Golf Courses as Potential Habitat for Urban Coyotes

Abstract

ABSTRACTWildlife increasingly live in and adapt to urban landscapes as natural habitat becomes urbanized. Many carnivores take advantage of undeveloped or open developed areas called green spaces, such as parks or cemeteries, to meet their requirements in urban areas. For instance, coyotes (Canis latrans) expanded their range across most of North America into metropolitan areas and even within highly developed areas, where home ranges of coyotes are associated with green spaces or areas that humans used least. Golf courses are a unique type of green space within urban landscapes that can provide cover and prey for coyotes, as well as limit human presence, especially at night and during the winter off‐season. We estimated selection of golf courses and urban green spaces by coyotes within the Chicago Metropolitan Area, Illinois, USA (2009 to 2012) that had access to golf courses (home range composed of >3% golf course; n = 30) using radiotelemetry. We found that coyotes selected for golf courses more at night and during the off‐season, indicating that they were responding to the decreased human presence during this time. Spatial status (resident vs. transient) and the amount of developed land in a home range did not influence selection of golf courses. Conversely, selection of urban green spaces was greater in the summer for transients and with proportion of developed land, but not influenced by time of day. However, there was considerable intra‐ and inter‐individual variability in coyote selection of both golf courses and urban green spaces. Individual variability could be driven by coyote characteristics (i.e., prey preferences, natal habitat, or social status) or by golf course and urban green space characteristics (i.e., landscaping, golfing hours, average human occupancy, or tolerance by personnel). © 2020 The Wildlife Society.