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Urban Coyote Canis Latrans Ecology
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Book Synopsis Urban Coyote (Canis Latrans) Ecology by : Rita Collins
Download or read book Urban Coyote (Canis Latrans) Ecology written by Rita Collins and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Non-habituated coyotes (Canis latrans) avoid direct interactions with humans. Reliance on human food sources has been linked to gradual habituation, a precursor to conflict and attacks on domestic pets and humans. Diet and activity patterns of urban coyotes inhabiting natural fragments in Long Beach, CA were monitored through scat collection and camera trapping over a year (Aug 2016 – Aug 2017). Local urban coyotes are relying predominately on natural foods, with an increase in mammalian prey in the wet season and an increase in vegetation and insect consumption in the dry season. Anthropogenic items, food and food related inedible items, appeared in 14% of scats overall, with no significant seasonal change. Cat remains were found in 14% of scat samples, but only triggered cameras once throughout the 2,857 camera nights of the study. Coyote activity was centered on nights in both seasons, with greater dawn activity in the dry season, indicating an avoidance of peak human activity. This reliance on natural foods and avoidance of human activity reduces the opportunities for human-wildlife conflicts in our local area.
Book Synopsis Urbanization and Its Effects on Resource Use and Individual Specialization in Coyotes (Canis Latrans) in a Southern California by : Rachel Nicole Larson
Download or read book Urbanization and Its Effects on Resource Use and Individual Specialization in Coyotes (Canis Latrans) in a Southern California written by Rachel Nicole Larson and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ecological opportunity in the form of habitat and food heterogeneity are thought to be important mechanisms in maintaining individual specialization. Urban environments are unique because fragments of natural or semi-natural habitat are embedded within a permeable matrix of human-dominated areas, creating increased habitat heterogeneity compared to the surrounding landscape. In addition, urban areas can provide diet subsidies in the form of human trash and domestic animals, which also increases ecological opportunities. I investigated the degree to which coyotes (Canis latrans) utilized anthropogenic subsidies and exhibited individual specialization across the urban-rural gradient in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, California. I used scat analysis to analyze population-level differences in diet combined with stable isotope analysis to understand diet variation on an individual level. Land use surrounding scat and isotope sample collection sites was also evaluated to determine the effect of urban land cover on diet. Human food constituted a significant portion of urban coyote diet (22% of scats, 38% of diet as estimated by stable isotope analysis). Domestic cats (Felis catus) and non-native fruit and seeds were also important prey items in urban coyote diets. Consumption of anthropogenic items decreased with decreasing urbanization. In suburban areas, seasonality influenced the frequency of occurrence of anthropogenic subsidies with increased consumption in the dry season. Seasonal effects were not seen in urban areas. The amount of altered open space (defined as golf courses, cemeteries, and mowed parks) in a coyote's home range had a negative effect on the consumption of anthropogenic items. Urban coyotes displayed reduced among-individual variation compared to suburban and rural coyotes. It is possible that the core urban areas of cities are so densely developed and subsidized that wildlife inhabiting these areas actually have reduced ecological opportunity. Suburban animals had the broadest isotopic niches and maintained similar individual specialization to rural coyotes. Wildlife in suburban areas still have access to relatively undisturbed natural areas while being able to take advantage of anthropogenic subsidies in neighboring residential areas. Therefore, areas with intermediate urban development may be associated with increased ecological opportunity and specialization.
Book Synopsis Urban Wildlife Conservation by : Robert A. McCleery
Download or read book Urban Wildlife Conservation written by Robert A. McCleery and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past, wildlife living in urban areas were ignored by wildlife professionals and urban planners because cities were perceived as places for people and not for wild animals. Paradoxically, though, many species of wildlife thrive in these built environments. Interactions between humans and wildlife are more frequent in urban areas than any other place on earth and these interactions impact human health, safety and welfare in both positive and negative ways. Although urban wildlife control pest species, pollinate plants and are fun to watch, they also damage property, spread disease and even attack people and pets. In urban areas, the combination of dense human populations, buildings, impermeable surfaces, introduced vegetation, and high concentrations of food, water and pollution alter wildlife populations and communities in ways unseen in more natural environments. For these ecological and practical reasons, researchers and mangers have shown a growing interest in urban wildlife ecology and management. This growing interest in urban wildlife has inspired many studies on the subject that have yet to be synthesized in a cohesive narrative. Urban Wildlife: Theory and Practice fills this void by synthesizing the latest ecological and social knowledge in the subject area into an interdisciplinary and practical text. This volume provides a foundation for the future growth and understanding of urban wildlife ecology and management by: • Clearly defining th e concepts used to study and describe urban wildlife, • Offering a cohesive understanding of the coupled natural and social drivers that shape urban wildlife ecology, • Presenting the patterns and processes of wildlife response to an urbanizing world and explaining the mechanisms behind them and • Proposing means to create physical and social environments that are mutually beneficial for both humans and wildlife.
