A coyote mother and pups howl at the Minnesota Wildlife Connection in Sandstone, Minnesota.
Danita Delimont / Gallo Images / Getty Images Plus
Danita Delimont / Gallo Images / Getty Images Plus
By Roland Kays
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
THE BIG IDEA: Coyotes are poised to expand their range to a new continent. The North American canine native has now reached the Darién Gap – a dense wilderness on the border of Colombia and Panama, at the very doorstep of South America. If the coyote succeeds, it would be a new chapter in an amazing evolutionary story that's played out over the past half century.
<p><strong>WHY IT MATTERS:</strong> The historical range of the coyote was originally from western Canada to Mexico. But over the past few decades, it has mixed with wolves and dogs, and its adaptability has allowed the species to expand both east and south, making them commonplace everywhere from New York City to Panama City. My colleagues and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Rd3MdDkAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">I study</a> how humans affect the distribution of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> on the planet. Usually this is in a negative way – some <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a> are declining because humans are destroying their habitat or hunting them to near extinction. However, some species are quite good at dealing with the changes people bring to the landscape, and coyotes are an example.</p>
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Coyotes are expanding their range. Source: Zoookeys (2018)
<p><strong></strong><strong>WHAT STILL ISN'T KNOWN:</strong> If coyotes will actually reach South America, or if jaguars in the Darién will keep them out. Few coyote biologists, including myself, are betting against the coyote. We also don't know if coyotes, presuming they make it to South America, will have a negative impact on wildlife there. These native species already live with other canine predators in South America, including foxes, so the coyote might not be so bad for native species. People with free-ranging chickens, however, may think that is a different matter!</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>HOW I DO MY WORK:</strong> We set up camera traps, then go back to see what images they captured, and enter everything in a database called <a href="https://emammal.si.edu/" target="_blank">eMammal</a>. It's great to visit a place, see it with your own eyes and speculate about what might be there. Then, a few weeks later, pick up the camera and see all these animals for yourself. Checking the camera memory card is like Christmas every time.</p>
<p><strong>ONE OTHER THING HAPPENING IN THE FIELD:</strong> Ricardo Moreno of <a href="https://yaguarapanama.org/" target="_blank">Yaguara</a> works to save the jaguar in Panama. He is monitoring the Darién to see how the jaguars are doing and working with locals to prevent poaching. He is also running cameras to see if the coyotes move into the Darién.</p>
<p><br><strong>WHAT'S NEXT FOR YOU:</strong><strong> </strong>We have just completed <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/snapshotusa?lang=en" target="_blank">#SnapshotUSA</a>, a survey of wildlife across all 50 states, including lots of coyotes! We are in the process of going through the 6 million photos now to identify all the species. We are also working with <a href="https://www.wildlifeinsights.org/about" target="_blank">Wildlife Insights</a>, a data collection site for pictures of wildlife around the world, and Google to develop artificial intelligence to help process all these pictures we get. Maybe this will help us keep an eye on how the coyotes do in Panama.</p>
<p>
<em>Roland Kays is a research associate professor of wildlife and a scientist at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina State University.<br/>
Disclosure statement: Roland Kays receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/coyotes-are-poised-to-enter-south-america-for-the-first-time-129297" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em><br/>
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Trump’s EPA Re-Approves ‘Cyanide Bombs’ Deadly to Coyotes, Foxes and Feral Dogs, other Wildlife
06 December 2019
Animals
Coyote pictured at Yellowstone National Park. Hanna May / Unsplash
Wildlife advocacy groups cheered when the Trump administration reversed its decision to approve the use of deadly predator traps known as "cyanide bombs" in August. But now the administration has reversed course again. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an interim decision Thursday and approved their use with added safety measures.
