Oxford resident Holly Hadac has been following with interest the news reports about the Oxford Township farm where the owners claim coyotes were the cause of one horse’s death and another’s injury.
As a 19-year licensed wildlife rehabilitator and volunteer member of the Southeastern Michigan Coyote Research Project (SEMCRP), she wished to weigh-in regarding the coyotes? population, eating habits, the idea of managing them and their demeanor.
Led by Bill Dodge, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences at Wayne State University, SEMCRP’s main goal is ‘to provide information to wildlife biologists, animal damage control officials, urban planners, educators and other interested parties to help develop reasonable and effective management strategies to mitigate human-coyote-conflicts,? according to www.semcrp.org.
The project began in 2009 and Dodge is hoping to wrap it up by the end of this summer.
The group is researching how coyotes are distributed, what their food sources are and how human development has impacted their movement patterns and habitat selection.
‘We don’t care if people love or hate coyotes,? Hadac said. ‘We want their opinion to be based on fact that’s backed up by research.?
Coyote population
Hadac said everyone from trappers to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) claim there’s an increased coyote population.
But she disagrees.
‘There’s no research to tell you that,? Hadac said. ‘You have to do a before-and-after study to know that. We’re the only ones in the lower peninsula doing a coyote study.?
Hadac believes the perception of an increased coyote population in southeast Michigan is based on people now realizing that what they’re seeing isn’t just some dog running loose.
‘What we do know is that now people are more aware of what they’re looking at,? she said.
Hadac pointed to the nature and size of the wild canine predator’s territory as proof that ‘we don’t have high coyote populations? as some people believe.
‘Coyotes are very territorial,? she explained. ‘They patrol their borders nightly and they don’t let trespassers in. They don’t let other coyotes into their territory.?
The only coyotes allowed within this territory are the mated alpha pair and their juveniles. Dodge explained a mated pair’s pups can ‘stay in the pack and help raise the other pups and bide their time until one of the alphas dies or is displaced.? But ‘juveniles often disburse? from their home range to look for ’empty territory? to claim and a mate with which to pair.
‘The boys compete for territories and mates, so (the males are) not friends out in the wild like a lot of the wild animals are,? Hadac said.
In urban/suburban areas, researchers found that a coyote’s territory ranges from 4 to 10 square miles, according to Hadac.
It’s much harder to measure the size of a coyote’s territory in rural areas, Hadac said, but one of the coyotes that SEMCRP tracked with a radio collar moved from an industrial/suburban area to a rural area and ‘he was maintaining a 16-square-mile territory.?
To Dodge, questions concerning the number of coyotes are difficult to answer ‘because no one’s really keeping track of the population size.?
‘What I can tell you from looking at hunting and trapping data (is) it looks like the population did initially increase starting in about the 1980s, but it appears to have leveled off.?
Tim Payne, the DNR’s Southeast Michigan Wildlife Supervisor, believes southeast Michigan’s coyote population has grown over the last 30 years based on his experiences
‘I definitely think it’s an increase in numbers,? he said. ‘Thirty years ago, we didn’t get calls (regarding coyotes) like we get today.?
‘When I started in southeast Michigan in the 1980s, we got very, very few coyote calls, and now, it’s a regular, routine thing,? Payne continued. ‘I think we’ve gotten them probably from every community. I think their numbers have increased in that time. We have more of them and they have adapted.?
For coyotes, it’s all about food
To Hadac, the most important thing to remember about coyotes is their lives revolve around their next meal. ‘Everything they do is about the food,? she said.
If coyotes are making a habit of coming around a home or property, Hadac said it’s usually because people are feeding them either ‘intentionally or unintentionally.? Coyotes normally hunt around dusk and dawn, ‘but they’ll be out in the middle of the day if there’s a food source there, if somebody’s feeding them.?
An example of unintentional feeding is raising poultry, such as chickens, ducks or geese, but not securing them. This becomes a known food source to coyotes.
In cases like this, Hadac said, ‘People have to change their (animal) husbandry practices to prevent that.?
‘We have to manage ourselves,? she explained. To her, getting rid of potential food sources is the best way to keep coyotes away.
‘If you eliminate a food source, you eliminate the coyotes,? she said. ‘It takes them two days to learn that and then they don’t come to where the food source was anymore.?
The DNR website recommends eliminating all outside food sources, especially pet foods; putting garbage out on the morning of pickup day; clearing out wood and brush piles because they’re good habitat for rodents, part of the coyote diet; and using good animal husbandry practices and guard animals to protect livestock.
‘There’s no reason for them to come around if there’s no food sources,? Dodge said.
Hadac views eliminating food sources as the better way to keep coyotes away as opposed to trapping them.
Trapping coyotes
According to Dodge, the only way trapping could possibly successfully rid an area of coyotes is if it was done every year indefinitely and at least ?75 percent of the population was removed? every year.
The thing about coyotes is whenever they’re removed from an area, it’s only a matter of time before others move in to claim that territory, he explained.
‘Even if you remove all the animals from an area, (it’s) going to be filled by juveniles looking for new territories,? Dodge said.