Book Synopsis Environmental ScienceBites by : Kylienne A. Clark
Download or read book Environmental ScienceBites written by Kylienne A. Clark and published by The Ohio State University. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was written by undergraduate students at The Ohio State University (OSU) who were enrolled in the class Introduction to Environmental Science. The chapters describe some of Earth's major environmental challenges and discuss ways that humans are using cutting-edge science and engineering to provide sustainable solutions to these problems. Topics are as diverse as the students, who represent virtually every department, school and college at OSU. The environmental issue that is described in each chapter is particularly important to the author, who hopes that their story will serve as inspiration to protect Earth for all life.
Book Synopsis At Home With Coyotes by : Chase Alexander Niesner
Download or read book At Home With Coyotes written by Chase Alexander Niesner and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban coyotes (canis latrans) have increasingly made their homes in American cities like Los Angeles and ongoing research into their flourishing has taken on new urgency due to the reported rise in human-coyote conflict. Using a mixed methods approach for understanding the urban ecology as a natural-cultural system, the following dissertation attempts to think across scales and to grapple with the epistemological challenges of studying a highly adaptable carnivore in an immensely complex urban environment like Los Angles. Utilizing the tools of movement ecology, anthropology, and experiments with imagistic multi-media praxis, and sometimes writing with collaborators across a variety of disciplines, this work adds to the current research paradigm for urban coyotes by highlighting the necessity of thinking with human-coyote relations towards a more capacious understanding of the urban ecology as an 'ecology of selves,' one constituted as much by coyote foraging habits and movement patterns as by the perspectival formations occurring through online social media applications like Nextdoor and the municipal policy documents known as "Coyote Management Plans." Central to the aims of this work is to politicize the study of urban ecology, but also to "ecologize" our contemporary understanding of urban politics. How can we imagine the imperatives of housing justice for humans and questions of urban coyote belonging together? How do representations of urban coyotes come to inform human-coyote relations, and through the materialization of our thinking, other kinds of human-human relations in the urban ecology too? Does urban coyote "management" offer an opportunity for anti-colonial experiments in service of furthering sovereignty for indigenous peoples in cities like Los Angeles? In "At Home with Coyotes," the necessity of living together with coyotes offers the inspiration for imagining biodiversity and environmental justice as a unified project and holistic ethical practice.
Book Synopsis Human–Wildlife Interactions by : Beatrice Frank
Download or read book Human–Wildlife Interactions written by Beatrice Frank and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-02 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents solutions to turn conflict into tolerance and coexistence, with an emphasis on the human dimensions of human-wildlife interactions.
Book Synopsis The Way of Coyote by : Gavin Van Horn
Download or read book The Way of Coyote written by Gavin Van Horn and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hiking trail through majestic mountains. A raw, unpeopled wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see. These are the settings we associate with our most famous books about nature. But Gavin Van Horn isn’t most nature writers. He lives and works not in some perfectly remote cabin in the woods but in a city—a big city. And that city has offered him something even more valuable than solitude: a window onto the surprising attractiveness of cities to animals. What was once in his mind essentially a nature-free blank slate turns out to actually be a bustling place where millions of wild things roam. He came to realize that our own paths are crisscrossed by the tracks and flyways of endangered black-crowned night herons, Cooper’s hawks, brown bats, coyotes, opossums, white-tailed deer, and many others who thread their lives ably through our own. With The Way of Coyote, Gavin Van Horn reveals the stupendous diversity of species that can flourish in urban landscapes like Chicago. That isn’t to say city living is without its challenges. Chicago has been altered dramatically over a relatively short timespan—its soils covered by concrete, its wetlands drained and refilled, its river diverted and made to flow in the opposite direction. The stories in The Way of Coyote occasionally lament lost abundance, but they also point toward incredible adaptability and resilience, such as that displayed by beavers plying the waters of human-constructed canals or peregrine falcons raising their young atop towering skyscrapers. Van Horn populates his stories with a remarkable range of urban wildlife and probes the philosophical and religious dimensions of what it means to coexist, drawing frequently from the wisdom of three unconventional guides—wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold, Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, and the North American trickster figure Coyote. Ultimately, Van Horn sees vast potential for a more vibrant collective of ecological citizens as we take our cues from landscapes past and present. Part urban nature travelogue, part philosophical reflection on the role wildlife can play in waking us to a shared sense of place and fate, The Way of Coyote is a deeply personal journey that questions how we might best reconcile our own needs with the needs of other creatures in our shared urban habitats.
