Inter-population differences in coyote diet and niche width along an urban–suburban–rural gradient

Abstract

AbstractMany generalist species thrive in urban environments by supplementing their diets with anthropogenic food, which creates numerous challenges for managing urban wildlife. Management could be advanced with more information on how spatial and temporal variation in habitat use by urban animals predicts variation in their dietary ecology. In this study, we used stable isotope analysis complemented with GPS collar location data to determine how diet composition and the dietary niche of coyotes (Canis latrans) varied across a sample of 169 individuals collected along an urban-to-rural gradient in Alberta, Canada. We further categorized urban individuals as either matrix (frequent use of developed areas) or greenspace (use of natural areas) via GPS locations. Matrix coyotes were isotopically distinct from all other coyote populations: they had the largest dietary niche, exhibited the most among-individual variation in diet, consumed the most anthropogenic food and fruit, and consumed the least amount of prey. Greenspace coyotes consumed more anthropogenic food than rural and suburban coyotes but otherwise exhibited similar niche width, among-individual heterogeneity, and prey consumption. We further tested for seasonal dietary variation and found that urban coyotes had a larger dietary niche during the summer, when they also consumed more anthropogenic food. Our conclusions were robust to our choice of mixing model parameters, including discrimination factors, suggesting that these methodological choices have limited effect when discerning relative trends among populations. Overall, our results suggest that management of urban coyotes should target the food sources accessible to coyotes in the urban matrix to reduce human–coyote conflict.