Individual and Temporal Variation in Use of Residential Areas by Urban Coyotes

Abstract

Coyotes (Canis latrans) have established populations in most major urban centers across North America. While the risk of attacks on humans or their pets is low, the presence of carnivores in areas with high human use has resulted in increased public concern. Having a clearer understanding of which animals are more likely to interact with humans and when interactions are more likely to occur will help mitigate human-carnivore conflicts. Despite clear broad-scale patterns of human avoidance, human-coyote interactions occur most frequently in residential areas. Our purpose was to determine if use of residential areas varied consistently across individuals or time. We used locations from GPS collars deployed on 14 coyotes in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada from 2012 to 2017 to fit a step selection function. Average (±SE) home range size estimates were 17.3 ± 4.6 km2 for resident coyotes and 102.8 ± 32.9 km2 for non-residents. We found that coyotes used natural areas more (β = 0.07, SE = 0.02, p < 0.0001), and roads (β = −0.50, SE = 0.13, p < 0.0001) and residential areas (β = −0.79, SE = 0.21, p = 0.0001) less during the day than at night. We also found that coyotes were more likely to use residential areas in the breeding season from January to April (β = 0.69, SE = 0.20, p = 0.0007) and the pup rearing season from May to August (β = 0.54, SE = 0.13, p < 0.0001) than in the dispersal season from September to December. Lastly, we found that resident coyotes were less likely to use residential areas than non-resident coyotes (β = −1.13, SE = 0.26, p < 0.0001). As far as we are aware, our study is the first to identify the seasons when coyotes are more likely to use residential areas. The seasonal patterns in habitat use that we observed reflect patterns that have been previously reported for human-coyote conflicts. Our results demonstrate that reducing the availability of anthropogenic food sources in residential areas, particularly in the winter and spring, should be a priority for managers aiming to reduce human-coyote conflict in urban areas.

Canine Alveolar Echinococcosis: An Emerging and Costly Introduced Problem in North America

“…Tis fnding was not entirely surprising, as both provinces have, for the frst time in 2013 in Alberta, recorded locally acquired cases of AE in humans [26,27,34] as well as a high prevalence of E. multilocularis in coyotes [22,25,35]. Furthermore, coyotes are increasingly found within urban communities close to homes and in dog parks [36]. Most of the afected dogs in this study had contact with wildlife (specifcally coyotes and/or foxes), visited of leash areas, and were coprophagic, all potential risk factors for canine AE.…”

Coyotes in New York City Carry Variable Genomic Dog Ancestry and Influence Their Interactions with Humans

“…Schell et al [ 60 ] observed captive coyote pairs over successive litters and found that parents engaged in riskier behavior (i.e., foraged more frequently) with their second versus first litters, and that parental habituation may result in reduced fear of humans in their offspring. However, in field settings, urban coyotes usually avoid people spatially [ 17 , 61 , 62 ] and temporally [ 63 ]. Young et al [ 64 ] found that coyotes that were hand-fed were more likely to subsequently approach humans and were harder to recondition towards avoidance, showing that loss of fear of humans and associated habituations are behaviors learned by individual coyotes.…”

Coyotes in New York city carry variable dog genomic ancestry and influence their interactions with humans

“…Schell et al (2018) observed captive coyote pairs over successive litters and found that parents engaged in riskier behavior (i.e., foraged more frequently) with their second versus first litters, and that parental habituation may result in reduced fear of humans in their offspring. However, in field settings, urban coyotes usually avoid people spatially (Atwood et al 2004, Gerht et al 2009, Thompson et al 2021) and temporally (Gese et al 2012). Young et al (2019) found that coyotes that were hand-fed were more likely to subsequently approach humans and were harder to re-condition towards avoidance, showing that loss of fear of humans and associated habituations are behaviors learned by individual coyotes.…”