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Experimentally assessing coyote behavior at cougar cache sites
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Created: May 17, 2023 at 8:41 p.m.
Last updated: Apr 23, 2024 at 10:51 p.m.
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Abstract

This resource contains the data and code for the manuscript "Coyotes display minimal response to Cougar scent at experimental carcass sites" prepared by Mitchell Parsons and Julie Young and published in the Journal of Mammalogy. This manuscript investigating behavior of coyotes scavenging at simulated cougar cache sites. We deployed road killed deer as simulated cougar kills and treated half of sites with cougar scent. We observed coyote behavior using remote cameras. We then analyzed data to understand whether coyote behavior (e.g. time to discovery, time to touch, time spent vigilant), varied based on the addition of cougar scent or other environmental factors. This resource contains two .csv datafiles and one .R code file. With these files, all analyses and visuals presented in the manuscript (except for figure 1) can be recreated.

Publication Abstract

Interactions among predators can have cascading impacts on communities and ecosystems. These interactions often occur around carrion, where the carrion provides a food reward, but also a risk of encountering other, potentially dominant, predators. Understanding how predators balance risk and reward at carrion, and how perceived risk changes in response to carcass origins and conditions, provides valuable insight into intraguild interactions. We investigated Coyote (Canis latrans) behavior at carrion simulated as cache sites treated with Cougar (Puma concolor) scent versus carrion used as control sites to better understand how Coyotes assess risk while feeding on carrion. Coyotes displayed similar behavior between sites treated and untreated with Cougar scent, suggesting that the presence of Cougar scent did not alter perceived risk by coyotes in our study. Instead, coyote behavior responded to carcass age, elevation, and whether avian scavengers had visited the carcass. Coyotes spent more time feeding, more time on camera, and touched carcasses quicker as carcass age increased. Avian scavengers appeared to compete with Coyotes, and while the presence of avian scavengers reduced time to carcass detection by Coyotes, it also decreased time spent feeding. These results suggest that carcass condition is a more important indicator of risk and reward than the presence of dominant predator scent to Coyotes. Predator scent may be an unreliable cue of immediate predator presence. Alternatively, all carcasses may be risky because dominant predators also scavenge carrion, creating similar risk regardless of previous visitation by dominant predators. These results provide insights into predator interactions and can also inform the use of scent cues in wildlife management.

Subject Keywords

Coverage

Spatial

Coordinate System/Geographic Projection:
WGS 84 EPSG:4326
Coordinate Units:
Decimal degrees
Place/Area Name:
Fishlake National Forest
North Latitude
38.8200°
East Longitude
-111.7215°
South Latitude
38.1665°
West Longitude
-112.3089°

Temporal

Start Date:
End Date:

Content

readme.md

ReadMe

Metadata for manuscript on coyote scavenging experiment prepared by Mitchell Parsons and Julie Young.

This metadata file describes the data for a manuscript prepared by Mitchell Parsons and Julie Young investigating behavior of coyotes scavenging at simulated cougar cache sites. We deployed road killed deer as simulated cougar kills and treated half of sites with cougar scent. We observed coyote behavior using remote cameras. We then analyzed data to understand whether coyote behavior (e.g. time to discovery, time to touch, time spent vigilant), varied based on the addition of cougar scent or other environmental factors. This resource

This manuscript has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Mammalogy in April 2024.

DATAFILES

SimCacheSites.csv

This file contains information for each of the 37 simulated cache sites used in this study including dates deployed, locations, and some summary information related to visits by coyotes and other scavengers. Each row represents a single cache site.

Columns

  1. SiteID: the ID of the simulated cache site
  2. DateInstalled: the date the cache site and camera were deployed on the landscape in MDY format.
  3. DateRecov: the date the camera was removed from this location in MDY format.
  4. Easting: the UTM easting coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N
  5. Northing: the UTM northing coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N
  6. Elev: the elevation of the cache site, in meters.
  7. Pair: identifies which pair of cache sites, one treated and one untreated, this cache site was a member of.
  8. Treatment: whether this cache site received the treatment of cougar urine and gland (1) or not (0).
  9. NumCoyVideos: The number of videos of coyotes at this cache site.
  10. NumCoy Hits: The number of independent coyote visits to this cache site. Individual visits can lead to multiple videos.
  11. Lion: Whether or not a mountain lion visited this cache site.
  12. LionDate: The date of the mountain lion visit in MDY H:M format.
  13. Bobcat: Whether or not a bobcat visited this cache site.
  14. BobcatDate: The date of the bobcat visit in MDY H:M format.
  15. Fox: Whether or not a fox visited this cache site.
  16. SpottedSkunk: Whether or not a spotted skunk visited this cache site.
  17. SkunkDate: The date of the skunk visit in MDY H:M format.
  18. AvianDate: The date of avian scavengers visiting the cache site in MDY H:M format.
CacheSite_EventData.csv

This file contains the behavior coding data for coyote visits to cache sites. Each row of the dataframe contains an individual behavioral bout and the information associated with that behavior and the cache site it occurred at.