Book Synopsis Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals by : Elizabeth S. Williams
Download or read book Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals written by Elizabeth S. Williams and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-02-28 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals, Third Edition presents the latest information on the diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease in both free-ranging and captive wild mammals. Editors Elizabeth Williams and Ian Barker have recruited 71 contributors, all noted experts in their fields, to update this new edition. This reference provides valuable information on each disease, including Etiology History Distribution Epidemiology Clinical signs Pathology Immunity Diagnosis Treatment Control This latest edition is a leading reference book for Wildlife biologists, managers, and rehabilitators Biology students Conservationists Public health workers
Download or read book Suburban Howls written by Jonathan G Way and published by . This book was released on 2014-06 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the experiences and findings of a biologist studying eastern coyote ecology and behavior in urbanized eastern Massachusetts. It is written in layman's language and weaves in research results with personal experiences to give a fuller picture understand canid ecology and behavior while making it easy to read
Book Synopsis Ecology and Behavior of Coyotes in Urban Environments at Varying Spatial Scales by : Sharon A. Poessel
Download or read book Ecology and Behavior of Coyotes in Urban Environments at Varying Spatial Scales written by Sharon A. Poessel and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing global urbanization has altered landscapes for many wildlife species, including carnivores. Some carnivore species have been able to adapt to and even thrive in urban environments, including coyotes (Canis latrans). As coyotes continue to settle in more urban areas, human-coyote conflicts, such as attacks on humans or pets, are also increasing. Understanding the various factors affecting space use of urban coyotes may assist wildlife officials in reducing such conflicts. We conducted three studies of urban coyotes at varying spatial scales. First, using a captive population of coyotes at a fine spatial scale, we tested whether coyotes preferred urban, natural, or a mixture of habitat structures and whether sex, behavioral profile, biological season, or food manipulation affected coyote patch choice. When investigating novel environments, coyotes, especially females and bold animals, preferred a mixture of urban and natural structures rather than uniform structure. Food had no effect on patch choice, and coyotes appeared to be primarily motivated by the structure of the habitat rather than by the amount of food within each habitat. Second, we examined home-range size, habitat use, and resource selection of 22 coyotes at a local, population scale in the Denver metropolitan area. Mean (℗ł SD) home-range size of resident coyotes (11.6 ℗ł 11.0 km2) was smaller than ranges of transient coyotes (200.7 ℗ł 232.4 km2). Home-range size did not vary by season or sex, but resident coyotes during the day had smaller home ranges than during the night. Coyotes had high percentages of developed lands (44.5 ℗ł 18.9%) within their home ranges, but the percentage of coyote locations in natural lands (48.9 ℗ł 22.4%) was higher than in developed lands (20.6 ℗ł 11.7%). Coyotes selected for natural lands over developed lands, and they increased activity at night. Finally, we surveyed 105 urban areas in the United States, focusing on the occurrence of coyotes and conflicts on a national scale. Larger urban areas were more likely to contain both coyotes and conflicts, and were also more likely to have greater numbers of conflicts. Urban areas in the western regions with larger amounts of high-intensity development and less forested and agricultural areas were more likely to have conflicts. Most urban areas considered the management of conflicts to be of low priority. We conclude from these three studies that coyotes residing in urban areas prefer to spend their time in natural lands where human activity is minimized, especially forested and riparian areas that provide cover for coyotes and their native prey. Habitat management practices, such as sustainable urban planning and landscape design incorporating wildlife habitat requirements, may be an important tool in reducing human-coyote conflicts in highly urbanized environments.
