Canis latrans
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJNA12893 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
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Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC10697429 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The coyote is a wild North American member of the dog family
| PRJNA12892 | ENA
Project description:Living coyotes modify their behavior in the presence of larger carnivores, such as wolves. However, little is known about the effects of competitor presence or absence on morphological change in coyotes or wolves over long periods of time. We examined the evolution of coyotes and wolves through time from the late Pleistocene, during which many large carnivorous species coexisted as predators and competitors, to the Recent; this allowed us to investigate evolutionary changes in these species in response to climate change and megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene. We measured postcranial skeletal morphologies of wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (C. latrans) from Pleistocene-aged tar deposits, as well as early, mid, and recent Holocene populations of both. We found few morphological differences between Pleistocene and Holocene wolf populations. Conversely, we found many differences in coyotes: Pleistocene coyotes were larger and more robust than Holocene populations. However, within 1,000 y of the megafaunal extinctions, coyotes are morphologically indistinguishable from modern populations. We cannot attribute these differences directly to climate change because modern coyotes do not follow Bergmann's rule, which states body size increases with decreasing temperature. Instead, we suggest that Pleistocene coyotes may have been larger and more robust in response to larger competitors and a larger-bodied prey base. Although we cannot separate competition from predator-prey interactions, this study indicates that the effects of biotic interactions can be detected in the fossil record.
| S-EPMC3306717 | biostudies-literature
Project description: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.
| S-EPMC8374878 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Anthropogenic hybridization of historically isolated taxa has become a primary conservation challenge for many imperiled species. Indeed, hybridization between red wolves (Canis rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) poses a significant challenge to red wolf recovery. We considered seven hypotheses to assess factors influencing hybridization between red wolves and coyotes via pair-bonding between the two species. Because long-term monogamy and defense of all-purpose territories are core characteristics of both species, mate choice has long-term consequences. Therefore, red wolves may choose similar-sized mates to acquire partners that behave similarly to themselves in the use of space and diet. We observed multiple factors influencing breeding pair formation by red wolves and found that most wolves paired with similar-sized conspecifics and wolves that formed congeneric pairs with nonwolves (coyotes and hybrids) were mostly female wolves, the smaller of the two sexes. Additionally, we observed that lower red wolf abundance relative to nonwolves and the absence of helpers increased the probability that wolves consorted with nonwolves. However, successful pairings between red wolves and nonwolves were associated with wolves that maintained small home ranges. Behaviors associated with territoriality are energetically demanding and behaviors (e.g., aggressive interactions, foraging, and space use) involved in maintaining territories are influenced by body size. Consequently, we propose the hypothesis that size disparities between consorting red wolves and coyotes influence positive assortative mating and may represent a reproductive barrier between the two species. We offer that it may be possible to maintain wild populations of red wolves in the presence of coyotes if management strategies increase red wolf abundance on the landscape by mitigating key threats, such as human-caused mortality and hybridization with coyotes. Increasing red wolf abundance would likely restore selection pressures that increase mean body and home-range sizes of red wolves and decrease hybridization rates via reduced occurrence of congeneric pairs.
| S-EPMC5916303 | biostudies-literature
Project description:With the extirpation of apex predators from many North American systems, coyotes Canis latrans have become the de facto top predator and are ubiquitous members of most ecosystems. Keystone predators aid in maintaining ecosystem function by regulating the mammal community through direct predation and instilling the landscape of fear, yet the value of coyotes regulating systems to this capacity is understudied and likely variable across environments. Since coyotes are common in the Midwestern United States, we utilized camera traps and occupancy analyses to assess their role in regulating the distribution of mammalian herbivores in a fragmented suburban ecosystem. Forest cover was a strong positive predictor of white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus detection, while coyote occurrence had a negative effect. Coyotes exerted a negative effect on squirrel (Sciurus spp.) and eastern cottontail rabbit Sylvilagus floridanus occurrence, while urban cover was a positive predictor for the prey species' occurrence. These results suggest all 3 species behaviorally avoid coyotes whereby deer seek denser forest cover and squirrels and cottontails mitigate risk by increasing use of urban areas. Although previous studies reveal limited influence of coyote on the rest of the carnivore guild in suburban systems, we suggest coyotes play an important role in regulating the herbivorous mammals and hence may provide similar ecological benefits in urban/suburban forest fragments through trophic cascades. Furthermore, since hunting may not be allowed in urban and suburban habitats, coyotes might also serve as the primary regulator of nuisance species occurring at high abundance such as white-tailed deer and squirrels.
| S-EPMC5804128 | biostudies-other
Project description:The geographic distribution of coyotes (Canis latrans) has dramatically expanded since 1900, spreading across much of North America in a period when most other mammal species have been declining. Although this considerable expansion has been well documented at the state/provincial scale, continent-wide descriptions of coyote spread have portrayed conflicting distributions for coyotes prior to the 1900s, with popularly referenced anecdotal accounts showing them restricted to the great plains, and more obscure, but data-rich accounts suggesting they ranged across the arid west. To provide a scientifically credible map of the coyote's historical range (10,000-300 BP) and describe their range expansion from 1900 to 2016, we synthesized archaeological and fossil records, museum specimens, peer-reviewed reports, and records from wildlife management agencies. Museum specimens confirm that coyotes have been present in the arid west and California throughout the Holocene, well before European colonization. Their range in the late 1800s was undistinguishable from earlier periods, and matched the distribution of non-forest habitat in the region. Coyote expansion began around 1900 as they moved north into taiga forests, east into deciduous forests, west into costal temperate rain forests, and south into tropical rainforests. Forest fragmentation and the extirpation of larger predators probably enabled these expansions. In addition, hybridization with wolves (C. lupus, C. lycaon, and/or C. rufus) and/or domestic dogs has been documented in the east, and suspected in the south. Our detailed account of the original range of coyotes and their subsequent expansion provides the core description of a large scale ecological experiment that can help us better understand the predator-prey interactions, as well as evolution through hybridization.
| S-EPMC5974007 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Coyotes (Canis latrans) are an important species in human-inhabited areas. They control pests and are the apex predators in many ecosystems. Because of their importance it is imperative to understand how environmental change will affect this species. The end of the Pleistocene Ice Age brought with it many ecological changes for coyotes and here we statistically determine the changes that occurred in coyotes, when these changes occurred, and what the ecological consequences were of these changes. We examined the mandibles of three coyote populations: Pleistocene Rancho La Brean (13-29 Ka), earliest Holocene Rancho La Brean (8-10 Ka), and Recent from North America, using 2D geometric morphometrics to determine the morphological differences among them. Our results show that these three populations were morphologically distinct. The Pleistocene coyotes had an overall robust mandible with an increased shearing arcade and a decreased grinding arcade, adapted for carnivory and killing larger prey; whereas the modern populations show a gracile morphology with a tendency toward omnivory or grinding. The earliest Holocene populations are intermediate in morphology and smallest in size. These findings indicate that a niche shift occurred in coyotes at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary - from a hunter of large prey to a small prey/more omnivorous animal. Species interactions between Canis were the most likely cause of this transition. This study shows that the Pleistocene extinction event affected species that did not go extinct as well as those that did.
| S-EPMC4281224 | biostudies-other