<p>"This appalling decision leaves cyanide traps lurking in our wild places to threaten people, pets, and imperiled animals," carnivore conservation director at the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> Collette Adkins said in a joint press release from wildlife groups. "The EPA imposed a few minor restrictions, but these deadly devices have just wreaked too much havoc to remain in use. To truly protect humans and wildlife from these poisonous contraptions, we need a nationwide ban."</p>
<div id="4da5f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="NJFW031576661033"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1202787551913881605" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">“This appalling decision leaves cyanide traps lurking in the wild, threatening people, pets and imperiled animals,”… https://t.co/VTkAQwN6cA</div> — Center for Bio Div (@Center for Bio Div)<a href="https://twitter.com/CenterForBioDiv/statuses/1202787551913881605">1575601873.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br>Cyanide bombs, otherwise known as M-44s, are spring-loaded traps that target livestock predators like coyotes, foxes and feral dogs, <a href="https://time.com/5744950/trump-cyanide-bombs/" target="_blank">Time explained</a>. When animals bite down on bait, cyanide is released into their mouths, killing them. They are used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Wildlife Service on public lands, as well as by state agencies in South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and Texas.</p><p>They became especially controversial after one of them injured a young boy in Idaho in 2017 and killed his dog. Idaho then prohibited their use on public lands, according to the joint press release, and Oregon and Colorado have also issued temporary bans, Time reported. When the EPA opened a public comment period on reauthorizing the use of the traps at the end of 2018, "an overwhelming majority" of the 20,000 comments it received opposed them. Environmental groups credited this public outcry with the EPA's decision in August to reverse its initial approval of the traps.</p><p>But the livestock industry supports the use of the traps and praised the EPA's new authorization.</p><p>"We sincerely appreciate USDA and EPA working together to ensure livestock producers have access to effective predator control, while also increasing public awareness and transparency," American Sheep Industry Association President Benny Cox said in the EPA announcement. "Livestock producers face heavy losses from predators, amounting to more than $232 million in death losses annually. We are particularly vulnerable during lambing and calving, where we see the worst predation."</p>
<p>To appease worries about trap safety, the EPA is issuing new restrictions. These include:</p><ol><li>Prohibiting the use of traps within 600 feet of a residence, except with the landowner's permission</li><li>Extending the buffer zone around public roads from 100 to 300 feet</li><li>Placing two elevated warning signs within 15 feet of the traps.</li></ol><p>But wildlife advocates say the restrictions do not go far enough to protect humans or animals.</p><p>"Tightening up use restrictions is turning a blind eye to the reality of M-44s," <a href="https://www.predatordefense.org/" target="_blank">Predator Defense</a> Executive Director Brooks Fahy said in the press release. "In my 25 years working with M-44 victims, I've learned that Wildlife Services' agents frequently do not follow the use restrictions. And warning signs will not prevent more dogs, wild animals, and potentially children from being killed. They cannot read them. M-44s are a safety menace and must be banned."</p><p>The traps killed 6,579 animals in 2018 and at least 13,232 in 2017, according to Wildlife Services data. Two-hundred of the animals killed in 2017 did not belong to the species targeted by the traps, and included opossums, raccoons and one bear.</p>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Jaymi Heimbuch / Urban Coyote Initiative
By Jaymi Heimbuch
Coyotes in urban spaces have become the new normal. There is now a large, and growing, population of coyotes in San Francisco. Residents in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Denver—among many other western cities—have long lived alongside coyotes.