Book Synopsis Ecology and Conservation of Birds in Urban Environments by : Enrique Murgui
Download or read book Ecology and Conservation of Birds in Urban Environments written by Enrique Murgui and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-10 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides syntheses of ecological theories and overarching patterns of urban bird ecology that have only recently become available. The numerous habitats represented in this book ranges from rows of trees in wooded alleys, to wastelands and remnants of natural habitats encapsulated in the urban matrix. Authored by leading scientists in this emergent field, the chapters explore how the characteristics of the habitat in urban environments influence bird communities and populations at multiple levels of ecological organization and at different spatial and temporal scales, and how this information should be incorporated in urban planning to achieve an effective conservation of bird fauna in urban environments. Birds are among the most conspicuous and fascinating residents of urban neighborhoods and provide urban citizens with everyday wildlife contact all over the world. However, present urbanization trends are rapidly depleting their habitats, and thus knowledge of urban bird ecology is urgently needed if birds are to thrive in cities. The book is unique in its inclusion of examples from all continents (except Antarctica) in an effort to arrive at a more holistic perspective. Among other issues, the individual chapters address the censusing of birds in urban green spaces; the relationship between bird communities and the structure of urban green spaces; the role of exotic plant species as food sources for urban bird fauna; the influence of artificial light and pollutants on bird fauna; trends in long-term urban bird research, and transdisciplinary studies on bird sounds and their effects on humans. Several chapters investigate how our current knowledge of the ecology of urban bird fauna should be applied in order to achieve better management of urban habitats so as to achieve conservation of species or even increase species diversity. The book also provides a forward-looking summary on potential research directions. As such, it provides a valuable resource for urban ecologists, urban ecology students, landscape architects, city planners, decision makers and anyone with an interest in urban ornithology and bird conservation. Moreover, it provides a comprehensive overview for researchers in the fields of ecology and conservation of urban bird fauna.
Download or read book Coyote America written by Dan Flores and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times best-selling account of how coyotes--long the target of an extermination policy--spread to every corner of the United States Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "A masterly synthesis of scientific research and personal observation." -Wall Street Journal Legends don't come close to capturing the incredible story of the coyote. In the face of centuries of campaigns of annihilation employing gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Alaska to New York. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won, hands-down. Coyote America is the illuminating five-million-year biography of this extraordinary animal, from its origins to its apotheosis. It is one of the great epics of our time.
Book Synopsis Dispersal Ecology and Evolution by : Jean Clobert
Download or read book Dispersal Ecology and Evolution written by Jean Clobert and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-09-27 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now that so many ecosystems face rapid and major environmental change, the ability of species to respond to these changes by dispersing or moving between different patches of habitat can be crucial to ensuring their survival. Understanding dispersal has become key to understanding how populations may persist. Dispersal Ecology and Evolution provides a timely and wide-ranging overview of the fast expanding field of dispersal ecology, incorporating the very latest research. The causes, mechanisms, and consequences of dispersal at the individual, population, species, and community levels are considered. Perspectives and insights are offered from the fields of evolution, behavioural ecology, conservation biology, and genetics. Throughout the book theoretical approaches are combined with empirical data, and care has been taken to include examples from as wide a range of species as possible - both plant and animal.
