Coyotes and white‐tailed deer populations in the east: A comment on Bragina et al. (2019)

Kilgo, John C.; Cherry, Michael J.; Ditchkoff, Stephen S.; Gulsby, William D.; Miller, Karl V.

doi:10.1002/jwmg.21735

J Wildl Manag

2019

DOI: 10.1002/jwmg.21735

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Coyotes and white‐tailed deer populations in the east: A comment on Bragina et al. (2019)

John C. Kilgo

Michael J. Cherry

Stephen S. Ditchkoff

et al.

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Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(60 reference statements)

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“…In addition to reaffirming our conclusions, we address specific concerns of Kilgo et al (2019). Kilgo et al (2019) suggested that harvest records should be adjusted for amount of harvest effort, which, in turn, could depend on changes in hunting regulations. We initially attempted to account for harvest effort using 3 states for which we could obtain metrics of effort, and detected no change in results.…”

supporting

confidence: 61%

“…We appreciate the comments by Kilgo et al (2019) on our recent paper and welcome the opportunity to expand the discussion of the effects of coyotes (Canis latrans) on whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in eastern North America. This exchange allows us to reaffirm and elaborate on our finding that coyotes have not had large-scale effects on white-tailed deer population growth in eastern North America.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In answering this question, nothing in Bragina et al (2019) dismissed the valuable time-and place-specific field studies of coyotes and white-tailed deer to which Kilgo et al (2019) referred. It is apparent the concerns of Kilgo et al (2019) arise from an incomplete appreciation of the different strengths, scope of inference, and types of questions that can be addressed with local and time-specific field studies, versus broader space and time studies such as ours.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because agencies typically increase hunter effort in response to an increase (not decrease) in the hunted species, expanded hunting opportunities adds further qualitative support that agencies were not adjusting whitetailed deer harvest as might be expected if coyotes were causing a collapse of the deer population. Kilgo et al (2019Kilgo et al ( :1637 expressed concerns that our analytic framework did not account for spatial variability in coyote population growth, and that we assumed "that coyotes would affect deer linearly through time." We never made this assumption.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our approach asks, across the full spectrum of sites and time, whether time since coyote arrival predicts deer population trends. Kilgo et al (2019Kilgo et al ( :1637 claimed that " Bragina et al (2019) acknowledged that their study area spanned a range of climatic, elevational, and land cover ranges among states but apparently assumed coyote population growth among the 6 states was similar." Their assertion is incorrect; our statistical models incorporated county-specific climate and land cover covariates to account for variance of coyote population expansion in the context of spatial differences in snow cover, human population density, precipitation, land cover, canopy openness and net primary productivity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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White‐tailed deer and coyote colonization: a response to Kilgo et al. (2019)

et al. 2019

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supporting

confidence: 61%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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White‐tailed deer and coyote colonization: a response to Kilgo et al. (2019)

et al. 2019

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Resource pulses shape seasonal and individual variation in the diet of an omnivorous carnivore

Jensen,

Muthersbaugh,

Ruth

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Resource pulses are ecologically important phenomenon that occur in most ecosystems globally. Following optimal foraging theory, many consumers switch to pulsatile foods when available, examples of which include fruit mast and vulnerable young prey. Yet how the availability of resource pulses shapes the ecology of predators is still an emerging area of research; and how much individual variation there is in response to pulses is not well understood. We hypothesized that resource pulses would lead to dietary convergence in our population, which we tested by tracking both population‐level and individual coyote diets for 3 years in South Carolina, USA. We (1) described seasonal dietary shifts in relation to resource pulses; (2) compared male and female diets across seasons; and (3) tested this dietary convergence hypothesis by quantifying individual dietary variation both across and within periods when resource pulses were available. We found that pulses of white‐tailed deer fawns and blackberries composed over half of coyote diet in summer, and persimmon fruits were an important component in fall. Male and female coyotes generally had similar diets, but males consumed more deer in fall, perhaps driven by scavenging more. We found support for our dietary convergence hypothesis, where individuals had more similar diets during resource pulses compared to a non‐pulse period. We also found that this convergence happened before peak availability, suggesting a non‐symmetric response to pulse availability. We show that nearly all coyotes eat fawns, suggesting that targeted efforts to remove “fawn killers” would be in vain. Instead, given how quickly coyotes collectively converge on resource pulses, our findings show that resource pulses could potentially be used by managers to alter the behavior of apex predators. More broadly, we open a new line of inquiry into how variation in individual foraging decisions scales up to shape the effects of resource pulses on ecological communities.

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Maternal behaviors influence survival of ungulate neonates under heavy predation risk

Muthersbaugh,

Boone,

Saldo

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Predators impose top‐down forces on prey populations, with the strength of those effects often varying over space and time and among demographic groups. In ungulates, predation risk is typically greatest for neonatal offspring, with some suggesting that predators can key in on adult activity to locate hidden neonates. However, few field studies to date have been able to directly assess the influence of maternal care on ungulate neonate survival. Using a population of white‐tailed deer under heavy coyote predation pressure, we tested the maternal dispersion hypothesis, which suggests the dispersion of maternal activity temporally and spatially attenuates risk of predation for ungulate neonates during this vulnerable altricial phase. We compared support for this hypothesis with more commonly tested hypotheses regarding the influence of habitat conditions and intrinsic factors on neonatal survival. Fawn survival to 16 weeks was 27.7%, with coyotes accounting for 59% of fawn mortalities. In support of our maternal temporal diffusion hypothesis, we found that neonatal survival decreased as more maternal visits (proportionally) occurred at night. The only other significant (p < .1) predictor of fawn survival was birth timing, with fawn survival decreasing as the season progressed. Given that fawn survival declined as the proportion of nighttime visits increased, and that wild pig presence and human disturbance can push doe and fawn activity toward nocturnal hours, additional research is needed to determine whether managing pig and human disturbance can decrease fawn mortality. More broadly, given the importance of recruitment in ungulate population dynamics, our finding opens a potentially important new line of inquiry on how maternal behaviors influence predation risk in large animal predator–prey ecology.

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Coyotes and white‐tailed deer populations in the east: A comment on Bragina et al. (2019)

Cited by 12 publications

References 33 publications

White‐tailed deer and coyote colonization: a response to Kilgo et al. (2019)

White‐tailed deer and coyote colonization: a response to Kilgo et al. (2019)

Resource pulses shape seasonal and individual variation in the diet of an omnivorous carnivore

Maternal behaviors influence survival of ungulate neonates under heavy predation risk

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