Interesting facts about a coyote study done by Dr. Kilgo in the Savannah River Plant.
Sunday, June 24, 2007COMMENTPRINTEMAIL It's difficult to peek inside the secret world of a predator and its prey, but John Kilgo has the patience to make it happen.
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This nocturnal coyote was photographed with a remote control camera at Savannah River Site. Coyotes in Georgia and South Carolina weigh an average of 28 pounds.
Click photo for optionsFor the second spring in a row, the U.S. Forest Service research biologist is using radio telemetry to determine how frequently whitetail fawns are killed and eaten by coyotes. The results, although preliminary, are disturbing.
"This year we caught and followed 22 fawns," he said. "Of those, eight were killed by coyotes, three by bobcats and one we haven't figured out yet."
The studies, conducted at Savannah River Site, are in their second year.
In 2006, Kilgo and his colleagues captured and observed just five fawns. Coyotes ate four of them.
Kilgo, who plans to continue his research at least two more years, cautions that his findings are preliminary. But he acknowledges there is mounting evidence that coyotes may affect deer populations.
In conjunction with the radio tracking studies of fawns, graduate student Josh Schrecengost has been collecting and analyzing coyote droppings at SRS for two years.
"He collected scats during two fawning seasons, with May being the biggest month, and into the first part of June," Kilgo said. "He collected scats all over the site, 30 to 40 samples each month."
The findings show coyotes eat plenty of fawns.
"From the two Mays he surveyed, 31 and 38 percent of the scats contained fawn remains, meaning roughly a third of the coyote meals are fawns," Kilgo said. "That's starting to look kind of compelling."
Although coyotes prefer fawns during fawning season, the bulk of their complex diet is fruit.
"Even during fawning season, fawns are not the No. 1 food item," he said. "It's wild plums in May, blackberries in June and black cherries in July. In August they eat pokeweed, and in September, they're after persimmons."
The evidence that expanding coyote populations account for expanding deer mortality could become a cause of concern for wildlife managers.
"In the Southeast, since coyotes have been here, the general consensus from the deer biology community has been that they're not a problem," Kilgo said. "For a long time the region has had more deer than it needs, so it's been viewed as coyotes helping control the population."
Today, however, the coyote's growing numbers could be linked to reductions in deer density, but more research is needed.
"In some areas there are still too many deer, but in other areas we're seeing fewer and fewer deer," said Kilgo, adding that South Carolina and SRS are down significantly.
Future studies could help unravel the extent to which coyotes affect deer herds, Kilgo said. Coyotes first appeared in the SRS area in the 1980s and became widespread and common by the mid-'90s.
"After that they really took off, and whether they've leveled off in the last few years or are still increasing, we don't know yet," he said. "The bottom line is, we have a lot of coyotes now that we didn't have 15 years ago, and that increase in coyotes - concurrent with the decrease in deer - is what motivated the study."
Reach Rob Pavey at (706) 868-1222, ext. 119, or
[email protected].
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
- This spring, scientists studied 22 newborn fawns; eight were eaten by coyotes, three by bobcats and one died of unknown causes.
- Last summer, four of five fawns studied were killed by coyotes, but the sample was deemed too small to be conclusive.
- About one-third of coyote droppings collected at SRS in May 2006 and May 2007 contained fawn remains.
Topic: coyotes (Read 813 times)