Book Synopsis Individual Variation in the Ecology of Urban Coyotes and Implications for Human-coyote Conflict by : Maureen Heather Murray
Download or read book Individual Variation in the Ecology of Urban Coyotes and Implications for Human-coyote Conflict written by Maureen Heather Murray and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As urbanization expands, many species are excluded from urban areas but others persist and even thrive. When these species overlap with humans in time, space, or resources, conflicts can arise such as vehicle collisions, loss of domestic animals, the spread of zoonotics, and concern for human safety. One species that thrives in urban areas and readily makes use of anthropogenic resources is the coyote (Canis latrans), an opportunistic carnivore that has attracted increasing interest by inhabiting many major cities. While coyotes typically avoid humans even in cities, they often consume anthropogenic food and exhibit a large degree of individual variation in their home ranges and use of residential areas. A better understanding of how and why coyotes vary in their overlap with people could help identify and mitigate precursors to human-coyote conflict and promote coexistence between humans and urban-adapted carnivores. I examined whether the consumption of anthropogenic food increases diet diversity and likelihood of encounters with people for coyotes by comparing the diets of urban and rural coyotes that were or were not reported as nuisance animals by the public. I then tested whether subadult, male, or diseased coyotes were more likely to use developed areas, be more active during the day, and consume anthropogenic food by capturing and fitting 19 coyotes with Global Positioning System (GPS) collars with 3-hour fix rates. I also measured selection for residential areas within the home range and for anthropogenic resources at sites used for feeding and resting. I examined the potential for food waste in compost piles to promote disease spread in coyotes by monitoring compost piles with remote cameras and compared contact rates between coyotes and the prevalence of ectoparasites to reference sites in natural areas. Lastly, I tested whether seasonal differences in activity patterns and road crossings were associated with vehicle collisions by comparing the movements of coyotes that were or were not killed in vehicle collisions and reports of coyotes killed on roads. Urban coyotes consumed more anthropogenic food and had more diverse diets than rural coyotes. Urban coyotes reported as nuisance animals assimilated less protein and were more likely to have sarcoptic mange (Sarcoptes scabiei). Among GPS-collared coyotes, those with mange used more developed areas, were more active during the day, and consumed more anthropogenic food. These coyotes were also more likely to select backyards with accessible garbage and compost piles and bed under houses. Compost piles were visited more frequently and especially by visibly diseased coyotes than urban natural areas. Most compost piles contained at least one species of fungal toxin capable of compromising consumer health. Coyotes killed in vehicle collisions crossed roads most often at dusk, which overlapped with evening rush hour in winter, whereas surviving coyotes crossed roads mainly around midnight regardless of season. My results suggest that diseased coyotes are more likely to overlap with people in space, time, and resources and piles of food waste may increase disease transmission. Also, avoidance of traffic in time may help reduce risk of vehicle collisions for coyotes. Management practices that prevent disease prevalence and transmission and promote nocturnal behaviour in urban carnivores may be more successful in preventing encounters between people and coyotes and ultimately foster greater coexistence of humans and urban carnivores.
Book Synopsis Connectivity of Two Urban Coyote (Canis Latrans) Populations (Sacramento and San Francisco) to Surrounding Rural Populations by : Katherine Frances Marquez
Download or read book Connectivity of Two Urban Coyote (Canis Latrans) Populations (Sacramento and San Francisco) to Surrounding Rural Populations written by Katherine Frances Marquez and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The total land-mass of urban areas is rapidly increasing, forcing wildlife species to respond either by reductions in their distribution and abundance or acclimation to urban and otherwise modified habitats. Coyotes (Canis latrans) are found in the heart of some major cities within their range but relegated to the fringes of others. I examined two urban coyote populations. One population, San Francisco, is relatively new, having become established in patches of habitat within the city only within the last several years, providing a window into the process of colonization. The other, Sacramento, is linear and provides a natural connection between the valley and the foothills. The goal of my research is to investigate genetic connectivity between these two urban coyote populations and surrounding rural populations and to assess the possibility of a single founder pair origin for the San Francisco population. Recent research in provides evidence for natal habitat preference in California coyotes. Using genetic assignment methods, at least four genetic subdivisions, corresponding to bioregions, were found: Great Valley, Cascades/Sierra Nevada/Modoc (hereafter referred to as Sierra Nevada), Northwestern, and Central Western. Coyote DNA from scat and some opportunistically collected blood and tissue samples from our two study sites were genotyped at 14 microsatellite loci. Those genotypes were ran in STRUCTURE along with reference genotypes from previously establish clusters in order to determine assignment. The American River Parkway results indicate both a high level of assignment to the Sierra Nevada cluster and no assignment to the Great Valley cluster. The elevational change along the American River Parkway did not appear to have an effect on the results. When the data were analyzed in STUCTURE with K = 3, most coyotes assigned to a cluster distinct from the Great Valley or Sierra Nevada, which indicates high genetic similarity among the American River Parkway coyotes relative to the surrounding populations. The San Francisco population, having allele counts of greater than four for half of our loci, does not support the single founder pair hypothesis but these counts could have been skewed due to genotyping error. The significant difference between the number of loci with allele counts greater than four in the sample population and the Northwestern reference population provides support for a small founding population. We did not see a strong clustering of the San Francisco genotypes with either the Northwestern or Central Western cluster. The single individual that did assign to the Central Western cluster was from the most southern park sampled, indicating that there is some immigration from the Central Western population. The high relatedness among San Francisco individuals does not support a hypothesis of high immigration from either/or both the Northwestern or Central Western populations. The Central Western displayed high levels of within cluster relatedness, similar to within San Francisco, but Northwestern displayed low levels of relatedness within its cluster. When assessing relatedness among populations we found some error due to probability. This error is evident in relationship levels between the Northwestern cluster and the Central Western cluster, which are geographically isolated from each other. When assessing relationships by park, high relatedness was seen within the Presidio. Among the different parks, the pairs of parks that showed the three highest number of relationships were between Glen Park and each of the other three parks. This shows both evidence of the willingness of coyotes to traverse urban landscapes and the inability of small parks to sustain many individuals. I used noninvasive genetic sampling, which has inherent limitations to for genetic analysis because it yields low quality and quantity DNA. For this reason, genotypic error due to allelic dropout is common. Lack of detection can produce null alleles that may result in false homozygotes. In addition, season/weather, age of feces at collection, and time between preservation and DNA extraction all greatly affect PCR amplification success. Both the American River Parkway and the San Francisco study sites offer insight from a wildlife management perspective. This information can be used, either for the development of corridors and wildlife areas to promote urban wildlife and/or for strategies in managing the population size of current urban coyote populations. Both strategies meet the purpose of limiting the human-wildlife interface within urban areas and thus limiting the opportunity for conflict.
