Mammology Literature Review: The American Coyote (Canis latrans)

Mammology Literature Review: The American Coyote (Canis latrans)

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Table of Contents

1. SPECIES INFORMATION
2. Classification

The coyotes’ geographic distribution has expanded dramatically from 1900, and have spread across North America in the same period other mammal species have been in decline.

Kingdom- Animalia

Phylum- Chordata

Class- Mammalia

Order- Carnivora

Family- Canidae

Genus- Canis

Species- Canis latrans

Fig.1.Taxonomic Classification of the Coyote. Source: CABI (2020). https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/90296

1. Description

The American coyote (Canis latrans) is a Canidae family mammal with a greyish-brow to yellowish-brown fur on its top while the underparts have a whitish color (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2020). People tend to mistake them for small to medium-sized domestic dogs, with a long and bushy-tipped tail, a narrow pointed face, and sharp ears. Since they might be mistaken for wolves or dogs, coyotes are often identified by how they run with their tail down (NHPBS). They have a long and narrow muzzle, a black nose, yellow eyes, and its triangular ears are placed on its head. Ward et al. (2018) claim that coyotes have a moderate body size ranging from 9 to 23 kg that supports their predatory behaviors. According to Hennessy (2007), the male coyotes weigh slightly more, 11k, while the female an average of 10kg, but with a variance from east to west. They typically measure 1 meter from nose to rump, but with a variation from the west to east. The sexual dimorphism indicates males are consistently larger compared with the females, but with only a difference of 1 to 3 kg (Hennessy, 2007).

1. NATURAL HISTORY
2. Geographical Distribution

Hody and Kays (2018) note the spread of the coyotes across much of North America, ranging from the great plains to the arid west. There is confirmation from museum specimens that the mammal has been present in California and the arid west during the Holocene. They expanded around 1900 into taiga forests in the north, the deciduous forests in the east, the southern tropical rainforests, and the western coastal temperate forests (Hody & Kays, 2018). The extirpation of the larger predators and forest fragmentation could have enabled the expansions. Hody and Kays (2018) note that whole the coyotes were confined to North America’s western two-thirds, they now occur across most of the continent. They are present in the Atlantic and Pacific seaboard, and from Alaska to Panama. The creation of new human settlements in the late 1880s explains the expansion into western Canada and Alaska (Hody & Kays, 2018).

1. Home Range

Coyotes found in undeveloped sites have a home range extending beyond 50 km² (Hennessy, 2007), but they are usually constrained to their territorial behavior, rarely venturing outside unless dispersing offspring (Ward et al., 2018). The home range usually contains a finite resource potential. Therefore, it reflects a compromise between energy expenditure cost for patrolling, scent-marking, and confronting intruders, and the benefits of sufficient resource protection enabling coyotes to sustain stable territories for breeding (Ward et al., 2018). The resources include refugia, food, and dens, with the use of prey influencing the home range’s size and habitat composition. The coyote home ranges also constitute a mixture of open and densely populated vegetated environments, as the heterogeneity of habitat types provides alternative prey (Ward et al., 2018). For example, the small home-range sizes, cooler months, and less density of vegetation correlate with coyote use of deer. Therefore, coyotes select home ranges with heterogeneous habitat composition to increase the available prey proportion through spillover of the target’s populations colonizing sink territories.

1. Territorial Information

Coyotes, like other Canis species, hold territories to facilitate group living that ensures optimal reproductive fitness (Hinton et al., 2015). However, not all defend territories, with ecological biologists often classifying them with respect to their use of space, as either residents or transients. The resident coyotes belong to a pack and possess a territory exhibiting passive and aggressive behaviors to exclude conspecifics, and constitute the breeders, pups, and juveniles (Hinton et al., 2015). Hence, they engage in scent making and physical conflict behavior. The transient coyotes do not maintain territories and display nomadic movements that indicate the absence of fidelity in a particular area. Their space use ranges from approximately 30 km² to about 3,000 km². Hennessy (2007) emphasizes that the coyotes establish territories and maintain bonds within a group of packs, whose members cooperatively defend the territory to ensure access to resources for the members. The alpha female and alpha male dominate the social hierarchy within the packs with the alphas ensuring the young can feed and survive.