<p> In recent decades, coyotes have even moved into urban hubs such as Chicago and New York City. </p><p>But what do we really know about urban coyotes' normal behavior? Surprisingly little. So researchers are busy trying to determine how, exactly, coyotes utilize city spaces and what factors cause a coyote to become a "nuisance animal." There's just one hitch: Coyotes are so clever and so adaptable that they keep changing the game as they figure out their strategies for living the city life. </p><p style="">One expert on the cutting edge of coyote research is Dr. David Drake with the <a href="http://uwurbancanidproject.weebly.com/" target="_blank">University of Wisconsin-Madison Urban Canid Project</a> (UWUCP). UWUCP is shedding a light on many aspects of coyote behavior, and those findings, in turn, are illuminating how to create smarter coexistence strategies between humans and wild coyotes.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
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<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Jaymi Heimbuch / Urban Coyote Initiative</small></p><p>By collaring and tracking the city's wild canids, Drake and his team are revealing a wealth of information about where coyotes prefer to live, their travel patterns, and how they share space with another common urban carnivore, the red fox. </p><p>Each winter, the team begins their collaring work. Thanks to the snow, it is a much easier time of year to see where their potential study subjects are hanging out. In January 2017, I had the chance to shadow Drake and his team during their field research.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
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<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Jaymi Heimbuch / Urban Coyote Initiative</small></p><p>It's about 15 degrees Fahrenheit as we exit the truck, and the sky is a pale winter gray despite the sun trying hard to shine through the clouds. Our small group is made up of Dr. Drake, graduate student Marcus Mueller, and several veterinary students. We walk a trail from the parking lot into an empty field near the university's arboretum. As we get closer to one of the team's nonlethal traps, we all hang back as Marcus keeps moving quietly forward.</p><p>He stops, peering through waist-high grass stalks and then gives us a nod. There is a coyote in the cable restraint he and Drake set the night before. This coyote is about to be a participant in a study that tracks the movement of Madison's urban coyotes. </p><p>After anesthetizing the young female, Mueller sets her on a tarp and wraps her in blankets to ensure her body stays warm after the drugs takes effect and her metabolism slows down. Then, we all approach and get to work. </p><p>The coyote is weighed and gets a radio collar carefully secured around her neck. The veterinary students take blood samples that will be held in storage until there is funding for analysis for health and genetics at a later point in time.</p><p>As the study continues, more and more questions are raised, including how the area's wild canids are related, how and where they disperse to, what diseases they have been exposed to, and more. The team collects what data they can now in preparation for future research funding. </p><p>Along with coyotes, the team is catching and collaring red foxes that live in Madison. When the study launched, its primary goal was to discover how foxes and coyotes share the urban landscape both spatially and temporally. Coyotes and foxes are considered natural competitors, and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> biologists have long assumed that if there are coyotes around, there will not be red foxes. In the urban landscape, however, it turns out this assumption is false. </p><p>Marcus Mueller recently published his master's research in the Public Library of Science (<a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0190971" target="_blank">PLOS</a>). His findings show that coyotes and foxes are active at the same times of day, but for the most part chose to use different types of habitat. Foxes tend to be in areas of higher human activity while coyotes prefer to stick to the margins, hanging out in areas with as little human activity as possible. This isn't always the case, though. </p><p>"In our study area, coyotes within the largest natural area (UW Arboretum) rarely ventured into surrounding developed areas, whereas coyotes near smaller natural areas (Owen Park) frequently used adjacent neighborhoods," Mueller wrote. "The size of natural areas may influence resource availability and therefore affect the way wildlife uses these areas." </p><p>UWUCP is also interested in exploring how coyotes behave in city habitats and what this means for developing better strategies for coexistence between humans and coyotes. Social media, it turns out, is one of the most critical components.</p><p>The UW team has embraced the press and social media as a way to engage the public about its work, including answering questions about why and how they're collaring coyotes. That connection has sparked successes that could be modeled elsewhere. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style="">
