Good to hear from our friend Stan Gehrt, who has run the decade-plus Chicago Urban Coyote Study...................Stan's research was reported on last week regarding the fact feral cats in the "Windy City" have learned that you stay alive when you stick close in to houses and buildings and stay clear of parks and other open space areas that ring Chicago..........The cats get to live another day and the small mammals and birds that make their living in the "natural areas" in turn get to thrive and fulfill their ecological services functions.................

http://shar.es/Og1MQ
Urban coyotes are deadly hunters,
 tracking rodents, rabbits and other
 small prey. Sometimes, feral cats are 
on the menu. But a new study of the 
two species shows that feral cats have
 figured out how to avoid coyotes and thrive.

Cats vs. coyotes: Smart

 felines learn to adapt

Birds in parks benefit when cats retreat, Ohio 

State study finds

• OSU coyote researcher Stan Gehrt

By  Spencer Hunt

The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday December 8, 2013 8:41 AM

Enlarge Image

Urban coyotes are deadly hunters,
 tracking rodents, rabbits and other
 small prey.

Sometimes, feral cats are on the menu.

But a new study of the two species shows
 that feral cats have figured out how to
avoid coyotes and thrive.

The Ohio State University study, which
 focused on Chicago, found that this
 coexistence creates a side benefit for
 birds and other small animals that feral
cats kill.

Over time, feral cats there learned to stay
 away from parks and nature preserves
where the coyotes dwell, said Stan Gehrt,
 an urban wildlife ecologist at Ohio State’s
School of Environment and Natural
 Resources and a coyote expert.

That, in turn, means cats no longer hunt
 for birds and other prey in those areas.
Gehrt said that despite that loss of potential
 food, the cats he followed in the study did
 surprisingly well, living near buildings and
 houses.

“We expected these animals to be in fairly
 poor condition or carrying a lot of diseases
and parasites,” he said. “Their survival rate
 was pretty darn high.”

Gehrt has spent years studying how coyotes
 have increasingly adapted to city
 environments. In some areas of Chicago,
 there are as many as six coyotes for every
250 acres, he said. As many as 60 feral cats
can occupy the same spaces.

The study examined feral cats that roamed
 near six Chicago parks and preserves
known to harbor coyotes. Gehrt said he
 initially thought that the increasing number
of coyotes, city traffic and disease would
kill as many as 70 percent of the cats.

But using radio tags to help track cat
movements and check on their health,
 Gehrt found that 20 percent died during
 the two-year study period.

The findings offer some good news in an ongoing
 debate over feral cats and how they are handled

. Many groups trap and sterilize feral cats and
 maintain them in colonies to help keep the
 population down.

Conservation groups, including the
American Bird Conservancy, consider
 feral cats a threat to birds and wildlife,
regardless of whether the cats are able
 to reproduce.

One recent study estimated that domestic
 and feral cats kill as many as 3.7 billion
 birds and 20.7 billion small mammals
 each year in the United States.

Gehrt said his new findings, published
in the journal PLOS ONE, show that
coyotes have reduced the cats’ ability
 to kill birds and other small animals
 in parks and nature preserves.

No one knows how many coyotes live
 in and around central Ohio. But Gehr
 said he expects the population to
 continue climbing. And if Chicago
serves as a model for Columbus, there
should be fewer feral cats hanging around
central Ohio parks.

The idea that feral cats have figured out
 how to survive among coyotes came as
 no surprise to Jay Mathew, a Columbus
retiree who routinely traps the cats to be
spayed and neutered.

“Cats are smart enough to adapt to almost
anything humans can throw at them, as well
as Mother Nature,” Mathew said

Donald Burton, a veterinarian and CEO of the
 Ohio Wildlife Center, said he’s not sure how
much of an effect coyotes would have on overall
 bird and small-mammal populations. Cats are
 responsible for 12 to 15 percent of the injured
wild animals treated at the center, he said.

“Coyotes kill some wildlife, too,” Burton added.

Gehrt said he plans to more closely examine
 what feral cats hunt outside parks and preserves
 in an upcoming study.

“If they are moving out of the green spaces, they
 are potentially having impacts in those urban
 areas,” Gehrt said.

shunt@dispatch.com