In cities throughout North America, sightings of coyotes (Canis latrans) have become common. Reports of human-coyote conflict are also rising, as is the public demand for proactive management to prevent negative human-coyote interactions. Effective and proactive management can be informed by the direct observations of community members, who can report their interactions with coyotes and describe the location, time, and context that led to their interactions. To assess the predictors of human-coyote conflict, we used a web-based reporting system to collect 9,134 community-supplied reports of coyotes in Edmonton, Canada, between January 2012 and December 2021. We used a standardized ordinal ranking system to score each report on two indicators of human-coyote conflict: coyote boldness, based on the reported coyote behaviour, and human perceptions about coyotes, determined from the emotions expressed by reporters. We assigned greater conflict scores to behaviours where coyotes followed, approached, charged or contacted pets or people, and to perceptions where reporters expressed fear, worry, concern, discomfort or alarm. Using ordered logistic regression and chi-square tests, we compared conflict scores for each response variable to spatial, temporal and contextual covariates. Our analysis showed that coyotes were bolder in less developed open areas and during the pup rearing season, but human perceptions were most negative in residential areas and during the dispersal season. Reports that mentioned dogs or cats were more likely to describe bolder coyote behaviour, and those that mentioned pets or children had more negative perceptions about coyotes. Coyote boldness and human perceptions both indicated rising human-coyote conflict in Edmonton over the 10 years of reporting.

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In cities throughout North America, sightings of coyotes (Canis latrans) have become common. Reports of humancoyote conflict are also rising, as is the public demand for proactive management to prevent negative human-coyote interactions. Effective and proactive management can be informed by the direct observations of community members, who can report their interactions with coyotes and describe the location, time, and context that led to their interactions. To better understand the circumstances that can predict human-coyote conflict, we used a web-based reporting system to collect 9134 community-supplied reports of coyotes in Edmonton, Canada, between January 2012 and December 2021. We used a standardized ordinal ranking system to score each report on two indicators of human-coyote conflict: coyote boldness, based on the reported coyote behavior, and human concern about coyotes, determined from the emotions or perceptions about coyotes expressed by reporters. We assigned greater scores to behaviors where coyotes followed, approached, charged, or contacted pets or people, and to perceptions where reporters expressed fear, worry, concern, discomfort or alarm. Using ordered logistic regression and chi-square tests, we compared boldness and concern scores to spatial, temporal, and contextual predictors. Our analysis showed that coyotes were bolder in less developed open areas and during the pup-rearing season, but human concern was higher in residential areas and during the dispersal season. Reports that mentioned dogs or cats were more likely to describe bolder coyote behavior, and those that mentioned pets or children had more negative perceptions about coyotes. Coyote boldness and human concern both indicated rising human-coyote conflict in Edmonton over the 10 years of reporting.

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Incorporating paleontological data into the methods and formats familiar to conservation practitioners may facilitate greater use of paleontological data in conservation practice. Benthic indices (e.g., Multivariate-AZTI Marine Biotic Index; M-AMBI) utilize reference conditions for monitoring ecological conditions. However, reference conditions from monitoring records are limited in temporal scope and often represent degraded conditions, which can cause inaccurate assessments of ecological quality. Paleontological data, such as molluscan death assemblages, have potential to provide long-term, location-specific reference conditions, which are otherwise inaccessible to decision-makers. Here we use simulations of living communities under constant and changing environmental conditions to evaluate the capacity of death assemblage reference conditions to replicate M-AMBI values when used in place of reference conditions from the living communities. Reference conditions from all death assemblage scenarios successfully replicated correct remediation decisions in most simulation runs with environmental change and stability. Variations in M-AMBI values were due to overestimated species richness and Shannon entropy values in the death assemblages and effects of changes to these parameters varied across scenarios. Time averaging was largely beneficial, particularly when environmental change occurred, and short-term observations of the living communities produced incorrect remediation decisions. When the duration of time averaging is known, death assemblages can provide valuable longer-term perspectives with the potential to outperform temporally constrained baseline information from monitoring the living community.

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Incorporating paleontological data into the methods and formats already familiar to conservation practitioners may facilitate greater use of paleontological data in conservation practice. Benthic indices (e.g., Multivariate - AZTI Marine Biotic Index; M-AMBI) already incorporate reference conditions and are a good candidate for integration. In simulations of living communities under constant and changing environmental conditions, we evaluate the capacity of death assemblage reference conditions to replicate M-AMBI values when used in place of reference conditions from the final ten generations of the simulation or all five hundred simulated generations. Reference conditions from all death assemblage scenarios successfully replicated correct remediation decisions in the majority of simulation runs with environmental change and stability. Variations in M-AMBI values were due to overestimated richness and diversity in the death assemblages but effects of changes to these parameters varied across scenarios, emphasizing the importance of evaluating multiple metrics. Time averaging was largely beneficial, particularly when environmental change occurred and short-term ecological observations (ten generations) produced incorrect remediation decisions. When the duration of time averaging is known, death assemblages can provide valuable long-term perspectives with the potential to outperform temporally constrained baseline information from monitoring the living community.