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...They can be heard howling as the moon rises in the stillness of a Georgia summer night.
But, according to Chris Mowry, a professor of biology at Berry College who is researching the misunderstood predator, those coyotes aren’t howling at the moon. They are communicating.
The howls, said Mowry, are the 35- to 40-pound predator’s way of claiming its territory, which can range from one square mile up to six, depending on the size of a pack. They also communicate danger, food sources and even when a coyote is in trouble.
“When people hear them howling, it’s an eerie sound,” Mowry said. “But it sounds like there are many more coyotes than there actually are.”
Mowry, with the help of a math professor who specializes in computers, has used software to calculate the number of coyotes on the Berry campus.
“Coyotes use howling many times to keep in touch with other members of the pack,” Mowry said. “There is a known l
Chris Mowry, a professor of biology at Berry College, shows off one of the VHF radio collars he puts on a coyote in his research of the elusive predator. By Kevin Myrick / RN-T |
exicon of howling behavior.”
Click here for a video report about coyotes at Berry College.
Mowry, through research at Yellowstone National Park, believes a specific howl warns other coyotes a mountain lion is in the area.
But his research doesn’t stop at calls between the coyote. Mowry is on a long-term hunt to track not only the coyotes on Berry’s 26,000-acre campus, but also how they use that territory.
“We’re doing primary ecology research,” Mowry said.
“We look at what coyotes eat, their basic biology and where and how many there are,” he said.
And for the previous five years, Mowry has been trapping coyotes with help from other researchers, putting radio collars on them and taking their blood, which is then tested for parasites and diseases.
Student researchers then track the collars with a VHF antenna and triangulate their position.
The data from six coyotes leads Mowry to believe 20 to 25 coyotes are living on campus at any given time and he has even figured out the marked territories of a few packs.
He’s also determined a coyote’s favorite meal is the common mouse. “It’s the Big Mac of the coyote menu,” Mowry said.
His main goal, however, is to break through many of the misconceptions about the small predator.
“Any predator is going to be looked at as a potential danger to humans, pets and game animals,” Mowry said. “But mostly, they’re elusive and wary of humans.”
He said while coyotes might take down a fowl, its harm to the game population of Georgia is much smaller than originally thought.
“Coyotes will typically eat a mid-level predator that could be taking out game rather than go after something like a deer,” Mowry said.
“So they may even be helpful to many species.”
However, the coyote isn’t to be taken lightly. Its recent immigration to the Eastern United States after the elimination of the red wolf has turned up dens in forests and major cities.
Mowry said a den was recently found in Chicago, in between a public swimming pool and a daycare center — but the coyote was never spotted.
Other surprises: while conducting research in Yellowstone National Park, Mowry videotaped one coyote swimming across a river. He’s even seen them den in holes dug straight into the ground in an opening, another rarity.
“I’ve not seen many coyote dens in this part of the country,” Mowry said. “In this part of the country, they’re extremely hard to find. They can den in just about any place that offers an opening, from under a log to widening the den already dug by smaller prey.”
Mowry, who is currently tracking six coyotes across Berry’s campus, has hopes that in the future, with updated but more expensive GPS collars and more trappings, he’ll be able to determine an exact number of the animals on campus.
And through DNA testing of the blood samples he’s already collected, he hopes to determine what happens to a coyote family.
Eventually, with more funding and time, Mowry hopes he’ll unravel more of the mysteries of this elusive, misunderstood animal.
COYOTE FACTS
Coyotes live in packs, but typically hunt alone. Pack sizes can range from two individuals, an alpha male and female, to 10 with a family of pups.
Litters average from two pups to 10 and can increase when coyotes are hunted and persecuted.
Coyotes give birth once a year.
The average adult weight for a coyote is 35 to 40 pounds. Coyotes tend to look larger than their actual size because of the thick coats they grow for winter, which molts off during the summer.
The average lifespan of a coyote is 3 to 5 years.
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