The Wild Things Conference Returns Saturday, March 1, 2025 - SOLD OUT
We’re thrilled to welcome you again to learn and share your expertise with our community. We’ve put together an exciting lineup of workshops and sessions from regional and national experts, plus meet & greets, video content, exhibitors, and sponsors. With over 140 presentations and discussion panels to choose from, the in-person program engages a diverse range of topics, research, and skills, and plenty of opportunities to meet with friends, old and new.
Thank you as well to our sponsors, scholarship supporters, and exhibitors who are all helping to make this another tremendously successful Wild Things.
Tickets for Wild Things 2025 are sold out. For additional information on the 2025 conference, visit wildthingscommunity.org.
**PLEASE NOTE: Some details are subject to change.**
NOTICE: Please be advised that photos and videos will be taken during Wild Things 2025. By attending, you consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded. Your attendance on this event constitutes your agreement to the use of any resulting media by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves for promotional, marketing, or any other purpose in perpetuity, without further approval or any compensation.
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As human influence has spread further into natural areas, some species have adapted their behaviors so they can live in proximity to humans. The coyote’s notorious behavioral flexibility has allowed the species to thrive in both natural and highly urbanized settings. To determine how environmental pressures from urbanization may influence coyote behavior, we examined coyote exploration tendencies by conducting novel object tests throughout the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area. In this session, learn how something as seemingly simple as a garden gnome can elicit a variety of responses from one of the region’s top mammalian predators.
