they killed coyotes as competitors. Rodent populations grew, benefiting hawks, eagles, and foxes. The coyote case shows both adaptability's value (generalists survive disruptions) and substitution's limits (related species don't necessarily fill the same ecological role).