1. Habitat

Coyotes generally select open, treeless environments in northeastern North Carolina. Hinton et al. (2015) claim that they center their territories on the edges of forests and agricultural fields. The areas are usually with higher agriculture percentages in the core areas as forest habitat increases in outer fringes. In autumn through winter, the harvest season, the coyotes loiter in forest environments within 50 to 300 m of the edges neighboring roads and agricultural fields (Hinton et al., 2015). Once the wheat fields reach heights of up to 0.5 m in the growing season, spring through summer, the coyotes abandon the forest habitats and loaf in wheat fields (Hinton et al., 2015).  They then shift to corn later in the season once the wheat is harvested. The predominance of agricultural habitat types reduces the home ranges, while the forest ranges expand. Besides, the residents tend to select coastal bottomland forests and edges compared with the transients that choose agricultural areas. However, the transients also bid habitats near agricultural habitats and center their movements via road networks in regions proximate to the resident habitat.

1. Niche

Coyotes expanded their niche to larger prey due to the extirpation of apex predators like wolves and cougar across most of North America’s eastern regions (Hody & Kays, 2018). Hennessy (2007) adds that since modern agriculture’s monocultures do not sustain high populations of rodents or lagomorphs, rural coyotes have to expand their home ranges to obtain enough prey to feed themselves and their young. Besides, coyotes have a generalized omnivorous diet that enables them to adjust to a wide variety of habitats. Hennessy (2007) claims that their diet constitutes fruits, vegetation, lagomorphs, rodents, and insects like grasshoppers. Therefore, they consume a wide range of food sources, with those in northern Illinois feeding mainly on small rodents, eastern cottontail, and fruits. Besides, the coyotes prey on domestic cats and small dogs that constitute a small portion of their diets (Hennessy, 2007). They also feed on the carrion deer, mostly killed by natural causes, automobiles, or hunters. Those in colder areas feed on white-tailed deer to survive winter, while the larger eastern coyotes hunt deer.

1. Mortality Factors

The young coyotes experience the greatest death from contracting diseases to which the older ones are more resistant. Hennessy (2007) asserts that mange poses a fatal risk for the coyotes in cold regions, with the winter playing a role in the euthanization of the affected coyote due to deteriorating health. The prey mostly transmits diseases like fatal listeriosis, through parasites that can also cause the Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and by contact with other coyotes and animals. Hennessy (2007) notes that juveniles suffer the highest mortality rates because they are susceptible to parasites and disease. Besides, their conflict with humans contributes to death, especially in the urban areas where they actively seek human-related diet sources. Hinton et al. (2015) add that the use of roads exposes the coyotes to the risk of death because moving vehicles can hit them. The coyotes also die from hunters shooting them in their habitats.

• REPRODUCTIVE INFORMATION

1. Breeding Season

Hennessy (2007) states that the female coyotes are monoestrous and enter estrous mostly in February. Comparatively, the males enter breeding status in January and sustain the condition until mid-March (Hennessy, 2007). Latitude might dictate the variation in the breeding season, but the period often ends by April. According to Carlson and Gese (2008), coyotes are socially monogamous. During the breeding season, the adult coyotes’ reproductive tracts experience extensive remodeling. The female coyote cannot experience serial ovulations even if not impregnated within her first estrus (Carslon & Gese, 2008). She undergoes bilateral, spontaneous, and synchronous ovulation. Sexually mature and immature females show gross morphological differences. Carlson and Gese (2008) observe that while juvenile females are likely to experience reproductive hormone up-regulation and concomitant physical signs, they may not ovulate. The subordinate females also fail to breed because of delayed proestrus and estrus compared with the dominant female pack-mates. Besides, the bonded coyote pairs often remain together indefinitely for years, whereby they share territorial maintenance responsibilities.

1. Mating Habits

Several males pursue a female coyote in estrus, with the female then selecting one male by the last few days of the cycle. Subsequently, they copulate several times, with the mated pair selecting and excavating den sites that other animals abandon (Hennessy, 2007). They can also dig out new dens on create them in brush piles, hollow trees, abandoned buildings, and recessed stream banks. City parks are often preferable for the urban coyote denning rather than residential or urban areas. The mating pair might establish numerous dens to deal with disturbance or periodic flea infestations (Hennessy, 2007). Carlson and Gese (2008) reiterate that since they are not reliant on human intervention, the success of coyote reproduction is dependent upon a progression of key elements. They include obtaining a mate, conceiving, gestation, and parental care, all of which depend on the effective harmonization of physiological processes, social behaviors, and anatomic alterations.

