Current views hold that coyotes have dispersed from North America southwards to reach Panama recently. Invasion of the SE USA has been attributed to forest alteration and diminishing populations of competitors (the wolves Canis lupus and C. rufus). It has been suggested that colonization of Central America by coyotes from Mexico was facilitated by the deforestation of the former for cattle ranches by Spanish settlers; a dense barrier is then supposed to have limited the species for some 400 yr in NW Costa Rica, until deforestation in 1940-77 removed about 16 000 kmý of forest in the SW and NE of the country (for cattle farming) thus facilitating the southern spread of the coyote. This note uses historical evidence to challenge the date of establishment of coyotes in NW Costa Rica, and the role of deforestation in promoting their dispersal. Observations from 1514 suggest the presence of coyotes in southern Nicaragua, and probably in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, before any extensive deforestation had occurred. The reasons for the subsequent absence of coyotes from most of Costa Rica and all of Panama for at least 400 yr are briefly examined.