Columns

  1. Cache: The cache site the observation occurred at
  2. Observation: A unique identifier for independent observations of coyotes at cache sites. Independent observations were defined as those that occurred >60 minutes after previous coyote visits.
  3. Media.file: The name of the video file that the behavior occurred in.
  4. Total.media.length: The total duration of the video file the behavior occurred in (secons).
  5. Date: The date and time the video file began in MDY H:M format.
  6. Night: Whether or not the observation occurred at night.
  7. OtherAnimals: Whether other animals were present during the observation.
  8. Subject: The ID of the individual coyote observed in the video.
  9. Behavior: What behavior is being displayed by the coyote at this time. Refer to table 1 in the manuscript for definition of behaviors.
  10. Modifiers: Whether or not “smell” behavior was associated with feeding or with investigating competitor scent.
  11. Behavior.type: Whether the observed behavior was a point behavior (i.e., no time passed) or a state behavior (i.e., a behavioral state the individual maintained for some time).
  12. Start: The time in the video file when the behavior began (seconds).
  13. Stop: The time in the video file when the behavior ended (seconds). This value is 0 for all point behaviors as these behaviors were not associated with elapsed time.
  14. Comment.start: NA
  15. Comment.stop: NA
  16. Snowing: Whether or not it was actively snowing when the observation occurred (1,0).
  17. DateInstalled: the date the cache site and camera were deployed on the landscape in MDY format.
  18. DateRecov: the date the camera was removed from this location in MDY format.
  19. Easting: the UTM easting coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N
  20. Northing: the UTM northing coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N
  21. Pair: identifies which pair of cache sites, one treated and one untreated, this cache site was a member of.
  22. Treatment: whether this cache site received the treatment of cougar urine and gland (1) or not (0).
  23. NumCoyVideos: The number of videos of coyotes at this cache site.
  24. NumCoy Hits: The number of independent coyote visits to this cache site. Individual visits can lead to multiple videos.
  25. Lion: Whether or not a mountain lion visited this cache site.
  26. LionDate: The date of the mountain lion visit in MDY H:M format.
  27. Bobcat: Whether or not a bobcat visited this cache site.
  28. BobcatDate: The date of the bobcat visit in MDY H:M format.
  29. Fox: Whether or not a fox visited this cache site.
  30. SpottedSkunk: Whether or not a spotted skunk visited this cache site.
  31. SkunkDate: The date of the skunk visit in MDY H:M format.
  32. AvianDate: The date of avian scavengers visiting the cache site in MDY H:M format.

CODE FILES

ParsonsandYoung_CoyoteScavengingExperiment_Code.r

This file contains all code necessary to format data, conduct analyses, and create the visuals (except for figure 1) presented in the associated manuscript. The code file loads packages at the beginning, but the associated packages will need to be installed. As written, the code will save all figures as separate files in the working directory.

The general workflow is as follows:

  1. Load packages.
  2. Conduct initial data formatting.
  3. Analyze time of discovery data.
  4. Analyze total time on camera data.
  5. Analyze time to first touch data.
  6. Analyze vigilance behavior data.
  7. Analyze feeding behavior data.
  8. Create plots for the above analyses.
  9. Analyze temporal patterns of visits.
  10. Create plots for temporal patterns of visits.

Credits

Funding Agencies

This resource was created using funding from the following sources:
Agency Name Award Title Award Number
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Ecology Center at Utah State University
United States Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Research Center

Contributors

People or Organizations that contributed technically, materially, financially, or provided general support for the creation of the resource's content but are not considered authors.

Name Organization Address Phone Author Identifiers
Peter Mahoney

How to Cite

Parsons, M., J. Young (2024). Experimentally assessing coyote behavior at cougar cache sites, HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/915a2e201cc44ff2b2b249eeba04f7d1

This resource is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY.

 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY

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