Summer foraging behaviour of eastern coyotes in rural versus forest landscape: A possible mechanism of source-sink dynamics

Abstract

Following wolf (Canis lupus) extinction and opening of the forest landscape, coyotes (Canis latrans) progressively colonized eastern North America. In southeastern Québec, coyotes occur in two contiguous landscape types: rural and forest. We tested the hypothesis that forest landscapes were marginal habitats for coyotes in summer, as opposed to rural landscapes. Ten coyotes were radio-tracked during the 1995 snow-free period (rural: n = 4, forest: n = 6) and morphological measurements were obtained for 25 additional ones were handled (rural: n = 9, forest: n =16). Analysis of undigested residues in scats (n = 562) showed that during the den attendance period (1 May to 15 July), coyotes in both landscapes mostly consumed animal flesh. However, during pup initiation (15 July to 1 October), forest coyotes consumed more wildberries than rural coyotes. During den attendance, rural coyotes had higher activity and movement rates than forest coyotes. We observed the opposite trend in late summer; forest coyotes were more active than rural animals and traveled at a higher rate. Finally, rural coyotes were heavier than their forest counterparts in late summer. Our results support the hypothesis that forest landscapes of southeastern Québec are sub-optimal habitats for coyotes. Difference in foraging behaviour and performance between the two habitats may affect survival and/or fecundity, thus creating a source/sink population dynamics.