1. Number of Offspring

Carlson and Gese (2008) report that litters with an average of 3 to 7 pups are born between March and May in most latitudes of North America. The gestation period lasts for 60 to 63 days. Increased availability of food resources for the breeding coyotes can contribute to large litter size and promotes the survivorship of the pups. Hennessy (2007) also notes that the population density can determine the litter sizes, pushing it to between 4 to 9 pups. The younger females are more likely to have smaller litters. The coyote females may also share a den, but mostly for those related in some sense, such as sisters or mother and daughter (Hennessy, 2007). Furthermore, there are equal ratios at birth and in populations, although the male-to-female proportion increases in saturated habitats (Hennessy, 2007). Conversely, scarce, or exploited systems reduce the male-to-female ratio. The coyote pups at birth usually weigh an average of between 200 and 300 grams, the females weighing slightly more than the males (Hennessy, 2007). The pups reach adult size by the time they attain the age of 9 months.

1. Care of Offspring

Both the male and female coyotes devote their energy and time to ensure the survival of their offspring. According to Hennessy (2007), the parents participate in the socialization of the young one in hunting behaviors. Additionally, the siblings support each other to socialize through playing and fighting. Ward et al. (2018) consider coyotes venture outside their home ranges to be associated with offspring dispersal. After the pups are fully weaned, both parents feed them with regurgitated food (NHPBS, 2020). While the male pups leave their mother aged between 6 and 9 months, the females will stay with the mother’s pack. Once the offspring mature, mostly the dominant male and female breed may participate in defending resources and the infant pups. Usually, the father provides food while the mother nurses the young during the early neo-natal development period (Hennessy, 2007). The dispersal of young coyotes happens from 4 to 10 months after birth, dependent on the food source availability and population densities.

1. CONCLUSION
2. Current Status

The coyotes are presently not among the endangered, despite the efforts of farmers and ranchers to control them with traps, poison, and guns. Therefore, their conservation status is still secure, with reports indicating their population continues to increase. Their home range habits, being both resident and transient, supports their survival because they can avoid being hunted and have access to sufficient food resources. They also form packs that safeguard them against an attacker, with a heightened sense of smell, hearing, and sight supporting their existence in their habitats. They are easily adaptable to diverse environments, including mountains, forests, the plains, and even living closer to humans in the cities as they seek food.

1. Future Outlook

Although coyotes face numerous risks associated with their conflict with humans, the threat of diseases, and the rising demand for their far, the mammal is adaptable and equipped to survive. Hence, biological evolution supports its survival, with the emergence of wolf-like characteristics supporting its new role as an effective predator to hunt deer. An expanded source of diet means the coyotes have an extended home range. Furthermore, humans will learn to coexist with the animals in highly populated areas because of the genetic changes they have experienced. They are becoming increasingly timid around humans, which protects them against the threat of lethal trappings.

References

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. (2008). Animal fact sheet: Coyote. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020 from https://www.desertmuseum.org/kids/oz/long-fact-sheets/coyote.php

CABI. (2020). Invasive species compendium. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020 from https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/90296.

Carlson, D. A., & Gese, E. M. (2008). Reproductive biology of the coyote (Canis latrans): integration of mating behavior, reproductive hormones, and vaginal cytology. Journal of Mammalogy, 89(3), 654-664.

Hennessy, C. A. (2007). Mating strategies and pack structure of coyotes in an urban landscape: a genetic investigation (Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University).

Hinton, J. W., van Manen, F. T., & Chamberlain, M. J. (2015). Space use and habitat selection by resident and transient coyotes (Canis latrans). PLoS One, 10(7).

Hody, J. W., & Kays, R. (2018). Mapping the expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) across north and

Central America. ZooKeys, (759), 81-97.

NHPBS. (2020). Coyote- Canis latrans. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020 from https://nhpbs.org/natureworks/coyote.htm.

Ward, J. N., Hinton, J. W., Johannsen, K. L., Karlin, M. L., Miller, K. V., & Chamberlain, M. J. (2018). Home range size, vegetation density, and season influences prey use by coyotes (Canis latrans). PloS One, 13(10).

Mammology Literature Review