The effect of environmental pressures on The Coyote
...e reached their highest densities in North Dakota, and possibly other parts of the Great Plains, from about 1895 to 1915. In 1915, Federal Predator Control began, when Congress appropriated $125,000 to organise and conduct control operations in partnership with states, and local sponsors. The initial emphasis was on eliminating wolves from western and midwestern states. This wolf-control partnership was amazingly successful--almost all wolves were removed from western states by 1923. Coyotes generally increased in numbers as wolf populations declined. Coyote populations fluctuated from 1915 to 1950, but bounty records suggest a general decline after 1915. In Kansas, low coyote populations were recorded from 1932 through 1940 and from 1954 through 1958. Compound 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) was used to control coyotes in Kansas from 1950 through 1960; coyote numbers declined dramatically there. Through the 1960's, coyote numbers continued to decline with increased use of Compound 1080 and other predator-control toxicants. Coyote numbers generally increased throughout the Great Plains after 1972 when the use of toxicants on federal lands was prohibited. Local fluctuations in coyote populations have occurred since 1970, largely in response to coyote fur prices and trapping and hunting. Coyote diets on the Great Plains today are distinctly different than they were at the turn of the century, due to changes in agricultural systems and human populations. Early in this century, most people on the Great Plains lived on mostly small farms and raised a variety of domestic animals. These farms usually were distributed fairly evenly across much of the region, making domestic animals widely available as prey for coyotes. Many farms suffered livestock and poultry losses from coyotes, which intensified predator-control efforts. Studies of coyote diets on the Great Plains through the 1960's demonstrated that rabbits, rodents, and domestic animals were important food items. For example, in Kansas, almost 90% of the coyote diet was dominated by these three prey groups (Fig. 1), and more than half of all coyote stomachs sampled contained remains of either domestic livestock or poultry. Similar patterns in consumption of rabbits, rodents, and domestic animals were evident in Nebraska, with livestock and poultry occurring in a third of all samples. Recent studies of coyote diets on the Great Plains also have shown the importance of rodents and rabbits as coyote prey. In contrast to earlier studies, however, domestic livestock and chickens are eaten infrequently (Fig. 1); other common coyote foods today include certain insects, fruits, and wild birds. Historically restricted to the western prairies, the coyote was a plains animal. As a result of habitat changes in eastern North America (logging and land clearing) and reductions in wolf populations, this adaptable animal appeared in Ontario in 1919, Quebec in 1944 and New Brunswick in 1958. During this same period they colonized all the New England states. By the mid-70s they were well established in New Brunswick, and their arrival in Nova Scotia was inevitable. The first record in Nova Scotia was in 1977. By 1983 they had been reported in Prince Edward Island, and then Newfoundland in 1987. Coyotes have also expanded in other directions and are now found throughout most of North America except the Arctic. During range expansion, coyotes underwent some rapid evolutionary changes, which have allowed them to adapt to a forest environment, including the pursuit of larger, deer-sized animals. Our eastern coyote is considerably larger than its western counterpart. Its pelt or coat is darker, coarser and less valuable. They also tend to run in larger, more organized packs. Coyote...