A Study on the Affects Humans have on a coyotes Territory Range.

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A Study on the Affects Humans have on a coyotes
Territory Range.
by Thor Brown
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What interested me to do this project?

• Hearing about it from Andy Rosentrator
• Having an interest in coyotes and wolves
• Wanting to know more about the affects that
  humans may cause to animals

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What am I trying to find out?

• How does human development affect a coyotes
  territory?
• Does mating season cause the territory to change
  dramatically?
• Does the area where the coyote lives have any
  affect on the size of its territory?
• What is the main habitat coyotes enjoy to be in?

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What have I accomplished?

• Learned to use Telemetry
• Trapped coyote(5) (3 rabbits and a crow)
• Successfully plotted points on the coyotes
  location using telemetry.
• Learned to use ArcView (Harmonic Mean, Kernel,
  etc).
• Created a map of the coyotes territory to see a
  possible den location.\
• Walked transects
• Did a vegetation analysis

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Description

• Large yellow eyes
• Reddish in color
• White color belly
• Big bushy tail, with black tip
• Erected pointed ears
• Weigh 20 to 30 pounds
• 15 to 20 inches tall

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Coyote Information

• Territory is 3 to 15 miles squared
• Can maintain speed at 25 to 30 miles per hour for
  a long period of time
• Are not very good at sprinting for a long period
  of time (50 miles per hour)
• Known for howling, yipping, squeaking, and
  barking
• Other names are brush wolf, prairie wolf,
  coy-dog, little wolf, and American jackal

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Typical coyote habitat

• Prefer
• woodland borders
• brushy areas
• hardwood secondary growth that follows cut over
  or burned forests
• old lumber roads
• dry marshes and swamps
• prairies with thickets of bushes
• river bottoms and swamps
• Rarely In
• Cultivated fields removed from cover protection
• Meadows (do not prefer to be in a meadow even
  though they hunt sometimes in them)

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What a coyote typically eats

• Like (preferably carrion)
• Rodents
• shrews, voles, mice, and pocket gophers
• Mammals
• squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, porcupines, deer,
  woodchuck
• Livestock
• (occasionally eat) sheep, lambs, chickens, calves
• Dislike
• Heart
• Liver
• Lungs

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Percentage of Food
94 mammals 3 birds 2 wild fruits 1
insects .1 reptiles
Animal Percentage 30-35 rabbits 20-30
rodents 9.5 deer (carrion) 1.08 sheep
Carrion Percentage (Northwestern) 35 deer 26
other mammals 19 rodents 6 snowshoes 5
vegetation 4 birds
Carrion Percentage (Southwestern) 21 rabbits 18
mice 12 plants
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Territory

• Size
• 10- 40 kilometers squared
• 3- 15 miles squared

• Size Determined By
• Food Availability
• Season
• Social Structure
• Age
• Gender

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Traveling Styles

• Galloping
• Average 25 miles per hour
• Record is 30 miles per hour

• Trotting or Dog Trot
• Average 25 miles per hour
• Record is 45 miles per hour

• Sprinting
• Average 35 miles per hour (short distance)

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Life Expectancy and Mating

• Expectancy
• Most do not live longer than 6 to 8 years old
• One has lived up to 15 years old
• Record in captivity is 18 to 18.5

• Do not mate for life
• May stay together for several years
• More often a few years
• Able to breed by age two

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• Females
• In heat once a year (4 to 5 days)
• In heat in January to March
• Gestation 60 to 63 days

• PUPS
• 1 too 19 in a litter (average 6)
• 5 to 7 pounds
• 14 days (eyes open)
• 4 weeks (grow hair)
• 8 to 9 weeks (weaned)
• 8 to 9 months (leave parents)

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Coyote Study Methods
1) Trapping and Collaring 2) Radio Telemetry and
Plotting 3) Habitat and Transects
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Trapping the coyote

• Trapper
• Mr. Bertelson
• Traps
• 1.5 traps (Victors 2 coil)
• Snares
• Trapping Process

