Coyote detections at metroparks in urban and rural environments

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Audrey A Hayes, Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, OH and Volker Bahn, Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, OH

Background/Question/Methods
The coyote is a medium-sized generalist capable of utilizing fragmented natural resources in highly urbanized environments, thus minimizing the effects of anthropogenic-disturbances in a human dominated landscape (Mitchell et al. 2015). Few other carnivore species are capable of thriving in an urbanized habitat, making the coyote an important species to research in the context of anthropogenic disturbances (Newsome et al. 2015). The mechanisms by which urbanized coyote populations are able to thrive in anthropogenic habitats are not well understood but examining how the species interacts with its environment can provide useful data to improve management and reduce human-coyote conflicts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between coyotes and anthropogenic disturbances by determining if the type of surrounding habitat (rural or urban) influenced where coyotes were located in the Dayton area, and if access to anthropogenic foods is an effective coyote attractant that could explain the increase in coyote sightings by residents in the Dayton, Ohio area. Baited camera-traps were set-up at metroparks in urban and rural habitats. Two spatially independent camera sites were deployed at each park and were baited with either a FAS tablet or a can of wet cat food. Detection histories were created for each site and analyzed using single-season occupancy models.
Results/Conclusions
Coyotes were detected at least once at six out of eighteen sites and were detected more frequently at the FAS bait sites than the cat food sites, indicating that access to cat food or other anthropogenic food sources is likely not an effective coyote attractant. Neither the bait type used or the level of surrounding habitat had a significant effect on coyote occupancy of sites, or on the probability of encountering / detecting the species (p > 0.1). Coyote detection probabilities did increase in the presence of bait, with the greatest probability of detection occurring when the FAS tablet was present, however the relationship was too weak to significantly explain the variation in the data. Based on these results, the increase in coyote encounters in urban and suburban environments is likely not being driven by coyote access to anthropogenic foods. These results do indicate that the abundance of natural prey items in urban environments is sufficient to sustain coyote populations. Some other factor is likely responsible for pulling coyotes into public places, potentially from increased coyote densities or decreased competition for prey items in urban environments.