Coyote populations in the Chicagoland area have surged over the last few decades, thanks to factors ranging from abundant food sources and lack of predators to their exceptional ability to adapt to human environments. Today there are an estimated 2,000 of these wild canines in Lake County, 4,000 in Cook County and 30,000 statewide. Anissa Chaudhry, an environmental educator with the Lake County Forest Preserve District, will discuss the coyotes’ presence among us, their role in the ecosystem, and the special adaptations they’ve made to establish territories in our cities and suburbs.

Peregrine Falcons were added to both the federal and state endangered species lists in the 1970s because of eggshell thinning caused by DDT exposure, but the bird has made a remarkable comeback since DDT was banned in 1972. In Illinois, where not a single peregrine chick was born from 1951 to 1998, there are now more than 20 breeding pairs including many in the Chicago metropolitan area – thanks in large part to reintroduction and monitoring efforts led by the Chicago Peregrine Program. The Field Museum’s Mary Hennen, who has headed the program since 1990, will join us to discuss the decline of the species, the museum’s role in identifying the cause, how the population has been restored, and how the birds are now banded, monitored and studied to help ensure their ongoing survival.

The shores of the Great Lakes were once home to nearly 800 pairs of Piping Plovers. By 1990 that number had dropped to 13, all in Northern Michigan. As of this summer, the Great Lakes population of this tiny shorebird had rebounded to a record 85 nesting pairs, with 124 chicks fledged in the wild in four states and Canada. But despite those numbers and the star power of Monty and Rose, the first of their species to nest in Cook County in 71 years when they bred on Montrose Beach in 2019 in a lineage that has continued every summer since, Piping Plovers remain on the federal endangered species list because 150 breeding pairs are necessary to have a solid population.  Dr. Sarah Saunders, a quantitative ecologist with Audubon Great Lakes, will join us via Zoom to discuss the recovery effort and research that is helping protect the species.