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Trapping

• Step 1 (Find the Trapper)
• Mr. Bertelsen

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Types of Traps
1.5 trap
Snares
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Trapping Process
Step 2 Staking the trap
Step 1 Clear area for Trap. The freshly dug
dirt will attract the coyote.
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Continued Process
Step 4 Place thin sheet of plastic over the trap
pan which avoids dirt setting trap off.
Step 3 Place the trap in the cleared area Make
sure trap is placed level
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Continued Process
Step 6 Create a hole to intensify the coyotes
curiosity. Place bait inside the hole.
Step 5 Place dirt over the trap, using a
sifter. Use a pan cover to make sure the dirt
does not set off trap.
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Continued Process
Final Step Place a cotton ball in the hole and
put on K Nine Choice Lure and some Fish Oil Bait
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Other materials used

• Propylene glycol
• 1.5 traps (Victors 2 coil)
• K nine choice lure
• Fish oil bait

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Final Results
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Snare Process
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Snare Process
Step 1 Find a heavily used game trail or an old
trail from a vehicle or four- wheeler.
Step 2 Hammer the pole into the ground to hold
the snare in a stationary position. When the
coyote is caught it will not allow it to pullout.
(However, pullouts do happen.)
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Continued Snare Process
Step 3 Take a long metal piece and place into
ground so it can hold up the snare when finished.
Step 4 Take the small loop and put it around the
pole that you staked into the ground.Then pull
tight to avoid the snare from coming loose.
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Final Step
Step 5 Take large loop and pull it as big as it
can get. Then hook it onto the long metal piece
to support it from falling down. Once hooked
onto the piece you need to make sure the bottom
of the snare is 8 to 9 from hard ground. The
make sure that the snare covers the entire trail.
(Coyotes will not go around a trail if they
dont have to.)
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Final Snares
Bottom part of the snare must be 8 to 9 from
hard ground.
Place snares on deer trails or old road tracks.
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What happens when I a coyotepulls out?
3 foot radius
Snare location
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Collar Day
Approaching the Coyote to put on the noose.
Holding the coyote down, with noose, to calm him
so she doesnt get hurt when we approach her.
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Collaring Process
Me tightening the collar on the coyote.
We then covered the coyotes head so it could not
see what we were doing. Also, the cover would
calm it down some.
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Collaring Process
Picture of the coyote that was collared.
The collar
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Letting the Coyote Go.
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Other Trapped Coyotes
Same
Same
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Trapped animals
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Telemetry Units
Antenna
Receiver
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Example of Cones and Triangulating
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Using Arcview

• Take and Aerial Photo off of TerraServer
• Then look go through the book and plot down each
  point on the photo
• After a few weeks of plotting you will start to
  see an area where the coyote is found the most
• That information will give you a possible den
  location

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Coyote Points
Coyote points are RED
Houses are BLUE
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Harmonic Mean
Every slide is a separate week. Goes up to SIX
weeks.
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Harmonic Growth
Preview of how the coyotes territory increased
over a six week period.
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Kernel
The WHITE area is the area where the coyote has
been the most. (possible den area) 50 in core
range
The GREEN is the coyotes territory range 95 of
the time it is in this area.
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These maps are divided into Morning and Night.
From 930 a.m. to 300 p.m. is the morning. Then
from 300 p.m. to 930 p.m. is the night.
Morning
Night
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The information above and on the next page show
the use of corridors
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The chart above shows which habitat the coyote I
had collared tended to be in. The deciduous
forest was the most the coyote spent its time. I
believed the den to be in this area, next to the
river.
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3D Image of possible den location
Topo
Aerial
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3D image of the River Valley
Area where coyote was last tracked.
Followed the creek all the time
Areas where coyote has been tracked the
most. (Den Location)
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Dens found while looking for my coyote
Condensation from Coyotes breathing, in the den
Diameter of hole is 12 to 14
Coyotes usually have three to four den entrances.
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Transects

• Select a habitat location
• Use GPS
• Mark every time I walk across a coyote track
• Try and walk an L shape
• Try to make every habitat I walk equally walked

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Example of Transects
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The graph above shows the different habitats that
I walked for transects. After walking 7
different transects I found out that coyotes tend
to be in alfalfa the most, and grasslands and cut
woods the least.
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THE END