Coyote 101

Odds are this coyote was dead within a year of receiving this collar.

Study still years from completion

Researchers have long known coyotes to be a resilient species, but even the province’s leading authority on the animals is surprised by the coyote’s ability to thrive while dozens of its kind are being slaughtered.

According to the early findings of a major research study of coyotes in Prince Edward County, more than half of the animals collared last year were dead within a year—the victims of man—farmers, hunters, trappers and motor vehicles.

The mortality rate and the relative youth of the animals killed has been a surprise to Brent Patterson, a wildlife biologist for the Ministry of Natural Resources. Perhaps more surprising is that despite the carnage, the coyote populations has largely remained intact. Patterson and his researchers are eager to learn how this is happening.

“We are interested to understand how you can have a fairly healthy population when more than half of our collared coyotes aren’t surviving each year,” said Patterson. “We are focusing on how that is occurring.”

The answers, however, are still more than two years away. Contrary to some news reports, the study begun last May won’t be complete until 2013 at the soonest. Patterson says his group will trap and collar coyotes this summer and next, and wrap up data collection by the end of winter 2013.

He does believe, however, the overall population of coyotes has likely plateaued and is stable in the County. According to hunter surveys and other data, he believes the population peaked in 2008 and has been slowly declining since then. More folks are seeing rabbits more plentiful than before. Some are seeing their first groundhog in Prince Edward County. While not meaningful data, it is perhaps a sign that something has changed.

Council has asked Patterson to come to Shire Hall to give an update on the study. Patterson has agreed to speak to a committee of council on July 14.

He expects he will have to spend some time dispelling myths.

Patterson is highly skeptical of claims that coyotes are travelling in packs with 20 or more animals.

“There is just no evidence of this,” said Patterson. “Most packs are family groups comprised of parents and between four and eight pups typically less than a year old.”

That suggests a maximum pack size of about nine. He explains that evidence is showing that the packs patrol a defined territory averaging about 15 square kilometres— with little overlap with nearby packs. He says landowners situated between territories may hear more than one pack, but that they rarely, if ever, cross paths.

Transient animals, a coyote (typically a year or two old) that has broken its connection to the pack will cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. Some animals have been tracked at Huyck’s Bay one day and at South Bay a few days later, then back to Ameliasburgh, covering about 100 kilometres in a week.

Patterson suggests that these transient animals may be acting as a population buffer—ready to step in when a breeding vacancy occurs. But their transient behaviour also puts this group at the greatest risk of human predators.

“They tend to be more vulnerable to hunting and trapping,” said Patterson. “They are in unfamiliar territory and don’t know what they are getting into.”

Patterson says his group is finding some evidence that some coyotes are sticking around their pack beyond their first birthday, suggesting that the territory may be saturated, that they have no where else to go. But he says this is rare and doesn’t last. By wintertime there was no evidence these adolescents were still travelling with the pack.