Research Agenda
I will be posting the most important sources I found for my research here!
Scicomm Article & Literature Review
Kays, Roland, et al. “Rapid adaptive evolution of Northeastern Coyotes via hybridization with Wolves.” Biology Letters, vol. 6, no. 1, 23 Sept. 2009, pp. 89–93, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0575.
The title of this article is “Rapid Adaptive Evolution of Northeastern Coyotes via Hybridization with Wolves”, published in Biology Letters. There are three researchers involved in this study. Roland Kays is a research professor and director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation lab, at Nature Research Center, NC Museum of Natural Sciences. Kays focuses on ecology and conservation. Abigail A. Curtis is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Santana Lab, Department of Biology, University of Washington. Curtis focuses on the skull shapes and jaw muscles of mammals. Jeremy J. Kirchman is the Curator of Birds and Mammals at the New York State Museum. Dr. Kirchman focuses on the study of the evolution and biogeography of birds. This research is done by comparing the skulls of the coyote specimens and the DNA sequence. The result of the research is that the eastern coyote population has the DNA sequence of the western coyote, showing evidence of hybridization. A sample of coyotes from Ohio carries the DNA of western coyotes which further proved the possibility of coyote hybridization. This result tells us that the coyotes are breeding with other species to strengthen their adaptability and survival rate, which would result in a higher population size. The main idea of this research is that the living conditions of eastern and western coyotes are quite different, but they still manage to breed with each other and produce stronger offspring. This phenomenon is likely the cause of the expansion of coyote populations. This article is my fundamental article and it is the oldest among my three sources. They are all talking about the hybridization of coyotes and its influence. All three research came up with a similar result. However, this research is mostly done by analyzing dead coyote specimens and DNA sequences instead of observing the living coyotes.
Thornton, Daniel H., and Dennis L. Murray. “Influence of hybridization on niche shifts in expanding coyote populations.” Diversity and Distributions, vol. 20, no. 11, 7 Sept. 2014, pp. 1355–1364, https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12253.
The title of this article is “Influence of Hybridization on Niche Shifts in Expanding Coyote Populations”, published in Diversity and Distribution. There are two authors involved in this research. Daniel H. Thornton is an associate professor at Washington State University who studied Carnivore ecology and conservation. Dennis L. Murray is the Canada Research Chair in Integrative Wildlife Conservation, bioinformatics, and Ecological Modeling. This research is done by developing a species distribution model and comparing climatic niche overlap between original coyote populations with hybrid coyote populations, and harvest models to test the difference in how coyote and hybrid coyote react to human interaction and land use. The result of this study is that there is a clear niche difference between the original coyote population and hybrid coyote populations, meaning that hybridization may affect the coyote population's behavior. The coyotes could breed with wolves to change their traits and better adapt to the environment. The main idea of this research is that the hybridization species may cause a niche shift which will highly likely be invasive. We need to be cautious when predicting distributional changes in a population if they are exposed to potential genetic change. This research is newer than my fundamental article, and it is very related to it. They are talking about coyotes and their hybrid with wolves, the potential threat of invasion of hybrid coyotes, and using a similar distribution diagram when examining the data.
Ellington, E. Hance, and Dennis L. Murray. “Influence of hybridization on animal space use: A case study using Coyote range expansion.” Oikos, vol. 124, no. 5, 19 Feb. 2015, pp. 535–542, https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.01824.
The title of this article is “Influence of Hybridization on Animal Space Use: A Case Study Using Coyote Range Expansion”, published in Oikos. The two authors of this article are Ellington Hance and Dennis L. Murray. I already introduced Murray in the previous bibliography. Ellington Hence is an assistant professor and Grazinglands Wildlife Specialist at the University of Florida. The research is accomplished by identifying coyotes’ home range size, using kernel density estimators to identify the home range size variety, and using the resource availability model. The result of this study is that the hybrid coyote home range size is larger and more diverse compared to the non-hybrid coyote population, meaning the hybrid coyote population is more adaptive to the environment and invasive. The main idea of this research is that the hybrid species may take up more space than the original species. The hybrid population would influence the ecology of other animals in the area and change their behavior. The hybridization may cause more diverse behaviors of a species. This article is the newest among my three sources. This article is very well connected with the other two articles. They all talked about the influence of hybridization on the coyote population and the environment. This article and “Influence of Hybridization on Niche Shifts in Expanding Coyote Populations” share one common author, which is very interesting.
