Dr. Michael Chamberlain, Terrell Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Warner School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, has been conducting research on the habits and lifestyles of whitetail deer and wild turkeys for decades. His website, https://wildturkeylab.com/, is loaded with fascinating information on the wild turkey.
For Dr. Chamberlin, a funny thing happened during his early research days. Decades ago, Southeastern hunters were literally up in arms with the belief that coyotes were wreaking havoc on deer and turkey populations. So, he started incorporating a look at coyotes as he conducted his turkey and deer research projects as far back as the early 2000s, when he was at LSU, then moved to North Carolina. He realized that the then-current coyote studies did not encompass large enough geographical areas, and that basing conclusions on coyotes radio collared on a single national forest tract or wildlife management unit was not providing a complete picture. For example, he noted that one radio-collared coyote in North Carolina traveled some 385 miles from where it was initially captured.
He also noted that the current research was concerned with the effects of coyotes on whitetails, but did little to gather specific information on coyotes themselves. After all, local deer hunters wanted only to know how many fawns the coyotes were eating, and if they also had a detrimental effect on adult deer. Believing that the only way to understand exactly how coyote populations impacted deer herds was to first learn more about Canis latrans. In 2015, the Tri-State Coyote Project was born.
The Tri-State Coyote Project was a cooperative effort funded by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Professional trappers were hired to trap and collar coyotes during January and February of 2015 and 2016 in four Alabama counties, as well as portions of Georgia and South Carolina. A total of 190 coyotes were caught and affixed with GPS collars, which transmitted their locations to the research team every few days. The collars were programmed to collect data at six locations each day, which allowed researchers to describe territory sizes, habitat used, survival and interactions among the coyotes themselves. Once the collars began sending data, it became immediately apparent that some coyotes used very large areas of the landscape.
Resident Vs. Transient Coyotes
The research team concluded that there are two types of coyotes — residents and transients. What they termed “residents” maintained a territory that averaged approximately 7 square miles, but could be as small as 2 square miles or as large as 15 square miles. On the other hand, the transient coyotes roamed more freely — typically using more than 25 square miles as they sought out open territories. Some moved much more, literally hundreds of miles, before either dying or finding a new territory. The researchers learned that when a resident coyote was shot, trapped or otherwise killed, a transient quickly filled the void, usually within a few days or a few weeks, not months. They also found that more than 35 percent of all coyotes on the landscape at any given time were transients.
This information falls in line with what experienced coyote hunters understand today. That is, a monogamous breeding pair will have four to six pups annually, in late winter/early spring, as a rule. The pups remain with the parents until early fall, when the parents force them out on their own so the adults can once again perform the breeding cycle, chasing them out of their home range. These nomadic pups must find a new home range to survive, making large loops as they seek out new territory. As they do so they are careful to avoid the urine-marked borders of another breeding pair. This search can easily take these pups on a 50- to 80-square-mile journey.
The study also revealed that residents and transients used the habitat in different ways. Transients used pretty much all habitats, but showed a strong preference for roads as they moved about to navigate the landscape. Conversely, residents avoided roads and showed strong selection for more open and agricultural habitats.
In addition to serious predator hunters, coyotes have to survive other potential human encounters, including those with trappers, vehicles and deer hunters, many of whom have been ingrained with the belief that shooting a coyote is saving a deer. When it comes to survival rates, the research showed a marked difference between the survival of resident and transient coyotes. That is, about 64 percent of resident coyotes made it to the next year, while just 39 percent of transients made it another season. The study also noted that 60 percent of the deaths were caused by shootings.
What factors influence survival? A coyote that’s forced to roam a larger area or that lives in areas with higher human activity levels has a greater chance of being killed than one living in areas with relatively more agricultural land interspersed with some cover, such as fragmented timber blocks with adjacent agricultural fields. Also, coyotes living in areas with proportionately more roads have a greater chance of survival. This is true even though coyotes tend to avoid roads, and especially paved roads. However, coyotes living in areas with more roads are exposed to less trapping and hunting pressure, which generally occur away from major roads.
So, according to this study, what is the main ingredient in the Southeastern coyote’s diet?
In a word, deer.
Deer — It’s What’s for Dinner
The study group first identified resident coyote packs using GPS data, then marked their territories. Each month they entered the territories and collected coyote scat, which was then analyzed to determine the prey remains in it. As a note, previous research has shown that if you collect scat from coyotes within known territories of resident animals, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll collect scat from coyotes other than those residents maintaining that territory.
The single frequently most identified prey item found in these scats was deer. When deer hair was found, it was examined under a microscope to determine if it was from a fawn or adult deer. Adult deer remains were identified in all 12 months of the year, with fawn remains identified in seven months — not surprising, given the prolonged breeding period of whitetails in the Southern states. Also identified in the scat were a variety of fruits and plants (when persimmons fall, a coyote’s diet will shift heavily to this favored fruit, for example), small rodents and rabbits.
How much venison does a coyote pack eat in a year? It varied greatly, depending on the landscape. The average across the entire year was the consumption of about 600 pounds of deer, ranging from 120 to more than 1,000 pounds per pack, with deer in some areas experiencing greater predation by coyotes than deer in other areas. The study also concluded that most of the deer meat consumed by coyotes was not scavenged, but rather from deer they killed.
Does the fact that Southeastern coyotes prey relatively heavily on deer have implications for coyote hunters? Possibly.
In areas where coyotes prey most heavily on deer, incorporating a fawn distress call or doe bleat just might give educated local coyotes something they have not heard before. Basic biology plays a part in this. A coyote will expend minimal energy to catch food. For coyotes living in more open habitat with smaller deer densities, chasing deer over open ground will often produce fewer calories gained than expended. Why chase deer when you can more easily catch a varmint, a mouse, a rat, a rabbit or small bird, or eat fruit? Conversely, coyotes living within a smaller home range encompassing more dense cover that holds a higher deer density need to expend less energy to maintain control of that home range, so why not seek out larger prey (deer) that maximizes the calories gained for those expended? And during fawning season, fawn bleats could be a game changer. In the Southeast, the primary deer remains found in coyote scat in this study from April to September were from fawns.
Predation on Wild Turkeys?
What about the effects of coyotes on wild turkey populations? According to Dr. Chamberlin’s research, it’s minimal. It’s difficult for a coyote to sneak up on and catch a wary wild turkey, though they may have a very small impact on turkey nests. Instead they are what he termed an “indirect threat” to turkeys, because they’ll chase and harass them, which can lead to behavioral changes.
Dr. Chamberlin believes that Southeastern coyotes have flourished in the region by taking the place of the red wolf, which was the dominant wild canine in the ecosystem until it was eradicated by humans. The red wolf’s diet was primarily deer, but the coyote, with its much more varied diet, has found it easier to survive. Coyotes didn’t cross the Mississippi River in significant numbers until the 1950s, but during the period of the 1970s to 1990s — a time when whitetail numbers in the Southeastern states were booming — their numbers increased as well.
As for those deer hunters who still believe that killing a coyote will save a deer? Because resident coyotes that are killed are quickly replaced by transients, that’s not happening. The fact that the coyote does feed on deer, though, just might add another tool into the serious coyote hunter’s calling repertoire.
