Huff Understanding Coyotes

The Coprehensive Guide for Hunters, Photographers and Wildlife Observers
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4835-6643-6
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

The most comprehensive book about coyotes ever written yet remarkably very easy to read and enjoyable. Includes beautiful photographs by award winning professional outdoor wildlife photographers. The author spent years studying the collective body of coyote research as well as thousands of hours observing coyotes in the wild throughout North America. Now you can become an expert on the most intelligent and adaptable animal in North America and obtain a true appreciation of this magnificent wonder of nature. Whether you are a coyote hunter, deer hunter, photographer, wildlife observer, or predator enthusiast, you will find this book both fascinating and beneficial. It will give you a true appreciation of the coyote as well as teach you how you can apply the knowledge in this book to get close to coyotes in the wild!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Huff, Michael

Leseproben

1 Coyote Biology Distribution If you are reading this book and live in North or Central America, you are indeed very fortunate. You live among the most adaptable canine predator in the world. From a global perspective, most humans will never have the good fortune to experience a coyote due to the animals’ rather limited geographical range. In this, the coyote differs from many other canine predators, such as fox and wolf, which are widely distributed across many continents. Fox, which are the most widely distributed canine predator, live throughout the world. They can be found in relative abundance throughout North America, North Africa, Asia, and even Australia! Similarly, gray wolves also live throughout the world. Their population spans across North America, throughout Eurasia, and even into northern, eastern, and western Africa. It is somewhat of a mystery why the coyote is not established in South America. Their southernmost range ends in Panama, the southernmost country in Central America. Perhaps the Panama Canal prevents them from becoming established farther south. Or perhaps their lack of expansion may be related to the density of jungles or the presence of jaguars in South America, which fill a similar role in nature to the coyotes’ own. Although many of us live around coyotes, we often are completely unaware of their presence. This highly adaptable predator has greatly expanded into new areas in recent years. It is a good bet that wherever you live, coyotes are probably living close to you. The omnivorous coyote can survive and thrive in nearly every type of habitat and population density. Today coyotes live in every contiguous state within the United States and every Canadian province. They even live comfortably in large population centers, including New York City, and are abundant in the Chicago metropolitan area. You will even find coyotes roaming the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. No longer is the coyote an animal confined to the Southwest. Today coyotes are found nearly everywhere on the continent! Coyote Territories Similar to a wolf, the coyote is a territorial animal. Coyote groups maintain and defend a defined territory, except for transient coyotes, which we will discuss later. The actual territory of a coyote group consists of the amount of land needed to meet their needs for survival. Coyotes need adequate food and water sources, as well as suitable habitat for safety, security, and pup rearing. Coyote territories consist of two different sections. The wide area, consisting of the extreme outside border a coyote group will defend, is referred to as their territory. However, inside this area is a rather small location in which they spend most of their time. This small area is referred to as their core area or core territory and is very important to identify if you want to significantly increase your coyote sightings. Many areas within a territory may not be frequented on a regular basis. However, when coyotes are in a given area, they will scent mark their territory boundaries with urine. This is done most often by urinating on rocks, logs, or other elevated obstructions. Coyotes seem to want to urinate as high as possible on these objects, perhaps as a way of showing their size or dominance, or to increase their scent dispersal. Coyotes will defend their entire territory from other coyotes. In addition, they will kill animals viewed as competition for food sources within their territory. This often occurs with fox, raccoon, opossum, and even bobcat on occasion. Territory Research Findings Unfortunately, there is no simple general rule of thumb to calculate the size of coyote territories. Territory size varies based on the quality of the habitat and sometimes other factors as well. Superior, high-quality habitat typically results in smaller territories. Inferior, low-quality habitat means larger territory size in order to meet the survival needs of the coyote group. Territory use also tends to vary throughout the year. Coyotes often confine themselves to smaller areas of their territory during mating season, pup-rearing season, and during times of abundant food. Coyotes