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Precocious predator likes urban life

June 21, 2007

Coyotes crossing the Upper Truckee Meadow

==Start Related Links==
Slideshows on OurTahoe.org:
Cheryl Millham: Coyote behavior.
Bonnie Gustofson: Coyotes attack pets.
David Catalano: Coyote management.

Resources from other Web sites:
Co-Existing with Coyotes
Desert Usa’s Coyote Information Page
Jonathan Way’s Coyote Page
Stanley Gerht:Urban Coyotes Thrive In North Amercian Cities
Varmit Al’s Coyote Hunting Page
==End Related Links==

Coyote howls can be a soothing sound for some South Lake Tahoe residents, but for pet owners it is the sound of danger approaching.

“I walked out my front door the other day and six coyotes had my neighbor’s dachshund surrounded in my yard,” she said. Gustofson scared the coyotes away for the fortunate dachshund. Gustofson’s two huskies were not so fortunate when they escaped from her backyard to romp in the Upper Truckee marsh last month. The fun turned frightening when Cujo and Sky were found injured by Animal Control. See slideshow for more on this story.

The frequent problems with human/pet/coyote relations and lack of agency cooperation at Lake Tahoe have led Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care Center’s Executive Director Cheryl Millham to join forces with California Tahoe Conservancy Wild Program Coordinator Adam Lewandowski to create a centralized coyote reporting and information line. The line would allow resuidents to call in and report coyote related problems or attacks and give agencies the opportunity to collect data on problem areas. The information could also help agencies determine where coyote education programs would be useful.

“Coyotes are an important part of the ecosystem,” said Adam Lewandowski, “They keep species (deer, rabbits, and rodents) in check.”

Jonathan Way, author of Suburban Howls: Tracking the Eastern Coyote in Urban Massachusetts, also believes that public education is important. He says humans can alter coyotes natural hunting and foraging behaviors by offering them alternate food sources such as pets and garbage. Trouble can also stem from people feeding coyotes or unwittingly leaving pet food and garbage outside, according to Way. Once coyotes become habituated to humans, they can become aggressive and bold.

“We change their behavior and we create the problem,” says Way. Way and Ohio State University urban coyote researcher Stanley Gerht believe the fear of coyotes stems from a lack of public knowledge and they both give educational presentations for their local communities. Despite their efforts, they acknowledge that a sector of the population want to remove coyotes from urban areas.

“Something inherent in us makes us fear and admire canids,” says Gerht. “From the beginning we had fear of wolves and coyotes and tried to eliminate them.”

Part of being a successful coyote is staying hidden says Gerht adding, “coyotes typically avoid human contact.”

The secret to the coyote’s urban success lies in their ability to adapt to a variety of environments. Way, who has been studying coyotes in Massachusetts since 1998, says urban coyotes are hunting between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. and can cover over 15-miles of territory. Whereas, wild coyotes would hunt both day and night and have over 50-miles of territory .

Gerht, who is in the sixth year of a multi-year study of coyote behavior in urban Chicago, offers similar findings, “Urban coyotes are more active at night than their rural counterparts, so humans don’t see a lot of their activity.” Gerht’s findings indicate that individual coyotes not attached to a pack can cover ranges of 50 square miles or more, often in just one night. He says that native coyotes moved into the urban Chicago area in the 1970’s and because there is little to no hunting or trapping going on in the city “each generation (of coyotes) becomes a little more comfortable living with people.”

Though the coyote’s choice of neighbors has changed, both Way and Gerht say their diet still consists of standard fare. This includes fruit, eggs, rodents, rabbits and deer. Gerht’s study has shifted focus to understanding the role coyotes play in urban rodent control, which make up the majority of their diet.

“Some golf course’s like having the coyote’s around because they reduce rodent populations,” says Gerht. “They also provide biocontrol for urban deer populations.” He explains that deer populations can grow to a point where they overgraze the land and, therefore, have less cover to hide their fawns in the spring. This makes the fawn an easy target for the coyote and in turn reduces the deer population. Gerht’s research shows that coyotes can kill 20 to 80 percent of the fawns in a marked territory.

Another surprising benefit for Chicago’s urban areas is the coyote’s fetish for goose eggs. As a primary predator of goose eggs, the coyote has reduced the annual population growth of Canada geese to an average of 1 to 2 percent per year, down from the 10 to 20 percent growth rates of a few years ago.

This could be a postive side effect for Lake Tahoe areas where there are so many geese the U.S. Fish and Wildlife services does a annual goose roundup to reduce their populations around the Lake.

Coyotes hunt alone or in pairs, due to the small size of their prey. They live in packs consisting of a breeding pair, the current year’s pups and helpers (prior year’s pups).

Pack size averages five to six adults with up to eight pups and they establish territories of five to 12 square miles (a fraction of their rural cousin’s territories). “They have their own property rights system,” says Gerht. The smaller territory lends to higher population density, usually three to six times higher than rural populations.

Unlike their rural cousins, who are lucky to survive their first year of life (only 30 percent do), urban coyotes have a 60 percent survival rate during their first year. Despite the high survival rate and large litter size, Gerht says, “You’ll never see an over density of coyotes.” This is due to the coyotes instincts to populate areas based upon the food supply. If a food supply decreases their litter sizes decrease, if a food supply increases their litter sizes increase.

The centralized coyote reporting and information line is 530-577-2273 or for more contanct information go to
Wildlife Agencies

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Written by Pamela Higgins · Filed Under Uncategorized 

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