Project Coyote Co-Organizing Urban Coyote Session At Theinternational Symposium On Urban Wildlife Ecology And Management

June 21-24, 2009, Amherst, Massachusetts

Project Coyote, along with the Animal Welfare Institute, is co-organizing a session on urban coyotes at the International Symposium on Urban Wildlife Ecology and Management. The conference, co-sponsored by the Urban Wildlife Working Group of The Wildlife Society (TWS),* will be held at the Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center on the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, Massachusetts, June 21-24, 2009.

The interest in urban wildlife continues to grow, and professionals from a wide variety of fields now contribute to our understanding of these issues. This conference will showcase and discuss the latest topics and advancements related to the ecology of urban environments, bringing together urban planners, landscape architects, policy makers, developers and builders, conservation and wildlife advocates, and ecologists of all backgrounds from countries around the world.

Project Coyote’s founding director, Camilla Fox, who is also wildlife consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute, will moderate a session titled Coyotes in Urban Landscapes: Challenges and Opportunities. Both Camilla and Megan Draheim, Project Coyote’s East Coast Consultant, will present individual talks in this session. The session abstract and speaker list and titles of presentations are provided below. For information about the conference please see the conference website

We encourage Project Coyote supporters to attend and spread the word!

SESSION ABSTRACT:
Coyotes in urban landscapes: challenges and opportunities

Coyotes now inhabit every U.S. state (except Hawaii), including most major urban centers. Keenly intelligent, amazingly resilient, and uncannily adaptable, coyotes present both challenges and opportunities for human communities. As the largest carnivore in many urban landscapes, coyotes can play a vital role in maintaining species diversity and ecological integrity. Moreover, coyotes provide positive ecosystem services in ways that are just beginning to be understood, though as yet such services remain unquantified.

Despite the ubiquitous presence of coyotes across North America, relatively few long-term studies have examined coyote ecology in urban landscapes. Moreover, few studies have examined human attitudes toward coyotes or assessed outreach messages and materials to determine efficacy in educating the public and/or changing human behaviors to reduce negative human-coyote encounters. In addition, the management of coyotes in urban areas often falls into an agency abyss leaving communities without the advice, tools or oversight necessary to implement long-term coyote management plans.

This session brings together coyote researchers, ecologists, ethicists, advocates, and urban planners who have all worked on urban coyote related issues in some capacity. Key findings from four urban coyote ecology studies in Cooke County, Illinois, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Santa Cruz, California will be presented along with highlights of studies regarding human attitudes toward coyotes and messaging around educational outreach tools. How urban coyote ecology studies inform management policies and practices will be addressed as well as the challenging ethical questions regarding how we coexist with coyotes in humanized, increasingly fragmented landscapes.

Tuesday June 23, Morning
Session 5. Coyotes in urban landscapes: challenges and opportunities -- moderator - Camilla Fox

08:30-08:50
The coy coyote: can we learn to coexist? Camilla H. Fox; Project Coyote, Animal Welfare Institute.

08:50-09:10
Movement patterns, toxicant exposure, and disease exposure in coyotes in urban southern California. Seth P. D. Riley, Cathy M. Schoonmaker, Jeff A. Sikich, Joanne G. Moriarty, Cassity Bromley, Eric C. York, and Raymond M. Sauvajot. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

09:10-09:30
Ecology of coyotes in the Chicago region: implications for management. Stanley D. Gehrt; Ohio State University.

09:30-09:50
Coyote resource use in a human-dominated, suburban landscape. Daniel A. Bogan and Paul D. Curtis; Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University.

09:50-10:30- COFFEE BREAK

10:30-10:50
Territory boundary changes in adjacent coyote packs: implications for management. Numi Mitchell, Ralph Pratt, Meagan Griffin; The Conservation Agency (Rhode Island).

10:50-11:10
Eastern coyote movement patterns: lessons learned in urbanized ecosystems Jonathan G. Way and Eric G. Strauss; Barnstable High School, Hyannis MA.

11:10-11:30
Analysis of coyote behavior in relation to land use type on Cape Cod, MA. Maili Page and John Finn; University of Massachusetts.

11:30-11:50
Coyote populations in urban ecosystems: ecosystem services and trophic considerations. Eric G. Strauss and Jonathan G. Way; Boston College.

11:50-1:30- LUNCH BREAK

1:30-1:50
Coyotes, conflicts, and animal control officers in Massachusetts: a study of attitudes, values, and perceptions of animal control officers in Massachusetts with respect to human-coyote conflicts. Nadine Pellegrini; Tufts University.

1:50-2:10
Human-coyote relationships in suburban New York: exploring people’s attitudes and experiences. Heather Wieczorek Hudenko, Daniel J. Decker, and William F. Siemer; Cornell University.

2:10-2:30
Attitudes toward coyotes in urban landscapes: management and public outreach implications. Megan M. Draheim, Larry L. Rockwood, E.C.M. Parsons, and Gregory Guagnano; George Mason University, Project Coyote.

2:30-2:50
Cosmopolitan coyotes: practical ethics in a mixed community of humans and coyotes. William S. Lynn; Williams College.

*Conference sponsors include the Urban Wildlife Working Group of The Wildlife Society (TWS), the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and USGS Massachusetts Cooperative Research Unit.