often use larger areas of their territory as food supplies begin to become scarce. Researchers studying coyotes in northern Utah revealed differences in home range size based on prey availability.1 During times of prey abundance, territory size of coyotes was approximately 3 square miles. In contrast, during periods of sparse prey, territory size more than doubled to 7.5 square miles or more. The researchers also found an increase in roaming coyotes during periods of low prey abundance. In the Utah study, the territory size was found to be much smaller than in some other areas of the country. For example, a research study conducted in eastern Maine estimated territory size as approximately 17.9 square miles.2 Human vs. Coyote Territories Thinking of our own human activity is a great way to develop a deeper understanding of coyote territories. Consider all of the places you frequent in a typical month to meet your needs or your family’s. Some places might include the grocery store, work, doctor’s office, pharmacy, restaurant, retail stores, gas stations, church or temple, areas of recreation, etc. If you were a coyote, the geographic area of all of these places would be your territory. Thankfully you do not need to defend your territory! Now, let’s continue our analogy. Imagine a wildlife biologist knocks on your door and you agree to carry a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device for a month. Each day your precise location is recorded at set intervals and plotted onto a map. At the end of the month, the map reveals a very dark concentrated area of data points. This area is your core territory. The map would also have outlying points for places farther away that you visited less frequently. If you connected all of these outlying points they would reveal your overall territory. Core Territories—Coyote Gold Finding the core territory of a coyote group is absolutely golden for increasing your chances of seeing coyotes! If someone wants to find you, where do they usually show up…your house! After all, it is a confined geographic location where you spend a significant amount of your life engaged in eating, resting, sleeping, working, grooming, etc. Likewise, if you want to find a coyote, your odds are exponentially increased by going where the animal spends most of its time: its core territory. Urban vs. Rural Territories There exists an interesting parallel between humans and coyotes living in urban areas versus living in rural areas. Quite frequently, people who live in large cities often live in a very small geographic area or territory. In fact, in some cities, folks do not need to purchase an automobile, and I have even met some folks who have never left New York City their entire lives. Everything these people need is very close by. However, humans in rural areas must travel farther to gather the supplies they need for survival. Coyotes share this common trait with people. Urban-dwelling coyotes tend to have a much smaller territory than coyotes living in rural areas. In summary, it is difficult to provide hard and fast rules related to coyote territory size. While I often think of average home range sizes for coyotes as being in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 square miles, this is clearly not the case in all circumstances. Coyote territories can be as small as 2 square miles or may extend 25 square miles or more. Speed & Movement The Jamaican Sprinter, Usain St. Leo Bolt, recorded the fastest human speed ever achieved in 2013, running nearly 28 mph. Despite being the fastest human on earth, Bolt is no match for a coyote in a race. If you have witnessed a coyote running at full speed, it is absolutely unbelievable! They seem to cover great expanses of landscape in mere moments and to do so with ease. Coyotes excel in speed and distance. During normal movement, a coyote walks 4 mph, trots 8 mph, and runs at the unbelievably fast speed of 40 mph! Even the sleek and streamlined red fox cannot match the speed of a coyote; the red fox can achieve a top speed of 30 mph, a full 25% slower than the coyote. In addition, coyotes have tremendous endurance enabling them to cover great distances. If moving at less than full speed, coyotes can cover miles without needing to stop and rest. I gained my first appreciation of coyote speed while calling fox with a friend of mine one night. He and I set ourselves up under the darkness of night on a dairy and grain farm bordered on one side by a highway. Shortly after I began making prey distress sounds on a Dinner Bell custom hand call, I noticed an unusual set of lights flashing past in the direction of the highway. However, they only seemed about half the distance to the highway. After running the situation through my mind, I mentioned to my friend that I had spotted two car lights passing, but strangely they had appeared much closer than the other vehicles on the highway. I concluded that I must have just picked up some type of reflection in my glasses. At this point, I was hoping he was not thinking I believed a UFO just went past! However, moments later two coyotes suddenly appeared in the lower corner of the field where the mysterious lights had been headed. Once I connected all of the pieces of the puzzle, I realized what I had seen...