Georgia Ecological Research Center and University of Georgia researchers conducted a 5 year 2007-2012 study of the dietary habits of Coyotes in the Joseph Jones Research Center in southwestern Georgia.............The ever adaptable Coyote, like Man, opportunistic and flexible in it's foodstuff choices, dining on everything from rodents, rabbits, raccoons, opossums, bobcats, gray foxes, skunks, various birds,vegetation, agricultural crops and human garbage ...........How much direct predation on deer and other larger mammals was not directly observed and the authors of the study used language that came across to me as biased and anti-coyote, reaching a verdict of guilty rather than suggesting more research was needed to evaluate the "dampening" potential when Coyotes and Deer exist together in Georgia woodlands

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RESEARCH

Coyote diets in a longleaf pine ecosystem

Michael J. Cherry , Kelsey L. Turner , M. Brent Howze , Bradley S. Cohen , L. Mike Conner and Robert J. Warren

M. J. Cherry (mcherry@jonesctr.org) and L. M. Conner, Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, Wildlife Ecology Lab, 3988 Jones Center Drive, Newton, GA 39870, USA.

K. L. Turner, M. B. Howze, B. S. Cohen and R. J. Warren, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Univ. of Georgia, 180 E Green Street, Athens, GA 30602-2152, USA

The ecological implications of coyote Canis latrans colonization of the eastern USA have drawn considerable interest from land managers and the general public. The ability to predict how these ecosystems, which have lacked larger predators for decades, would respond to the invasion of this highly adaptable species needs an understanding of coyote foraging behavior given local resource availability.

Therefore, we examined the diet of coyotes in a longleaf pine Pinus palustrusecosystem from 2007–2012. We examined 673 coyote scats collected on the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center in southwestern Georgia. We observed considerable seasonality in coyote use of rodents, white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus, rabbits and vegetation.

 Coyotes exploited anthropogenic food sources, particularly waste peanuts Arachis hypogaea, during the fall and winter when native soft mast was not available. Adult white-tailed deer were consumed during every month and was not limited to the pulse of carrion availability from hunter-harvested animals, suggesting the use of adult white-tailed deer may not be restricted to scavenging in this system.


Predation of Fawn or scavenged Fawn?

 We found mesomammals, including armadillosDasypus novemcinctus, raccoons Procyon lotor, Virginia opossums Didelphis viginiana, bobcats Lynx rufus, grey foxesUrocyon cineroargenteus and striped skunks Mephitis mephitis in approximately 18% of coyote scats from January–August.

 On our site, and some adjacent properties, the use of predator trapping focused primarily on Virginia opossum, raccoon, coyote, bobcat and gray fox, to increase northern bobwhite Colinus virginianus production may have resulted in increased use of mesomammals through scavenging. We offer evidence that coyote colonization may alter food web dynamics in longleaf pine ecosystems through depredation of white-tailed deer and by influencing the mesomammal guild through direct predation and competition for rodents, rabbits, carrion and soft mast.

Accepted: December 7, 2015;