In response to a spike in coyote encounters in York Region, a local eight-year-old named Viyoohan Sayooran created an app intended to help humans and wildlife better coexist.
Incidents involving humans and coyotes have become so frequent in recent months that the City of Markham decided to install signage, trail cameras, and fencing in early June to help keep people safe and to ward off the animals. In one encounter this May, a 16-year-old girl was even sent to the hospital after being bitten by a coyote.
After seeing news reports on these incidents, Viyoohan became interested in why these animals were increasingly venturing into neighbourhoods in the first place. Turns out we’re the ones impeding on their neighbourhoods. “When I looked into it, I realized that we are building houses in their space, which creates conflicts when the animals then come into our space,” says Viyoohan.
Viyoohan says he wanted to solve this problem using technology, and he turned to AI to help develop and execute an app that could do just that. The industrious eight-year-old used Claude AI to plan his ideas as prompts, then he used an AI software called Lovable to transform those prompts into an app. Viyoohan spent a few days editing the app through Lovable before creating a URL and publishing it to the internet.
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The app is called Urban Wild Watch, which is a free platform where community members can report wildlife sightings in order to increase awareness around their location and movements. The idea is that the more people know about the whereabouts of potentially dangerous animals such as coyotes, skunks, or black bears, the more safe these animals and humans alike will be.
Viyoohan says using the app is easy. When you spot an animal, you click where you are on the app’s map and select which animal you want to report. You can then specify whether the animal was injured or orphaned, if necessary, before pressing submit.
Viyoohan also planned the app with the ambulatory nature of animals in mind. “In the map, your report will show up, but it will not be the exact location,” he says. “Instead, it will show a 500-metre radius around the animal, and the animal could be anywhere inside there. And your wildlife sighting will appear on the recent sightings list for one hour only.”
Local wildlife incidents inspired Viyoohan to create the app, but it’s designed to be used anywhere in the world, including in cottage country. While Viyoohan says he doesn’t have exact numbers around how many people have used the app, he says there are now users in every province except for the northern territories. There are currently around 100 recent sightings listed, including several in Kawartha Lakes, Wasaga Beach, and Muskoka.
Looking ahead, Viyoohan says he wants to continue improving the app as its user base grows.
“[Making the app] was a fun project for me,” he says. “But I keep editing it based on user comments, and I hope it becomes a tool for everyone to use in the future.”
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