Book Synopsis Ecology of the Coyote (Canis Latrans) at Wind Cave National Park by : Jamie M. Chronert
Download or read book Ecology of the Coyote (Canis Latrans) at Wind Cave National Park written by Jamie M. Chronert and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Boldness Behavior and Chronic Stress in Free-ranging, Urban Coyotes (Canis Latrans) by : Katie E. Robertson
Download or read book Boldness Behavior and Chronic Stress in Free-ranging, Urban Coyotes (Canis Latrans) written by Katie E. Robertson and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wildlife have responded to urbanization in a variety of ways. While some species have been displaced from developed areas, others have learned to tolerate and even thrive in anthropogenic landscapes. Even within a single species, there are inter-individual variations in behavior. Such variations are sometimes attributed to the presence of behavioral syndromes (i.e., suites of correlated behaviors in response to a common stimuli). Behavioral syndromes imply that while a population may contain variations in behavior, each individual has a limited amount of behavioral plasticity. If individuals consistently respond to stressors in a particular manner and some responses are more beneficial than others, the environment may influence which behavioral tendencies dominate in a given location. One commonly-studied set of behavioral syndromes are those associated with the bold-shy spectrum. Bolder individuals are typically defined as being more risk-prone, more exploratory, less neophobic, and less sensitive to stressors. In urban environments, high levels of disturbance, increased human activity, and large quantities of novel items may favor bolder, less anxious individuals over shy individuals. If that is the case, one would expect to find a greater proportion of bold individuals in areas with increased development. Using the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area as a case study location, we conducted flight initiation distance (FID) tests (n= 78) and novel object tests (n=50) on free-ranging coyotes from 2015-2017. Additionally, hair cortisol concentrations (n= 198) were measured from coyote hair samples that were collected from 2014-2018. We found that coyotes in more developed locations tended to have lower FIDs, behave less cautiously around novel objects, and show slightly higher hair cortisol concentrations than coyotes in more natural settings. Flight initiation distances were consistent across trials for individuals who were tested more than once (n= 18) and coyote responses to two different novel objects (i.e., a garden gnome and a ring stacker toy) were similar, thus providing further evidence that individuals may be predisposed to behave in a particular way each time they are presented with a similar stimulus. The relationship between hair cortisol concentration and behavioral measures was not clear. In addition to urbanization level, coyote social status, health condition, and age were significant predictors of hair cortisol concentration. The findings from this study may have ecological and management implications, as they do imply that human activity and development may be indirectly altering coyote boldness behavior and cortisol production. If coyotes are becoming bolder, their increased tolerance of human activities could lead to increased human-wildlife encounters and more difficulties managing nuisance individuals. Further studies are needed to determine what mechanisms led to the observed differences in coyote boldness across the urbanization gradient (i.e., Are bold individuals the ones that are colonizing urban areas first, do they have higher fitness levels in urban areas and thus are selected for by the environment, or are individual coyotes simply habituating to human disturbance over time?). Additional studies are also needed to determine if the patterns we observed in Chicago’s coyotes are similar to those found in other species and/or in other major metropolitan areas.
