Ecological Separation Within Newly Sympatric Populations of Coyotes and Bobcats in South-Central Florida

Thornton, Daniel H.; Sunquist, Melvin E.; Main, Martin B.

doi:10.1644/beh-020

Cited by 73 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Hair was identified only according to gross morphological characteristics and medullary configurations (Wilkins et al 1982). To aid in identification, hair, bones, teeth, and nails were compared to specimens housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History (Thornton et al 2004). …”

Section: Laboratory Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet of Florida coyotes in a protected wildland and suburban habitat

et al. 2011

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Coyotes (Canis latrans) arrived to Florida (USA) in the 1960s and are currently found throughout most of the state. The purpose of this study was to determine if the diet of Florida coyotes differed between suburban and wildland habitat types or across seasons. Fresh coyote fecal samples were collected from wildland and suburban habitats in Pinellas County, Florida (USA; 27°54′N, 82°41′W) from May 2005 to March 2007. Diet items in the 49 wildland and 71 suburban samples were identified to the lowest possible taxonomic level by gross morphological characteristics and medullary configurations of dorsal guard hairs. A Poisson regression was utilized to determine the main and interactive effects of habitat and season on the number of different food items per sample. Coyotes in the wildland habitat had greater diet diversity than suburban coyotes. In addition, anthropogenic waste was recovered over twice as often from coyote fecal samples collected in the suburban habitat. In the wildland habitat, vegetative matter (96%), Insecta (53%), and Rodentia (45%) were recovered most often, as opposed to berries (56%) and Lagomorpha (32%) in the suburban habitat. In both habitats, vegetative matter, berries, and Lagomorpha were recovered most often from coyote fecal samples, whereas Odocoileus virginianus, Lagomorpha, and berries varied the most between wet and dry seasons. This study suggests that as urbanization increases, diet diversity for the coyote will likely decrease and consumption of anthropogenic items will likely increase. As a result of this, human-coyote conflicts may become more common-particularly in counties, like Pinellas, that are undergoing urbanization.

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Section: Laboratory Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet of Florida coyotes in a protected wildland and suburban habitat

et al. 2011

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“…Primarily, these species differ in their tolerance for human disturbances and humanmodified environments (Table 1). Bobcats appear least tolerant of humans, avoiding roads [3] as well as urban and developed lands [7,12,14,15], and also may be readily displaced by recreationists [13]. In contrast, red fox shows rather high tolerance for humans, with higher population densities documented in urbanized areas compared with adjacent rural habitats [15], and populations of red fox have thrived in major metropolitan areas throughout North America [16].…”

Section: Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic investigation of niche partitioning among native carnivores and the non-native coyote (Canis latrans)

Warsen

Frair

Teece

2014

Isotopes in Environmental and Health Studies

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We employed stable carbon (δ(13)C) and nitrogen (δ(15)N) isotopes within a hypothetico-deductive framework to explore potential resource partitioning among terrestrial mammalian carnivores. Isotope values were acquired using guard hair samples from bobcat (Lynx rufus), coyote (Canis latrans), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), and red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in the Adirondack Park, NY, USA. Enrichment along the δ(13)C axis was expected to reflect the use of human sources of food (reflecting a corn subsidy), and by extension tolerance for human-modified environments, whereas enrichment along the δ(15)N axis was expected to reflect a higher level of carnivory (i.e. amount of animal-based protein in the diet) - two mechanisms by which these now sympatric species may achieve a dynamic coexistence. Although bobcats were the only obligate carnivore, all four species shared a similar δ(15)N space. In contrast, bobcat had a lower and distinct δ(13)C signature compared to foxes, consistent with the a priori expectation of bobcats being the species least tolerant of human activities. Isotope signatures for coyotes, which colonized the region in the 1920s, overlapped all three native carnivores, bobcats the least, gray fox the most, indicating their potential competitive influence on this suite of native carnivores.

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“…Blankenship unpublished data) and bobcats avoiding coyotes at the core area scale (Neale and Sacks 2001;Thornton et al 2004). Additionally, bobcat populations respond positively to reductions in sympatric coyote population (Henke and Bryant 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Prey-mediated avoidance of an intraguild predator by its intraguild prey

et al. 2010

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Intraguild (IG) predation is an important factor influencing community structure, yet factors allowing coexistence of IG predator and IG prey are not well understood. The existence of spatial refuges for IG prey has recently been noted for their importance in allowing coexistence. However, reduction in basal prey availability might lead IG prey to leave spatial refuges for greater access to prey, leading to increased IG predation and fewer opportunities for coexistence. We determined how the availability of prey affected space-use patterns of bobcats (Lynx rufus, IG prey) in relation to coyote space-use patterns (Canis latrans, IG predators). We located animals from fall 2007 to spring 2009 and estimated bobcat home ranges and core areas seasonally. For each bobcat relocation, we determined intensity of coyote use, distance to water, small mammal biomass, and mean small mammal biomass of the home range during the season the location was collected. We built generalized linear mixed models and used Akaike Information Criteria to determine which factors best predicted bobcat space use. Coyote intensity was a primary determinant of bobcat core area location. In bobcat home ranges with abundant prey, core areas occurred where coyote use was low, but shifted to areas intensively used by coyotes when prey declined. High spatial variability in basal prey abundance allowed some bobcats to avoid coyotes while at the same time others were forced into more risky areas. Our results suggest that multiple behavioral strategies associated with spatial variation in basal prey abundance likely allow IG prey and IG predators to coexist.

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Ecological Separation Within Newly Sympatric Populations of Coyotes and Bobcats in South-Central Florida

Cited by 73 publications

References 43 publications

Diet of Florida coyotes in a protected wildland and suburban habitat

Diet of Florida coyotes in a protected wildland and suburban habitat

Isotopic investigation of niche partitioning among native carnivores and the non-native coyote (Canis latrans)

Prey-mediated avoidance of an intraguild predator by its intraguild prey

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