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<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Jaymi Heimbuch / Urban Coyote Initiative</small></p><p style="">For instance, in 2016 UWUCP began receiving reports of daytime sightings of one of its collared coyotes. The coyote wasn't running away from cars or people, which means it may have started losing its healthy fear of humans. So the team posted an alert on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/uwurbancanidproject/" target="_blank">UWUCP's Facebook page</a>. The post gave a heads up to the public that this coyote seemed to be getting habituated. It also made a call to action, requesting residents haze the coyote when they saw it, and to remove attractants like pet food that might be drawing the coyote into the locations recorded by the radio collar. </p><p>Within three days, the post reached 8,000 people, and UWUCP stopped receiving reports of the coyote.</p><p style="">"That's just an anecdote, [showing] that what we did worked," Drake told me. "But clearly we think reaching 8,000 people is a good thing, and we pushed good information out to 8,000 people that we wouldn't have otherwise. And, the animal wasn't seen anymore or people weren't reporting it anymore. We were able to affect management in real time, and that was a fun thing to explore."</p><p style="">"We definitely think a Facebook page or social media is the way to go," Mueller added. "That's how so many people communicate with each other, and you can get information out in real time for the most part. It's an opportunity for us to get people hooked, and once we have them hooked we can give them information and knowledge about what's going on and try to increase tolerance for these animals. If [people] come across these animals, they know what to do to keep themselves safe, to keep the animals safe, to keep their pets safe."</p><p>Facebook is one platform, as is Twitter and more localized message board platforms such as Nextdoor. The team also utilizes <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/" target="_blank">iNaturalist</a>, hosting a page for people to report sightings of foxes and coyotes.</p><p style="">"That helps us understand where these animals are on the landscape, if there are animals out there that we don't know about, and we look at how well our radio collar information overlaps with that iNaturalist data," Mueller said.</p><p style="">The more the team learns about how the animals utilize the landscape, the more of a story there is to tell residents and get them engaged and excited about the wildlife with whom they share the city, and the more able they are to assuage fears and proactively avoid conflicts, from coyote predation on pet cats to fox predation on backyard chickens. Every collared coyote and fox represents an information set that will ultimately benefit the entire population living within Madison's city lines and, perhaps, in cities across the country. </p><p style="">Among the questions the team continues to explore is where and when certain types of coyote-hazing activity by humans is effective; how often coyotes and foxes come into contact with domestic dogs; and coyote density from a rural to urban gradient, as part of understanding how coyotes disperse.</p><p style="">It is only a matter of time and determined watchfulness from researchers before we have unraveled the mystery of urban coyotes and craft an effective toolset for coexisting with our wild neighbors. </p><p style=""><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/coyotes-urban-wildlife" target="_blank">SIERRA Magazine</a>.</em></p>
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The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a complaint last week on behalf of a Wyoming resident in an attempt to stop an upcoming coyote-killing contest. The "Wyoming Best of the Best" involves teams of hunters vying to kill as many coyotes as possible from sunup to sundown.
Non-hunting participants place bets on the teams they think will kill the most coyotes. The complaint alleges the event constitutes a nuisance in the form of illegal gambling, since participants wager money and the outcome is based predominantly on chance. Illegal gambling is a violation of the state nuisance statute, designed to prevent activities that put the moral integrity and safety of the community at risk.
The Rock Springs event is scheduled for this coming weekend, Feb. 3 – 4. The rules encourage people of all ages and experience to enter, including children.
Wyoming Best of the Best involves betting opportunities for most coyotes killed, biggest coyote killed, littlest coyote killed, a rifle raffle and a Calcutta—a form of betting pool where participants pick winners and the pool of funds is distributed according to a prearranged scale of percentages, to those who selected winners. Hunting participants wager $50 per person for the chance to win cash prizes and advance to the state championship for killing the most coyotes. Teams may also wager an extra $20 per team to enter the "Big Dog/Little Dog" contests, for the chance to win extra cash prizes for killing the biggest and/or littlest coyote.
OMG! #Trump Sons Auctioning Off $1 Million #Hunting Trip to Celebrate Inauguration https://t.co/05pOgnH1JS @CenterForBioDiv @PETA @NWF @NRDC— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1482243854.0
The killing contest is not regulated by any government agency, hunting licenses are not required in Wyoming to kill coyotes and there is no limit on the number of coyotes a hunter may slaughter. The plaintiff worries the influx of hunters, whose goal is to win cash prizes for the indiscriminate and uncontrolled killing of coyotes, will negatively impact Sweetwater County's wildlife.
The contest also causes a serious disruption in the ecosystem leading to an unbalanced and unhealthy natural system. When coyote populations are disrupted by lethal means, younger pups have no adults to help them acquire food. This in turn causes many pups to prey on sheep and livestock. The disruption can also affect smaller predator populations by destabilizing entire ecosystems.
"Killing contests are simply blood sports," said Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. "They are completely inconsistent with appropriate conservation goals or effective wildlife management. Coyotes are essential members of healthy ecosystems, not targets to be killed for 'fun.'"