Early life experience influences dispersal in coyotes (Canis latrans)

Abstract

Natal dispersal plays an important role in connecting individual animal behavior with ecological processes at all levels of biological organization. As urban environments are rapidly increasing in extent and intensity, understanding how urbanization influences these long distance movements is critical for predicting the persistence of species and communities. There is considerable variation in the movement responses of individuals within a species, some of which is attributed to behavioral plasticity which interacts with experience to produce interindividual differences in behavior. For natal dispersers, much of this experience occurs in the natal home range. Using data collected from VHF collared coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Chicago Metropolitan Area we explored the relationship between early life experience with urbanization and departure, transience, and settlement behavior. Additionally, we looked at how early life experience with urbanization influenced survival to adulthood and the likelihood of experiencing a vehicle related mortality. We found that coyotes with more developed habitat in their natal home range were more likely to disperse and tended to disperse farther than individuals with more natural habitat in their natal home range. Interestingly, our analysis produced mixed results for the relationship between natal habitat and habitat selection during settlement. Finally, we found no evidence that early life experience with urbanization influenced survival to adulthood or the likelihood of experiencing vehicular mortality. Our study provides evidence that early life exposure influences dispersal behavior; however, it remains unclear how these differences ultimately affect fitness.

City divided: Unveiling family ties and genetic structuring of coyotes in Seattle

“…Other studies have found similar numbers of private alleles among fewer samples and larger geographic ranges where a higher number of private alleles would be expected (Szpiech & Rosenberg, 2011). ing half as many private alleles in coyotes, whose recorded urban dispersal distances range from 1.7 to 60 km (Zepeda et al, 2021) demonstrates significant lack of interbreeding between quadrants.…”

“…Their study also covered a larger geographic area and used more loci in the genotyping panel. Considering this, having half as many private alleles in coyotes, whose recorded urban dispersal distances range from 1.7 to 60 km (Zepeda et al., 2021) demonstrates significant lack of interbreeding between quadrants. Munshi‐South and Kharchenko (2010) also found similar F ST values as we found among the quadrant groups.…”

Early social complexity influences social behaviour but not social trajectories in a cooperatively breeding cichlid fish

“…However, there is still behavioural variation within sex that can be explained by early-life experience. In coyotes ( Canis latrans ), for instance, individuals of both sexes differ in their dispersal decisions depending on their environment in early life [ 21 ].…”

Survival and cause-specific mortality of coyotes in Wisconsin

“…Few instances of coyote–vehicle collision have previously been reported in Wisconsin (Jackson 1961), although we identified vehicle collisions as the cause of death for 13.5% of study animals. While vehicle collision mortality rates do not appear to be related to urban association within either natal or adult home ranges (Riley et al 2003; Zepeda et al 2021), highway mitigation structures, such as exclusion fencing and wildlife crossing, have been known to reduce mortalities (Gilhooly et al 2019).…”