Mining deep into behavioral coping mechanisms of how the Eastern Coyote(Coywolf) deals with and responds to being abandoned by it's former family group, Massachusetts Coywolf biologist Jon Way(with co-author Brad Timm) reveals information that perhaps is a predictor of Coyote coping strategies shoudl the Eastern Wolf(C.lycaon) be reintroduced into the Northeast..
Besides Wolf biologist David Mech previously studying the movements of an individual Gray Wolf(C.lupus) in Minnesota, there have been very few "personal and intimate" accounts of single individual canid behavior researched up until Jon' and Brad's 9 year 1998-2007 analysis on Cape Cod, Massachusets of an intially captured and collared 3 year old female.
For the first 6 years of the study, this Coyote was the breeding alpha female of what Jon dubbed the "Cummaquid social group". Eastern Coyotes do not run in packs as Wolves do. However, unlike Western Coyotes that tend to be more solitary in nature, Eastern Coyotes do form family units comprised of the breeding adult pair, one or two of their fully grown offspring of the prior season and pups of the year(super units of two previous years offspring joining the breeding pair and pups of the year have been recorded in Canada where larger prey species like Moose provide abundant scavenge meals).
Like Wolves, there are lone Coyote individuals who are either yearling "dispersers "seeking to find a vacant territory and a mate as well as transient(also known as floaters and/or nomads) who travel on the periphery of other Coyote family units.
The Cummaquid breeding female held alpha status for 6 years(1998-2004) before losing that reign to one of her daughters and being forced into becoming a "nomad".. Prior to being ousted, she had been a successful mother raising an annual average litter of 5 pups in a fixed territory.
Upon becoming a transient at about age 9, she did not bear another litter until her death 3 years later at age 12. This, inspite of in her first two years as a floater being seen periodically traveling with another male Coyote. Her behavior changed noticeably during her solitary years as a true loner...........keeping her distance from other family units.............being in the margins of existing family units as is the customary survival strategy of red foxes, which she was also seen in close association with.
As Coyotes make a living in the margins of Wolf habitat out West(Yellowstone, etc), so do Foxes "set up shop" in the margins of existing Coyote habitat....................in both cases the smartest way to survive attack from the larger canid cousin in the surrounding neighborhood.
Should Eastern Wolves (of 75 to 100 pounds)make it down from Canada on their own or be reintroduced into the Northeast(think Yellowstone Wolf reintroductions in 1995), it is likely that they will do what Wolves do to Coyotes----reduce their populations by 50 to 75% and shift their family structure from "family unit" to floater/transient status.
If in fact the Eastern Wolves that were to get into New England and beyond were more in the 45 to 70 pound weight class, perhaps further hybridization and "canid soup" outcomes taking place where Coyotes are not living in the margins but in fact interbreeding with Wolves in the same way we learned this week that Neanderthal humans were mating with Modern humans 30,000 years ago( with the result being that the Neanderthals were absorbed by Moderns and their descendants(us) having a genome that reflects the human soup of a bygone age.
Food for thought based on Jon's fascinating examination on the Cape...............................Blogger Rick back in a much more seasonal NYC(47 degrees tonight and mid 60's tomorrow-versus 83 stiff degrees last week).Enjoy a good week.
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