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Join Stephen DeStefano, a wildlife biologist and author of Coyote at the Kitchen Door, to explore the expanding field of urban ecology. Discover how urban sprawl, traffic, and noise pollution are impacting human-animal interactions and learn how to live with wildlife in suburbia.

This program is sponsored by Scarborough Land Conservation Trust through a grant from the Maine Humanities Council.

Expanded Description

Stephen DeStefano draws on decades of experience as a biologist and conservationist to examine the interplay between urban sprawl and wayward wildlife. He explores what our insatiable appetite for real estate means for the health and well-being of animals and ourselves. In his new book, Coyote at the Kitchen Door, DeStefano writes movingly about the contrasts between constructed and natural environments and about the sometimes cherished, sometimes feared place that nature holds in our modern lives, as we cluster into cities yet show an increasing interest in the natural world.

DeStefano gives special attention to the coyote. Once restricted to the prairies of the West, this adaptable animal now inhabits most of North America, both urban and wild. In this presentation, DeStefano will explain how this species has learned to survive and flourish where others have faltered.

Dr. Stephen DeStefano is the leader of the USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and a Research Professor in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He holds degrees in Wildlife Ecology from the Universities of Massachusetts-Amherst, Wisconsin-Madison, and Idaho-Moscow, respectively.

DeStefano’s research focuses on suburban wildlife, human-wildlife interactions, and forest wildlife ecology. Current projects include demography and landscape pattern use of abundant species such as beavers, moose, deer, and carnivores in mixed suburban and rural landscapes. Steve has been a member of The Wildlife Society since 1978, was named a Fellow in 2005, and is a member of the Society’s Urban Wildlife Working Group.