Trapping coyotes can result in smaller-sized family groups, according to Dodge, ‘which means there’s more food per coyote, so then the breeding females are in better condition and they produce pups that weigh more.?
‘With higher weights, the pups survive longer,? he said, plus there’s now more food for the pups to eat.
Smaller families with higher pup survival rates can potentially, according to Dodge, lead to greater numbers of coyotes occupying more territories.
‘Basically, when you’re removing them, you’re keeping them in kind of a colonization state,? Dodge continued. ‘That’s one of the reasons they were able to spread across North America. Trapping actually helped them increase.?
Dodge doesn’t believe trapping is a blanket solution to dealing with all coyote-related issues. ‘Trapping is appropriate when you can identify an individual (coyote) that’s causing problems,? said Dodge, who admitted ‘that’s very difficult? to do.
He believes ‘the best thing is to learn to coexist with them.?
The coyote diet
Between 2009 and 2012, Dodge said SEMCRP collected more than 2,000 samples of coyote fecal matter, known as scat, and analyzed about 200 of them.
Based on that, Dodge said they’ve found ‘the top three food items? are small rodents (such as mice and voles), rabbits and whitetail deer. Fruit and vegetation were also found to be part of the coyote diet.
Hadac believes when deer remains are found ‘that’s normally roadkill.?
‘A coyote doesn’t take down an adult deer,? she said. ‘It does not behoove a smaller animal like that to take down one that is a lot bigger than it is . . . Deer are not part of their prey base. It’s rabbits and rodents.?
When deer hair is found in scat samples collected in the spring, Dodge said SEMCRP has made the assumption that it’s from fawns.
However, when deer remains are found in samples taken at other times of the year, he said they usually assume it’s from roadkill.
A trapper was recently quoted in the Leader as calling coyotes ‘the Number One killer of fawns.?
Hadac disagrees. She said there’s no research to back that up. In this area, Hadac said she’s ‘convinced half of (the fawns) die? and it’s not due to coyotes; it’s because they’re ‘very delicate animals.?
‘They lay in that tall wet grass and they get pneumonia when they’re first born,? she said.
Payne also had issues with the idea that coyotes are the primary killers of fawns.
‘I’m not sure I would go to that extent,? he said. ‘Certainly, if you’ve got a heavy farming community and you have relatively narrow corridors where fawning occurs, they are more vulnerable to coyotes in those situations. But I’m not sure I’d call them the Number One killer.?
Many pet owners, particularly those who have small dogs and cats, are concerned about coyotes attacking and killing their animal companions.
The DNR website states that coyotes will ‘prey on unattended small dogs and cats, if opportunities exist.? It goes on to advise pet owners to ‘not allow pets to roam free when coyotes are present ? consider keeping pets indoors or accompany them outside, especially at night.?
Based on the scat samples obtained by SEMCRP, Dodge said, ‘I would say less than 1 percent of their diet consists (of small dogs and cats).?
‘We’ve only recovered maybe one or two (samples containing those remains),? he continued. ‘It’s a very, very small percentage, so it’s not a significant portion of their diet.?
Dodge said if coyotes get ‘conditioned? to finding food around where people are and ‘get used to? being around humans, then ‘they might start attacking small dogs and cats.?
Coyote demeanor
For the most part, Hadac said, ‘Coyotes are the most timid animals I’ve ever worked with.?
‘Their first defense is to avoid people,? she said. ‘Generally, if you don’t bother them, they’re not going to be defensive.?
Whenever Hadac’s trapped them for research purposes, she’s never had a problem. While they’re in the trap, she places a net over them ‘and they fall over.?
‘They never move,? Hadac said. ‘These coyotes are so petrified by our presence when we have them trapped that they poop on themselves (because) they’re so scared.?
Dodge agreed.
‘When we catch them, they’re usually pretty docile,? he said. ‘I’ve never had one make an aggressive move towards me when we have them down. We do tranquilize them once we get ahold of them, but that’s mostly for their protection.?
While they’re anesthetized, SEMCRP members weigh the coyotes and place radio collars on them, so they can be tracked. They’re placed in a crate while they’re recovering and when the door is opened to release them, Hadac said they don’t know what to do because they’re so ‘confused? by this interaction with people.
‘I have to poke at them to get them to leave,? she said.
Dodge said coyotes can be aggressive toward other coyotes or domestic canines if they’re near a den site or in their territory.
‘That’s typical,? he said.
He stressed in these situations, aggression is typically directed toward other animals, not humans.
Coyote size
According to Hadac, most of the coyotes trapped by SEMCRP for tracking purposes were between 25 and 32 pounds.
‘The largest one we caught was 37 pounds,? Dodge said. ‘So, they’re relatively small animals. But like anything, if you see something from a distance and you don’t have any reference point, they often do look larger, especially in the wintertime because their coat’s very, very thick.?
The DNR website states coyote weights range from 25 to 45 pounds.
‘The size and weight of coyotes are commonly overestimated because their long fur masks a bone structure that is slighter than that of most domestic dogs,? according to the website.