Defining the Problem
Fox, C. H. (2006). Coyotes and Humans: Can We Coexist? Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference, 22. http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/V422110104 Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6mx0f9pf
The first article I chose is Coyotes and Humans: Can We Coexist? Written by Camilla H. Fox. Fox is the founder and executive director of Project Coyote who promote the coexistence between humans and wildlife. The article was published in 2006 in the Journal Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference. This research is done by data collecting and case analysis. The result is that the best way to promote long-term coexistence between humans and coyotes is to educate people and coordinate among the agencies. This result is significant because it proves that killing and trapping does not solve the real problem. We need to respect animals’ lives and share Earth with them. The main idea of this article is the expansion of the coyote population caused more conflict between them and humans. To avoid conflict, killing and trapping coyotes would not solve the root problem, educate people is the best way to go. This article is connected with my other two sources because all three of them talked about the conflicts between coyotes and humans. But my second article talked more about the root cause of this conflict. This article is the oldest among my three sources.
Poessel, Sharon A., et al. “Environmental factors influencing the occurrence of coyotes and conflicts in urban areas.” Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 157, Jan. 2017, pp. 259–269, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.022.
The second article I chose is Environmental Factors Influencing the Occurrence of Coyotes and Conflicts in Urban Areas, written by Sharon A. Poessel, Eric M. Gese, and Julie K. Young. Poessel is a Wildlife Biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. She mainly focuses on ecology and conservation of a diverse mix of wildlife. Gese is an emeritus professor at Utah State University conducting field research on wild carnivores. Young is an associate professor at Utah University focusing on behavior, ecology, and management of carnivores and beavers. This research is done by data collection and data analysis. The result of this study is that coyote and human conflict are more likely to happen in highly-developed areas with minimal green space. This result suggested that changing the urban landscape and educating people could effectively reduce the conflict. The main idea of this article is that the conflict between humans and coyotes is highly affected by the landscape and environment. Reshaping our city landscape may reduce the chance of this conflict. This article is the oldest among my three sources. All of them are talking about coyote-human conflict and how this problem affects people’s lives. This article targeted especially on the environmental factors instead of human influence.
Gehrt, Stanley D., et al. “Home range and landscape use of coyotes in a metropolitan landscape: Conflict or Coexistence?” Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 90, no. 5, 15 Oct. 2009, pp. 1045–1057, https://doi.org/10.1644/08-mamm-a-277.1.
The third article I chose is Home Range and Landscape Use of Coyotes in a Metropolitan Landscape: Conflict or Coexistence? Written by Stanley D. Gehrt, Chris Anchor, and Lynsey A. White. Gehrt is a professor and wildlife extension specialist at Ohio State University. Anchor is a senior wildlife biologist and forest preserves district of Cook County. White is a director of humane wildlife conflict resolution for The Humane Society of the United States. This research is done by setting the study area, animal capturing and tracking, data collection and analysis, behavioral observation, and conflict assessment. The result of this study is that the living area of urban coyotes is much smaller than rural coyotes and their behavior can be managed by agencies to avoid conflict. This result is significant because it proves that humans and coyotes can live together without conflict if there is proper management. The main idea of this article is that the population of coyotes is expanding which causes more conflict between humans and them, but this conflict can be avoided and prevented by proper government management and education. This article is the second oldest among my three sources. This article also talks about the conflict between humans and coyotes and how we can prevent it. Unlike the other two articles, this article studied the living range of the coyotes, which significantly proved that urban coyotes’ behavior is manageable.
Advocating Solutions
Baker, Rex, O., and Robert Timm M. “Management of conflicts between urban coyotes and humans in Southern California.” Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference, vol. 18, 1998, https://doi.org/10.5070/v418110164.
