coyote studies in WV

[Frogman]

Thought some of you might be interested in this . . .


February 25, 2010
Two W.Va. studies look at mysterious coyotes

Courtesy photo
Though they've been present in West Virginia for only 30 years or so, coyotes have become one of the state's top predators. Scientists and wildlife managers hope a pair of current research projects will show how to reduce coyote populations and limit their impact on livestock and other wildlife species. Photo by Charles Hawes.

By John McCoy
Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Since they migrated into West Virginia in the late 1970s, coyotes have remained creatures largely cloaked in mystery.
They won't stay that way much longer.
Two research projects, one by a West Virginia University wildlife student and another by a U.S. Department of Agriculture biologist, promise to answer key questions about the secretive creatures.
"Right now, we know very little about coyotes in the mid-Appalachian region," said Paul Johansen, assistant wildlife chief for the state Division of Natural Resources. "A lot of research has been done out west, and a lot has been done in the New England states. But here in West Virginia, we're dying to get more information on this critter. With these research projects, we'll be able to get that information."
The studies are separate, but linked. Graduate student Geriann Albers at WVU wants to figure out what coyotes eat. Biologist Lauren Mastro of the USDA Wildlife Services office in Elkins hopes to determine how coyotes establish home territories and how they use the landscape to move from one place to another.
"To find out what coyotes eat, we're sampling the stomach contents of dead coyotes and are examining the 'scat,' or feces, of live ones," Albers explained.
She gets the coyote carcasses from trappers, from varmint hunters, and from USDA Wildlife Service agents.
"The Wildlife Service folks help farmers get rid of livestock-killing coyotes," Albers said. "They'll provide a steady supply of stomachs for me to study. The West Virginia Trappers Association has asked its members to help provide stomachs, too."
Anyone who considers a biologist's work glamorous should spend a day watching Albers determine the contents of a few coyote stomachs.
"First, I have to thaw the stomachs, which are kept frozen," she said. "Then I cut them open, rinse the contents out of the stomachs and dry the contents. After that, I pick out all the hairs I find in the stomachs and identify the animal they came from by examining each hair microscopically."
By the time the study ends in May 2011, Albers expects to have collected "several hundred" stomachs and roughly 900 scat samples.
"Our scat sampling is focused on Lewis, Raleigh and Pocahontas counties. Those represent the state's central, southern and mountain regions," she said.
Fortunately for those involved in the study, finding coyote poop is much easier than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
"Coyotes tend to use known trails and roadways for ease of movement," Albers said. "They defecate on those trails and roads, either for convenience or to mark their territories.
"We'll survey 10-mile segments of those corridors. We'll try to get 100 scat samples per county in each of the seasons important to coyotes -- the breeding season from January to April, the pupping season from May to August, and the [pup] dispersal season from September to December."
The examination routine for the scat samples is similar to the procedure for the stomachs.
"I soak the samples in water to break them down, then pick out the hairs and bone fragments and try to identify them," Albers said.
Mastro's study seems downright attractive by comparison.
"We're trapping coyotes and putting radio collars on them," Mastro explained. "Then we release them at the same spot they were captured. The collars record the coyotes' locations at regular intervals using [Global Positioning System] technology. At the end of six months, the collars fall off and emit signals that allow us to find them. We download the GPS information and use it to analyze how far the coyotes have moved, how quickly they've moved, the habitat types they've used, and where they tend to spend their time."
The ultimate goal of Mastro's research is to help prevent coyotes from preying on farmers' livestock, a problem that seems to be getting steadily worse.
"In 1991, no calves or sheep were lost to coyotes in West Virginia," she said. "In 2005 -- the last year for which we have statistics -- farmers lost 1,300 calves and 2,100 sheep and lambs to predators, most of those to coyotes. The cattle were worth $436,000 and the sheep were worth $169,000. You can see the potential economic gain in figuring out a way to better eliminate coyotes.
"Problem is, no one has figured out a way to efficiently and effectively do it. I'm here to try to find out a way to accomplish that."
Mastro and Albers plan to publish the results of their respective studies soon after they're completed -- Mastro's late in 2012 and Albers' late in 2011. Both researchers say they'll share information with one another along the way.
"We hope these projects will fill in a lot of blanks in our knowledge about coyotes in the middle Appalachians," Albers said. "Up to now, there have been an awful lot of blanks and not a lot of knowledge."
Reach John McCoy at johnmc...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1231.


Jim