To ensure reproductive success, Canis species establish contiguous mosaics of territories in suitable habitats to partition space and defend limiting resources. Consequently, Canis species can exert strong effects on prey populations locally because of their year-round maintenance of territories. We assessed prey use by coyotes (Canis latrans) by sampling scats from within known territories in southeastern Alabama and the Savannah River area of Georgia and South Carolina. We accounted for the size and habitat composition of coyote home ranges to investigate the influence of space use, vegetation density, and habitat type on coyote diets. Coyote use of prey was influenced by a combination of mean monthly temperature, home range size, vegetation density, and hardwood forests. For example, coyote use of adult white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) was associated with cooler months and smaller home ranges, whereas use of rabbits (Sylvilagus spp.) was associated with cooler months, larger home ranges, and less vegetation density. Coyotes in our study relied primarily on nutritionally superior mammalian prey and supplemented their diet with fruit when available, as their use of mammalian prey did not appreciably decrease with increasing use of fruit. We suggest that differential use of prey by coyotes is influenced by habitat heterogeneity within their home ranges, and prey-switching behaviors may stabilize local interactions between coyotes and their food resources to permit stable year-round territories. Given that habitat composition affects coyote prey use, future studies should also incorporate effects of habitat composition on coyote distribution and abundance to further identify coyote influences on prey communities.
Prior to 1900, coyotes (Canis latrans) were restricted to the western and central regions of North America, but by the early 2000s, coyotes became ubiquitous throughout the eastern United States. Information regarding morphological and genetic structure of coyote populations in the southeastern United States is limited, and where data exist, they are rarely compared to those from other regions of North America. We assessed geographic patterns in morphology and genetics of coyotes with special consideration of coyotes in the southeastern United States. Mean body mass of coyote populations increased along a west‐to‐east gradient, with southeastern coyotes being intermediate to western and northeastern coyotes. Similarly, principal component analysis of body mass and linear body measurements suggested that southeastern coyotes were intermediate to western and northeastern coyotes in body size but exhibited shorter tails and ears from other populations. Genetic analyses indicated that southeastern coyotes represented a distinct genetic cluster that differentiated strongly from western and northeastern coyotes. We postulate that southeastern coyotes experienced lower immigration from western populations than did northeastern coyotes, and over time, genetically diverged from both western and northeastern populations. Coyotes colonizing eastern North America experienced different selective pressures than did stable populations in the core range, and we offer that the larger body size of eastern coyotes reflects an adaptation that improved dispersal capabilities of individuals in the expanding range.
We analyzed natal dispersal characteristics for 79 red wolves in the first long‐term dispersal analysis for this species. Variables analyzed included straight‐line dispersal distance, duration, timing, age, direction, and evidence of natal habitat preference induction of dispersers. We compared these values during a time when the population was increasing (1990–1998) to a period when the numbers had leveled off (1999–2007) and stabilized. We found no difference in average dispersal distance, duration or age between the two periods, and no gender bias in these characteristics. Yearlings/adults dispersed shorter distances (29.5 km) than pups (42.5 km) from 1999 to 2007 and decreased their dispersal distances during this period. After 1999, dispersals occurred 11 months of the year (compared with 7 months in 1990–1998), and the peak in pup dispersal timing shifted from December to January. The peak in dispersal timing was also significantly later for pups than yearlings/adults in 1999–2007. Dispersal direction was not random and there was a preference for a westward dispersal direction, attributed to the avoidance of water and a preference for agriculture. Natal habitat preference induction was also evident in dispersers during both time periods.
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