The first article I found for my solution section is Management of Conflicts Between Urban Coyotes and Humans in Southern California, by Rex O. Baker and Robert M. Timm. Baker is a longtime agricultural biology professor at Cal Poly Pomona, a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, and an expert on conflicts between coyotes and humans in urban areas. Robert Timm studies the life history ecology and conservation biology of mammals at the University of Kansas. This article was published at UCANR. The methods the researchers used were data collection on previous coyote attacks, environmental and behavioral analysis, and evaluation of management practices. The results of this research include coyote’s predictable pre-attack behavior, the impact of human behavior on coyotes, some effective management strategies, and the necessity for long-term solutions. One human behavior that will increase the risk of coyote attack is directly feeding. The feeding of coyotes will decrease their fear of humans which causes more attack cases. The main idea of this article is that many factors contribute to human-coyote conflict but we can avoid those conflicts by practicing certain rules and implementing management practices. We can keep the attack cases very rare if we practice those techniques. This article is the oldest among all my three articles. All three articles analyzed human-coyote conflicts but this article especially focused on the management practice.
Whitley, Cameron T., et al. “Urban human–coyote conflicts: Assessing friendliness as an indicator of coexistence.” Animals, vol. 13, no. 18, 13 Sept. 2023, p. 2903, https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13182903.
The second article I found for the solution section is Urban Human-Coyote Conflicts: Assessing Friendliness as an Indicator of Coexistence, by Cameron T. Whiteley, Melanie M. Bowers, and Harriett Grantz. Whiteley is an author affiliated with Western Washington University and researches environmental sociology and animal studies. Bowers is an assistant professor at Western Washington University and focuses on urban politics and policy, housing and homelessness policy, and LGBT+ politics and policy. Grantz is affiliated with Western Washington University and focuses on climate change, environmental management, and sustainable development. This article was published on MDPI. The method of this research is analyzing the newspaper articles from different publishers and assessing the friendliness of the language they used toward coyotes. The result of this research is different cities in the U.S. have very different points of view on coyote-human conflicts. The media describes coyotes in a friendly language and tends to promote coyote coexistence, and vice versa. The research also concludes that media plays an important role in how people think about coyote’s coexistence. The main idea of this research is to explore the influence of media on people’s thoughts toward coyotes. The media report can significantly shape people’s thoughts. This article mainly focused on the role the media plays in coyote-human conflicts and how media can promote and ruin this coexistence. However, my other two articles focus on how to avoid conflicts by implementing certain rules. This article is the newest among my three chosen articles.
Draheim, Megan M, et al. “Public perspectives on the management of Urban Coyotes.” Journal of Urban Ecology, vol. 5, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1093/jue/juz003.
The third article I found for my solution section is Public Perspectives on the Management of Urban Coyotes, by Megan M. Draheim, E.C.M. Parsons, Susan A. Crate, and Larry L. Rockwood. Draheim is a professor of practice at George Mason University studies natural science, social science, and policy. E.C.M Parsons is a marine biologist, dolphin scientist, podcaster, and science communicator. Crate is a professor of anthropology at George Mason University who studies environmental and cognitive anthropology and human ecology. Rockwood is a professor of biology and environmental science and policy at George Mason University and focuses on population and tropical ecology, and plant-animal interactions. This article is published in the Journal of Urban Ecology. The method of this research is conducting surveys and gathering data about people’s opinions toward coyotes. The result of this research shows that public attitudes towards coyotes depend on an individual’s experiences and general knowledge about coyotes. People’s attitudes toward coyotes are very diverse. Some people think coyotes are part of the urban ecosystem and others think coyotes are threats. People who have more knowledge of wildlife tend to support no-killing management methods. People who have negative experiences with coyotes tend to support the aggressive method. The main idea of this article is to understand what are the public opinions toward coyote-human conflicts and how those opinions inform the best coyote management methods. This article is the second oldest among my three articles. Unlike my other two articles, this article mainly focuses on the public opinion on coyote management and how those opinions affect coyote management methods.
