TWO coyotes roam through a housing subdivision in the south Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo., in this November 2008 file photo taken by a member of the Colorado Division of Wildlife. After a handful of recent attacks by coyotes in suburban Denver enclaves, officials are trying to keep the animals away from residents.

Denver ? A coyote ambling into a Chicago sandwich shop or taking up residence in New York’s Central Park understandably creates a stir. But even here on the high plains of Colorado, where the animals are part of the landscape and figure prominently in Western lore, people are being taken aback by rising coyote encounters.

Thanks to suburban sprawl and a growth in numbers of both people and animals, a rash of coyote encounters has alarmed residents.

Wildlife officials are working to educate the public: Coyotes have always been here, they’ve adapted to urban landscapes and they prefer to avoid humans.

“Ninety-five percent of this problem is a human problem, and we really need to focus on that 95 percent to solve it,” said Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director of the environmental group WildEarth Guardians.

Since December, four people in the Denver area have been nipped or bitten by coyotes. A fifth told police a coyote lunged at him.

State wildlife officers have killed seven coyotes. An eighth was killed by a sharpshooter hired by Greenwood Village, in Denver’s southern suburbs.

“These are coyotes that were born and raised in the ‘hood,” said Liza Hunholz, an area manager with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Colorado, says there are more people and less habitat along Colorado’s Front Range, bringing the animal and people populations into closer proximity and producing what he calls “an unprecedented scare response.”

“The communities seem to be really feeding one another,” said Bekoff. He has studied coyotes for 40 years and believes that in some cases dogs are mistaken for coyotes.

Coyotes once were found primarily on the Great Plains and in the Southwest, but have expanded their turf to most of North America. Populations of wolves, a fierce competitor, have shrunk, and swaths of forest have turned into coyote-friendly open spaces.

After generations of urban living, some coyotes navigate subdivisions as easily as the cactus and scrub oak of the high desert where their ancestors roamed. Experts won’t even try to guess how many coyotes there are nationwide.

Coyote sightings have skyrocketed in Greenwood Village. Last year, police received 186 reports, including 15 clashes with pets. Already this year, there have been 142.

“People are afraid to let their pets out or their children to walk to school,” said Greenwood Village City Manager Jim Sanderson.

Jacque Levitch, of south Denver, was bitten by one of three coyotes she said confronted her and her Labrador retriever, Taz, on Feb. 21. “I hit it with my right fist and right forearm,” Levitch said.

Taz was all right. Levitch had to endure rabies shots. She said her neighbors now carry big sticks and golf clubs.