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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

"As wolf populations plummeted in the 18th and 19th centuries due to our persecution of both them and their prey animals(deer, bison, caribou, Elk, Moose, Beaver), the eastern coyote assumed the role of apex predator in forests along the Atlantic Coast"................"New research from canid ecologist John Benson(U. of Nebraska-Lincoln) however, shows that the eastern coyote is no match for the wolf"................"While the eastern coyote can bring down moose and other large prey, it prefers to attack smaller animals and to scavenge"...........""Wolves rely on large prey to survive".............."But the smaller size of coyotes appears to give them dietary flexibility to survive on a wider variety of food and prey sizes, making them less predictable predators of large prey"..............."After GPS-tracking 10 packs of eastern wolves and analyzing their kill sites in Ontario, the Benson-led team estimated that the wolves consumed 54 percent of their ungulate meat from moose and 46 percent from white-tailed deer".................."By contrast, eight packs of eastern coyote ancestry that occupied separate but neighboring territories got just 11 percent of their ungulate meat from moose and 89 percent from deer"..............."The eastern wolf weighs between 50 and 65 pounds; the eastern coyote typically hits 40 to 50"................"Though the extra weight gives eastern wolves a greater chance of killing a moose -- or at least surviving the encounter -- it also demands the greater caloric intake that moose and other meaty prey can provide".............""It's important to understand the role that wolves play in ecosystems and to not assume that smaller predators ... perform the same ecological functions"................"If coyotes start hammering white-tailed deer, and deer start to decline, then (coyotes) can just eat rabbits or squirrels or garbage but continue to prey on deer, too"............Wolves are a Moose, Deer and Beaver predator,,,,,,,,,,,,not small game.........."The study emphasizes the value of preserving delicate predator-prey balances that ecosystems have calibrated over millennia".............."This new research suggests that there's an ecological role that wolves play that won't be played by Eastern Coyotes"............."That's probably a role that's worth conserving on landscapes, even outside protected areas"..............."If we're interested in restoring landscapes to a more natural, functioning ecosystem, bringing back Wolves will be an important part of that"


Big-game jitters: Coyotes no match for wolves' hunting prowess




Date:
March 23, 2017
Source:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Eastern coyote lacks the chops to replace wolves in the ecosystem

It may have replaced the dwindling eastern wolf atop many food chains, but the eastern coyote lacks the chops to become the big-game hunter of an ecosystem, new research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln ecologist show
EASTERN COYOTE CHASING DEER







Eastern Wolf with Moose carcass
But a study from John Benson and colleagues provides evidence that the eastern coyote hunts moose and other large prey far less frequently than does the eastern wolf -- instead preferring to attack smaller game or scavenge human leftovers.
The findings help resolve long-standing questions about whether eastern coyotes have filled the ecological niche left vacant when the eastern wolf became threatened, Benson said.
"Wolves rely on large prey to survive," said Benson, assistant professor of vertebrate ecology who conducted the research as a doctoral student at Trent University. "But the smaller size of coyotes appears to give them dietary flexibility to survive on a wider variety of food and prey sizes, making them less predictable predators of large prey.
"Having a top predator that preys consistently on large animals like deer and moose may be an important part of maintaining stable predator-prey dynamics and healthy, naturally functioning ecosystems."
After GPS-tracking 10 packs of eastern wolves and analyzing their kill sites in Ontario, the team estimated that the wolves consumed 54 percent of their ungulate meat from moose and 46 percent from white-tailed deer. By contrast, eight packs of eastern coyote ancestry that occupied separate but neighboring territories got just 11 percent of their ungulate meat from moose and 89 percent from deer.
The eastern wolf weighs between 50 and 65 pounds; the eastern coyote typically hits 40 to 50. Though the extra weight gives eastern wolves a greater chance of killing a moose -- or at least surviving the encounter -- it also demands the greater caloric intake that moose and other meaty prey can provide.
Because wolves need to feed on large prey, their populations tend to rise and fall together, Benson said. Wolves may kill many moose during a winter, for instance, depleting their numbers. With fewer moose available, the wolf population declines, boosting the moose population, which in turn boosts the wolf population, and so on.
Yet the buffet-style menu of the eastern coyote means that its numbers can remain steady or even rise without large prey if alternative food is abundant. This opportunistic diet, Benson said, might also be driving erratic population swings among those lower on the food chain.
"It's important to understand the role that wolves play in ecosystems and to not assume that smaller predators ... perform the same ecological functions," Benson said. "If coyotes start hammering white-tailed deer, and deer start to decline, then (coyotes) can just eat rabbits or squirrels or garbage but continue to prey on deer, too. So we think that could be a destabilizing element.
"There are some areas where you've got way too many white-tailed deer in the east, and then you've got other areas where hunters are concerned because the deer are declining. That speaks to the fact that coyotes are an unpredictable predator."
The study is timely: Canada recently designated the eastern wolf as threatened, with the vast majority of eastern wolves living protected in Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park.
Human-caused mortality has limited efforts to expand the population beyond Algonquin Park, Benson said, which is made worse by the fact that wolves there are likely naïve to the dangers posed by humans. Another issue: Eastern wolves readily breed with eastern coyotes in the wild, making it difficult to maintain a pure lineage.
"Is there a way to get them to expand numerically and geographically outside of the park? We're not sure at this point," said Benson, who provides advice to a team now developing a recovery plan. "One thing that can be managed is human-caused mortality, so if we can provide additional protection, that should put them on equal demographic footing.
"It's an incredibly challenging situation that is complicated by the interactions of these wolves with coyotes and humans. If the park stays the same, there's no immediate reason that they would go extinct. However, we wouldn't want to go forward with that as our only plan because it offers little chance for expansion."
Though large-scale reintroduction across eastern North America will probably not occur soon, Benson said the study emphasizes the value of preserving delicate predator-prey balances that ecosystems have calibrated over millennia.
"Our work suggests that there's an ecological role that wolves play that won't be played by other animals," he said. "That's probably a role that's worth conserving on landscapes, even outside protected areas. If we're interested in restoring landscapes to a more natural, functioning ecosystem, this would be an important part of that."

EASTERN WOLVES HUNTING BEAVER











Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Nebraska-LincolnNote: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
  1. John F. Benson, Karen M. Loveless, Linda Y. Rutledge, Brent R. Patterson. Ungulate predation and ecological roles of wolves and coyotes in eastern North AmericaEcological Applications, 2017; DOI: 10.1002/eap.1499


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