Coyotes are now commonplace across Michigan, from the suburbs to pristine hardwood forests. Their success is thanks to a dearth of other predators, like gray wolves, in most of the state and the adaptability of coyotes themselves.
“It's a pretty savvy critter,” says Professor Nyeema Harris, a wildlife biologist at the University of Michigan and director of the Applied Wildlife Ecology lab.
Harris and her research team wanted to know how coyotes shift their behavior depending on their neighbors. In this case, when they’re with wolves.
The researchers searched across the state for scat samples. They collected hundreds of samples from Marquette County, in the Upper Peninsula, Cheboygan County, near the Straits of Mackinac, and a wildlife refuge in Saginaw County in mid-Michigan.
By analyzing the presence of certain elements — carbon and nitrogen — researchers determined that coyotes ate more meat in the lower peninsula, where there isn’t a meaningful population of wolves.
Without competition, “the coyote gets to be the literally top dog in the system,” Harris says.
That adaptability is a key to coyotes’ success. “They have enough flexibility, they can assess risks, they can assess threats, and they can adjust accordingly,” says Harris.
Hopefully, she says, that will help people better appreciate coyotes as a neighbor, not a nuisance.
