Jonathan G. (Jon) Way is the leader of the eastern coyote ecology project in eastern Massachusetts, which he began while at Barnstable High School on Cape Cod (1993). He received his B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1997), M.S. from the University of Connecticut at Storrs (2000), and is currently working on a Ph.D. degree at Boston College. Currently, he has expanded his coyote study site from Cape Cod to include Boston and his team has already successfully captured 1 coyote from Boston (May 2002). Additionally, he is hand-raising a wild-born litter of eastern coyote pups on display at the Stone Zoo in order to conduct a behavioral and morphological study. His main interest concerns the study of predators inhabiting urbanized ecosystems.

For a link to my Curriculum Vitae, please click here. Updated November 2004

Notice July 31, 2007. I have not had access to Boston College files for months. However, I have a new website. Please go to http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com to see the new site including being able to purchase my book Suburban Howls!

Here is a more detailed description of myself and My Positionality as a Researcher:

I have always been fascinated with wildlife, particularly predators. My dream throughout childhood and during college was to go to some far off place such as Yellowstone National Park (in Wyoming) or Africa and study wolves, big cats, or any large "exotic" carnivore. I was able to partially fulfill that dream by visiting Yellowstone National Park on two occasions.

However, as I was finishing up my undergraduate years at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1993-1997), I particularly became interested in wildlife closer to home - i.e., in Massachusetts. As I began conducting background readings and literature reviews on coyotes, I quickly realized that there was no scientific information available on eastern coyotes in all of Massachusetts and few studies had been conducted in all of the northeastern United States. Particularly, there was nothing known on coyotes inhabiting suburban/urban areas.

I became increasingly intrigued with the possibility of studying coyotes within the Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (my hometown), because of the lack of knowledge of coyote ecology in that region. Therefore, I applied, and was accepted, into the Natural Resources Management and Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut at Storrs where studying coyotes on Cape Cod was my masters thesis project.

As I studied coyotes on Cape Cod I regularly involved high school students in the data collection process and, unknowingly at the time, was having them participate in authentic scientific apprenticeship programs. While I was finishing my master's degree requirements and applying to graduate schools for a Ph.D. program I quickly realized that there was scant funding available to study coyotes or any other animal for that matter. After talking with longtime friends, Dr. Eric Strauss and Dr. Peter Auger, both from Boston College, I was informed of the Urban Ecology Institute (formerly the Watershed Institute) at Boston College. I was told that I might be able to get accepted into a Ph.D. program whereby I would involve students and teachers in the scientific research process. The plan was to start studying coyotes in Boston (much like I had done on Cape Cod for my masters research) and to use teachers and their students in the Boston area participating in the Urban Ecology Institute as subjects where I could involve them in the professional development of scientific research knowledge with the goal of having them collect scientifically sound data that would eventually be publishable. This idea was perfect for me because I had always involved students and teachers in the scientific process anyway, so why not "officially" include them via using the Urban Ecology Institute's model.

I applied, and was accepted, into the Lynch Graduate School of Education beginning January 2001. I am now beginning to work with teachers from Revere High School and am very excited to accomplish two long-standing, joint goals of mine: 1) the professional development and science education provided to teachers and their students; 2) the collection of data on coyotes in Boston because virtually nothing is known about coyotes in urbanized environments such as Boston. The funding associated with science education is greater than in traditional wildlife studies which makes this research a perfect marriage for me; i.e., blending the worlds of education and science.