Local-Scale Difference of Coyote Food Habits on Two South Carolina Islands

Etheredge, Cady; Wiggers, Sloane E.; Souther, Olivia; Lagman, Lindi L.; Yarrow, Greg; Dozier, Jamie

doi:10.1656/058.014.0209

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Although coyotes consume opossums (e.g. 69 – 71 ), they may not pose enough of a risk to substantially alter habitat use of opossums at SRS. As generalists, opossums often thrive in anthropogenically modified habitats and our results suggest they have the ability to exploit carrion in both forests and along roads.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roads do not increase carrion use by a vertebrate scavenging community

Hill

DeVault

Beasley

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

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Wildlife-vehicle collisions introduce a considerable amount of carrion into the environment, but scavenger use of this resource has not been extensively investigated. Scavengers may use roads for reliable foraging opportunities, but might also use roads for other purposes and encounter carrion opportunistically. We examined scavenging of carrion along linear features by placing 52 rabbit carcasses in each of three treatments in forested habitat during winter (Dec 2016-Mar 2017) in South Carolina, USA: roads, power line clearings (linear feature with fewer carcasses than roads due to lack of road kill), and forest interior. We used motion-activated cameras to compare arrival times and presence of vertebrate scavengers among treatments. There was no difference in proportion of carcasses scavenged or scavenger arrival time across treatments. No species arrived at roads quicker than other treatments. Turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) and coyotes (Canis latrans) scavenged equally across treatments, whereas gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) scavenged along roads and power lines, but not in forests. We suggest that scavenger use of carrion near roads at this location during winter relates to factors other than carrion availability. Because some scavengers readily consumed carrion on roads, this resource has the potential to influence the ecology of these species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roads do not increase carrion use by a vertebrate scavenging community

Hill

DeVault

Beasley

et al. 2018

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Any effect of coyotes on deer likely varies spatially, independent of time since coyote arrival, because habitat selection of eastern coyotes is nonrandom (Hinton et al 2015, Stevenson et al 2018, and diets can vary substantially, even at small spatial scales (Etheredge et al 2015, Ward et al 2018. Additionally, landscape composition and configuration can influence coyote abundance (Cherry et al 2017) and their effects on fawn survival (Gulsby et al 2017, Gingery et al 2018.…”

Section: Regional Differences In Predation Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2019

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“…Many recent diet studies of both felid and canid species depended solely on field identification of scats (Braczkowski et al , Kozlowski et al , Mondal et al , Lafferty et al , Etheredge et al , Kerley et al ). Although previous studies have identified high error rates in field identification of scats (Anwar et al , Shehzad et al , Jumabay‐Uulu et al , Kachel ), the potential discrepancy between heuristic and molecular food‐habits analyses has yet to be evaluated.…”

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confidence: 99%

What are snow leopards really eating? Identifying bias in food-habit studies

2016

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Declining prey populations are widely recognized as a primary threat to snow leopard (Panthera uncia) populations throughout their range. Effective snow leopard conservation will depend upon reliable knowledge of food habits. Unfortunately, past food-habit studies may be biased by inclusion of nontarget species in fecal analysis, potentially misinforming managers about snow leopard prey requirements. Differentiation between snow leopard and sympatric carnivore scat is now cost-effective and reliable using genetics. We used fecal mitochondrial DNA sequencing to identify scat depositors and assessment bias in snow leopard food-habit studies. We compared presumed, via field identification, and genetically confirmed snow leopard scats collected during 2005 and 2012 from 4 sites in Central Asia, using standard forensic microscopy to identify prey species. Field identification success varied across study sites, ranging from 21% to 64% genetically confirmed snow leopard scats. Our results confirm the importance of large ungulate prey for snow leopards. Studies that fail to account for potentially commonplace misidentification of snow leopard scat may mistakenly include a large percentage of scats originating from other carnivores and report inaccurate dietary assessments. Relying on field identification of scats led to overestimation of percent occurrence, biomass, and number of small mammals consumed, but underestimated values of these measures for large ungulates in snow leopard diet. This clarification suggests that the conservation value of secondary prey, such as marmots (Marmota spp.) and other small mammals, may be overstated in the literature; stable snow leopard populations are perhaps more reliant upon large ungulate prey than previously understood.

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Local-Scale Difference of Coyote Food Habits on Two South Carolina Islands

Cited by 8 publications

References 22 publications

Roads do not increase carrion use by a vertebrate scavenging community

Roads do not increase carrion use by a vertebrate scavenging community

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

What are snow leopards really eating? Identifying bias in food-habit studies

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