By Jonathan G. Way
Welcome to the Eastern Massachusetts Eastern Coyote Ecology Study led by Jonathan
Way, Dr. Eric Strauss, and Dr. Peter Auger, all currently affiliated with Boston
College. We are excited to have you on board this collaborative research project!
Existing members of the project include personnel from the Hyannis Animal Hospital,
Saugus Animal Hospital, Boston College (Environmental Studies Program and Urban
Ecology Institute), Revere High School, Barnstable High School, and the University
of Connecticut Storrs. After reading about our coyote project, we hope that
you become excited and decide to jump on board and be our newest team member.
The basic reason for our study is to develop an ecological profile of eastern
coyotes residing in a suburban area, Cape Cod (radio-collaring for coyotes actively
began in 1998) and an urban area, Boston (began spring 2002). Concurrently,
a second and just as important purpose of our study is to give students like
yourself authentic field experiences by having you actively participate in the
data collection process (and the eventual analysis of data) of our project.
Coyotes are ubiquitous in that they live in 49 of 50 U.S. states (Hawaii is
the exception). They live in all types of habitats from pristine wilderness
to urban areas, including most of Boston. Despite being very elusive, the coyote’s
continental wide distribution makes them an ideal case study for almost any
classroom in the United States.
The coyote (scientific name is Canis latrans) is a member of the Canidae, or
dog family. Their closest relatives are wolves, foxes and domestic dogs. Depending
on location the coyote is also called brush wolf, praire wolf, God’s dog,
the trickster (a Native American reference) and barking dog (this is what latrans
means). Coyote can be pronounced as kie-oat or kie-oat-ee. Some even say it
as coy-o-tee. I am amazed how many people ask us this question: "Is it
ki-oat or ki-oat-ee?" I usually say, "either, it doesn’t matter."
Not that we are right or wrong, but we prefer and usually say kie-oat.
The eastern coyote (Canis latrans var.), weighing 30-50 pounds and sometimes
even heavier, is the biggest variety of coyote. It is actually believed to be
a hybrid between the western coyote and either the red/eastern timber wolf [Canis
rufus (red), or C. lycaon (eastern timber) as currently is proposed] or the
gray (Canis lupus) wolf. Historically the coyote was a resident of the western
United States. It is believed that two factors played a key to coyotes colonizing
the eastern states beginning in the late 1800s/early 1900s: 1) habitat fragmentation
into agricultural and suburban areas, which provides plentiful prey opportunities
mostly in the form of rodents and rabbits, and 2) an absence of competition
from wolves, which kill coyotes when given the opportunity. Through natural
range expansion, the coyote is thought to have reached northern New England
by the 1930’s and 1940’s; it has moved steadily southward, now occupying
virtually all-suitable habitat in the Northeast. It is thought that coyotes
colonized eastern Massachusetts around the late 1970’s.
One theory, however, attests that coyotes have always inhabited New England
and merely survived at very low densities until the early 1900s. Data does not
support this theory, however, as research has found that coyotes generally are
able to colonize new areas very quickly. Thus, if present in the 1900s these
canids would have undoubtedly been detected shortly afterwards. The other, more
accepted theory, is that wolves used to be the canid that inhabited the northeast
and were hunted to extinction in the early 1900s. Then, as mentioned, the eastern
coyote (which probably mated with the few remaining wolves) colonized this area
around the 1950s.
I hope that this background information gives you some perspective and appreciation
for the remarkable journey this amazing species has made from the western state,
to literally our backyards. We hope that you have a pleasant journey while aboard
our research project. The fun has yet to begin…
Links of articles related to or about this study:
http://www.nescb.org/epublications/spring2001/coyotes.html - A magazine-like article for an online journal
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/1999/aug/8/coyote08.htm
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/1999/july/24/coyote24.htm
http://www.townonline.com/capecod/35306009.htm
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/2000/jun/4/coyotesmark4.htm
http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/archives/2002/apr/30/ukills30.htm
To immediately go to the following links, click on one of them: