Master of Science, University of Akron, 2013, Biology

In recent decades, the urban landscape has been infiltrated by a species once considered to be intolerant of human activity. The coyote has become one of the largest and most successful carnivore species to inhabit human dominated landscapes throughout North America. Parks and green spaces are important and heavily used habitats for humans and wildlife within urban landscapes but remain a relatively understudied component of urban coyote habitat. Concerns for human and pet safety have resulted in the need to understand the spatial and temporal relationship between humans and coyotes in recreational parklands. We examined the potential conflict that exists between coyotes and humans in recreational parklands by investigating the temporal relationship of humans and coyotes along designated recreational trails. In addition, we also examined the spatial relationship of coyotes in proximity to trails. Specifically, we predict that coyotes will shift their activity to more nocturnal periods, and avoid areas of intense human use, particularly designated recreational trails, as a function of human activity occurring within the study area. In order to test this relationship, human and coyote activity was quantified within the Cuyahoga Valley region of northeast Ohio from 2009 through 2012. The study area is 14,052 hectares of public land maintained by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and adjoining Cleveland Metroparks, and Metro Parks, Serving Summit County. It is located within the Cuyahoga River Watershed in Northeast Ohio between the cities of Cleveland in the north and Akron to the south. The study area receives over 2.8 million visitors a year, and has over 120 kilometers of designated recreational trails. Human use was monitored throughout the study area with infrared trail monitors installed at designated trail heads in 2012, and supported with data collected from traffic monitors installed in parking lots from 2008-2012. As expected, human activity (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Weeks Dr. (Advisor); Gregory Smith Dr. (Committee Member); Randall Mitchell Dr. (Committee Member); Stanley Gehrt Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Animal Diseases; Animal Sciences; Animals; Area Planning and Development; Behavioral Sciences; Behaviorial Sciences; Biology; Conservation; Ecology; Forestry; Geographic Information Science; Natural Resource Management; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2024, Environment and Natural Resources

Sarcoptic mange, caused by the obligatory ectoparasite, Sarcoptes scabiei var canis, poses significant threats to wild canid populations, as it results in high levels of morbidity and mortality. Despite its impact, the disease dynamics and individual risk of infestation for coyotes (Canis latrans) in urban environments remain understudied. As human density within urban spaces continues to rise globally, understanding how disease dynamics within coyote populations is crucial for both wildlife conservation and public health. The Cook County Coyote Project, spanning from 2000 to 2023, has been examining sarcoptic mange infestations among radio-collared coyotes within the Chicago metropolitan area. In this study, we aim to (1) determine prevalence rates, identify causes of mortality, and elucidate general disease dynamics of sarcoptic mange and (2) identify specific covariates that influence an individual's likelihood of infestation within the Chicago coyote population. We found that sarcoptic mange prevalence was enzootic within our study site and was at a lower overall prevalence than studies conducted in rural areas. There was no significant increase in diagnoses between male and female coyotes; however, we were more likely to diagnosis coyotes with sarcoptic mange as adults than subadults or pups. 2% of the diagnosed coyotes fully recovered from gross lesions associated with sarcoptic mange. Coyotes that died from sarcoptic mange exposure were more common during the winter months. Individual likelihood of infestation was assessed using a generalized linear model using demographic and spatial covariates. Our best-fit model based on Akaike information criterion found that with a random effect for coyote ID, yearly home range composition and yearly age class were useful covariates in predicting individual risk of infestation; however, both fixed effects were non-significant. We hypothesize that sarcoptic mange infestations are rather influenced by inter-individua (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stanley Gehrt (Advisor); Laura Pomeroy (Committee Chair); Risa Pesapane (Committee Chair) Subjects: Parasitology; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Biological Sciences

North American canid species have experienced major shifts in distribution and abundance since European settlement. These changes are often attributed to anthropogenic landscape modifications and associated habitat loss and fragmentation. Here we determine the response of coyotes (Canis latrans) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) to the altered landscape within the Oak Openings Region of northwestern Ohio. We identify occurrence patterns of local canids and their correlation with both fine-scale habitat variables and landscape-scale landcover data. A rapid assessment survey was conducted using scent-baited camera traps to generate coarse canid occurrence maps and identify optimal sites for the long-term monitoring phase of the study. Non-baited camera trap arrays that comprised the long-term monitoring portion of the study revealed widespread sympatry of red foxes and coyotes across the study area. This is in striking contrast to previous research that observed strong patterns of spatial partitioning in other regions. Fine-scale habitat variables were weakly associated with occurrence of either species, with the only significant correlation a positive relationship between coyote occurrence and percent bare ground. Landscape-scale variables, in contrast, were more predictive of canid occurrence. Red foxes were negatively associated with sand barrens and upland prairies, both open habitats where coyotes are known to be dominant. Both species demonstrated a negative association with dense urban landcover, which contrasts with other studies that suggest positive associations for both species at different scales. These findings suggest that reducing or strategically locating unsuitable habitats, such as upland prairies and sand barrens, and promoting forested refugia may help to conserve local red fox populations despite widespread coyote occurrence.

Committee: Karen Root Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Matthew Cross Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jeffrey Miner Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Conservation; Ecology; Wildlife Conservation

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2023, Biological Sciences (Arts and Sciences)

Since the 1800s, eastern North American landscapes have experienced extensive anthropogenic changes. Large swaths of forest were timbered, innumerable roads and railways were constructed westward, and extirpation of large apex predators altered the faunal communities that once existed there. Among these large predators, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) all but vanished from the landscape due to intense persecution. Some species, however, were able to adapt and thrive on this changing landscape. The coyote (Canis latrans) is one such example. As deforestation and transportation networks expanded westward, coyote ranges began to expand eastward. This smaller canid that had evolved in the open grasslands of North America was able to navigate the deforested east and fill the predatory niche left vacant by gray wolves. During the coyote range expansion, hybridization among coyotes, wolves, and domestic dogs began to occur. Dispersing coyotes that came in contact with isolated remnant populations of gray wolves or free-ranging dogs occasionally interbred, leading to eastern coyote populations that preserve genetic remnants from both gray wolves and domestic dogs. This genetic introgression was first discovered in the northeastern United States in the 2010s, but more recent works have expanded the zone of introgression into the Great Lakes region of North America. Despite increasing understanding of the coyote-wolf-dog contact zone, Ohio's coyotes were previously believed to have not hybridized with other canids. However, a few studies suggested that Ohio coyotes also preserve evidence of hybridization with domestic dogs and wolves. This dissertation expands on the smaller pre-existing dataset to identify genetic markers that would confirm admixture with domestic dogs and wolves in Ohio's coyote ancestry. I do this by first providing evolutionary context for the genus Canis exploring the anastomosing histories of hybridization events among coyote, wolf and domestic dog (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nancy Stevens (Advisor); James Dyer (Committee Member); Joseph Johnson (Committee Member); Viorel Popescu (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Biology; Ecology; Genetics

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Earth Sciences

Faults are structural discontinuities in the upper crust that are responsible for earthquake hazards. The damage zone that surrounds faults consist of a complex network of brittle structures (e.g., fractures) that can extend up to several hundred meters from the principal slip zone along large mature faults. These structural features potentially hold information about faulting processes and could be useful in probabilistic seismic hazard assessments. One key clue that the structure of fault damage zones may hold information regarding the potential size of future earthquakes comes from a comparison of facture energy (G) measured from laboratory rotary shear experiments and natural earthquakes (Nielsen et al., 2016). Whereas these numbers are equivalent for small earthquakes, G for large natural earthquakes far exceeds that of laboratory measurements for equivalently sized events, causing seismologists to speculate that a significant portion of the earthquake energy budget for large earthquakes is dissipated in permanent off-fault deformation. These seismologists have posited that across the moment magnitude range (e.g., Mw6.6-6.8), the earthquake energy budget undergoes an important transition wherein energy dissipation by inelastic off-fault damage constitutes an increasingly significant fraction of the total breakdown energy (Nielsen et al., 2016). In this thesis, I attempt to investigate this hypothesis by examining the damage zones along two faults in Southern California: the Elsinore and Superstition Hills Fault. These faults have hosted recent earthquakes of approximately to Mw6.8 and Mw6.6 respectively. The damage zones surrounding these faults differ significantly in size and fracture density despite belonging to the same tectonic environment and being formed in similar sandstone lithologies. We conducted fieldwork near the entrance to Fossil Canyon in the Coyote Mountains where the Elsinore Fault crosses the Imperial Formation and at Imler Road (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Griffth (Advisor); Derek Sawyer (Committee Member); Wendy Panero (Committee Member) Subjects: Earth; Geology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2022, Environment and Natural Resources

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are now commonplace in cities across the United States, and bobcats (Lynx rufus) are growing in numbers within city limits as years pass. These generalist mesocarnivores have adapted their behaviors to thrive in an anthropogenic environment. This phenomenon is largely unnoticed by much of the public. However, humans have struggled to adapt their behaviors in response to the increased presence of mesocarnivores in cities. The urban public in the United States is generally uncertain how to foster a healthy relationship with wildlife in urban areas. Management agencies tend to be more reactive rather than proactive in dealing with carnivores, but proactive management may be necessary to foster human-carnivore co-existence in urban areas. We sought to better understand residents' judgements of appropriate responses to interactions with coyotes and bobcats in scenarios not involving a threat to human safety. To do this we conducted cross-sectional surveys of adult residents of the United States and the state of Ohio and embedded randomly assigned carnivore interaction scenarios in which respondents were asked to choose the most appropriate method of predator control in response to each scenario. In our first study (chapter 2) we determined the likelihood that an individual would switch their preferred method of predator control between two human-mesocarnivore scenarios. We found that switching was predicted best by the location in which the scenarios occurred (i.e., residential or agricultural area) and second by an increase in severity between the two scenarios' context. Interestingly, a variety of cognitive (e.g., wildlife value orientations, affect towards the species of carnivore) and demographic (e.g., gender, level of urbanization in respondent residency) factors identified in prior studies is impacting judgments about the acceptability of various types of control had no impact on the odds of a respondent preferring the same form of predat (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeremy Bruskotter (Advisor); Robert Gates (Committee Member); Alia Dietsch (Committee Member); Kristina Slagle (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Research; Wildlife Management

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2021, Biological Sciences

Coyotes are a generalist species that have adapted to nearly every terrestrial habitat in the United States. The species' success is heavily attributed to their omnivorous diets and tolerance for environments that are regularly disturbed. Because the larger predator species that typically act as apex predators are sensitive to highly fragmented landscapes, the coyote is the functioning apex predator in many ecosystems where large predators, such as wolves, have been extirpated. The coyotes' ecological role in urban ecosystems has received much attention in the last few decades as the species' presence in cities and suburbs has increased, along with human-coyote conflicts. Anthropogenic supplementation, and reliance on anthropogenic food in particular, is regularly cited as the reason for coyotes being in urban areas. However, the inconsistencies reported in the literature indicate that the mechanisms driving coyotes into urban areas may be more complex than coyotes' potential attraction to human food. Coyotes are foragers and scavengers whose diets reflect the seasonal and local availability of food, where prey items that are more abundant are likely to be encountered and consumed more frequently than prey that are hard to find. This is also what makes coyotes so successful in colonizing most types of habitats. The purpose of this study was to investigate how coyotes' consumption of anthropogenic food varies between urban and non-urban habitats and if their consumption of anthropogenic food is selective or just a reflection of its increased availability in urban habitats. I conducted a meta-analysis on coyote dietary studies from 1975 to 2020 to identify trends in anthropogenic consumption and dietary composition in relation to habitat type, geographic region, season, and year of study. I also conducted a field study with scent-baited camera traps and scat analyses to test if coyotes in the Dayton area metroparks were attracted to anthropogenic food to the same degr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Volker Bahn Ph.D. (Advisor); Jeffrey Peters Ph.D. (Committee Member); Katie Hossler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Environment and Natural Resources

Animals exhibit behaviors that may differ based on factors such as learning, social cues, the environment, and genetics. Coyotes are a large carnivore that inhabit the spectrum from rural to highly developed landscapes and have a tumultuous relationship with humans. To increase coexistence and decrease human-coyote conflict, it is important to analyze how urbanization may influence coyote behavior and genetics, and ultimately, coyote relationships with humans. My dissertation examines coyote genetics and behavior across a variety of urbanization levels in Illinois, from rural to the urban core of Chicago from 2014-2018. Through genotyping regions or specific SNPs associated with behavior (particularly boldness and aggression) in other species including the domestic dog, I first detected genetic polymorphisms in the coyote in these regions and then tested for differences in genotypic frequency based on landscape type. Through trapping coyotes in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, I studied behavioral actions across six contexts and tested for a relationship between boldness and aggression. Finally, I tested for correlations between behavior and genetic polymorphisms. I found 34 potential SNP locations in the dog and/or coyotes, with 11 SNPs only found in the coyote and 7 only found in the dog. In landscape analysis, 9 of the 21 polymorphic SNPs and 1 of 2 microsatellites had genotypic frequencies that varied based on urbanization level. Coyotes exhibited varying behavioral actions within behavioral contexts with low boldness and aggression scores across all contexts and measures. For individuals that we were able to recapture (n = 14), boldness was repeatable but aggression had low repeatability and varied between contexts. Urban individuals were more likely to be bold and more likely to be aggressive. However, we did not find support for a single behavioral syndrome that underlies boldness and aggression, as there was no linear relationship between boldness and aggressi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stanley Gehrt Ph.D. (Advisor); Elizabeth Marschall Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jeremy Bruskotter Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Genetics; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Environment and Natural Resources

Wildlife have responded to urbanization in a variety of ways. While some species have been displaced from developed areas, others have learned to tolerate and even thrive in anthropogenic landscapes. Even within a single species, there are inter-individual variations in behavior. Such variations are sometimes attributed to the presence of behavioral syndromes (i.e., suites of correlated behaviors in response to a common stimuli). Behavioral syndromes imply that while a population may contain variations in behavior, each individual has a limited amount of behavioral plasticity. If individuals consistently respond to stressors in a particular manner and some responses are more beneficial than others, the environment may influence which behavioral tendencies dominate in a given location. One commonly-studied set of behavioral syndromes are those associated with the bold-shy spectrum. Bolder individuals are typically defined as being more risk-prone, more exploratory, less neophobic, and less sensitive to stressors. In urban environments, high levels of disturbance, increased human activity, and large quantities of novel items may favor bolder, less anxious individuals over shy individuals. If that is the case, one would expect to find a greater proportion of bold individuals in areas with increased development. Using the Greater Chicago Metropolitan Area as a case study location, we conducted flight initiation distance (FID) tests (n= 78) and novel object tests (n=50) on free-ranging coyotes from 2015-2017. Additionally, hair cortisol concentrations (n= 198) were measured from coyote hair samples that were collected from 2014-2018. We found that coyotes in more developed locations tended to have lower FIDs, behave less cautiously around novel objects, and show slightly higher hair cortisol concentrations than coyotes in more natural settings. Flight initiation distances were consistent across trials for individuals who were tested more than once (n= 18) and coyote resp (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stanley Gehrt Dr. (Advisor); Stephen Matthews Dr. (Committee Member); Jeremy Bruskotter Dr. (Committee Member); Hamilton Ian Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Ecology; Wildlife Management

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2015, Environment and Natural Resources

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and coyotes (Canis latrans) are challenging wildlife species to manage in urban areas. Deer often reach densities which exceed cultural and ecological carrying capacities. Varied public opinions of both species present additional challenges. Cleveland Metroparks implements a population model to guide management efforts to reduce deer densities. However, two elements of the model lacking reliable estimates are fawn survival and migration across park boundaries. Also, the influence of coyotes on deer dynamics is unknown for urban systems. To develop better estimates of survival and habitat use and to understand the coyote-deer relationship, we conducted a multi-year study to quantify coyote and doe movement and fawn survival. Six coyotes were collared with GPS transmitters. Twenty-nine adult deer were captured; seven pregnant does received a radio collar and vaginal implant transmitter. Fifty-seven neonatal fawns were captured and fitted with expandable radio collars. We recorded 22 fawn mortalities. Vehicle strikes and culling were the most common causes of mortality. Average six month survival was 78%. Factors with the potential to influence fawn survival were modeled using known-fate models in Program Mark in a two-step process, first incorporating intrinsic covariates and then adding spatial and habitat covariates to the best-supported model from the first step. The best supported models varied with the time period of the analysis, but all included age class. Additional covariates included in one or more top models included habitat composition, home range size, and road density. Habitat use and selection were examined on a seasonal basis. For does, location data was divided into pre-parturition and post-parturition. Fawn locations were examined at three age classes: birth to two weeks, two to eight weeks, and older than eight weeks. Coyote locations were classified into three periods of differing levels (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stanley Gehrt (Advisor); Jeremy Bruskotter (Committee Member); Stephen Matthews (Committee Member); Terry Robison (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Biology; Ecology; Natural Resource Management; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management

Master of Science, University of Akron, 2014, Biology

Over the past 100 years, the coyote (Canis latrans) has expanded its geographic range across North America. As a result of their adaptability and behavioral flexibility, coyotes are now a common occupant of urban areas in the United States. Because their expansion from rural to urban areas is recent, there is limited research on coyote space use within different levels of development when ranging from truly urban to truly rural environments. We studied a total of 34 radiocollared coyotes in the Cuyahoga Valley, OH region from October 2009 through October 2012 to determine variation in coyote home range size, home range land cover composition, and habitat selection in northeast Ohio. Mean (± SE) composite home ranges of transient coyotes (x¯ = 108.614 ± 16.667 km2) were significantly larger than those of resident coyotes (x¯ = 6.63 ± 0.729 km2) in the Cuyahoga Valley, Ohio. Home ranges did not vary by sex or season for resident and transient coyotes, but resident subadults had significantly larger composite home ranges than other age classes. Home range sizes of transient coyotes were significantly larger than resident coyotes during the breeding, pup-rearing, and dispersal seasons. Neither sex nor age significantly influenced resident or transient coyote seasonal home range. Resident coyote home range size was smaller than found in previous studies. An a priori prediction that coyote home range size in the Cuyahoga Valley would be intermediate to coyote home range size in more urban and more rural habitats was, therefore, not supported. Within the study area and individual home ranges, coyotes commonly avoided land-cover types associated with human development and predominately selected natural habitats (i.e. deciduous forests, grasslands, etc.) more than they were available with little variation as a function of resident status, sex, age, or season. Although we did find that coyotes use areas of high human activity, we found little evide (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Randall Mitchell Dr. (Advisor); Gregory Smith Dr. (Advisor); Francisco Moore Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Wildlife Conservation; Wildlife Management

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2010, College-Conservatory of Music: Percussion

The history of purely American musical traditions—those not influenced by European ideals—has been largely unexplored by composers. One of the few composers to have created a new music in the search for a uniquely American identity is Peter Garland. Unlike the Euro- centric approach of George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, or William Grant Still, Garland attempts to create an American identity in music by utilizing the actual resonances—both physical and psychological—of indigenous cultures. The intent of this document is to shed light on Native American influences in the percussion music of Peter Garland and their realization through the most conscientious and sympathetic of performance practices. Three of Garland's compositions will be analyzed in relation to their abstracted resonances and indigenous percussive influences: Three Songs of Mad Coyote (1973), Hummingbird Songs (1974–6), and Nana and Victorio (1991). Performance practice in Garland's music is drastically enhanced by an examination and knowledge of the indigenous music and resulting sound universe from which he draws inspiration. In many cases, instruments must be fashioned or found that have the same or similar resonances as the indigenous instruments. Performance practice issues to be addressed include instrument building and selection, choreography and set-up, and acceptable variations in performance strategies or instrument substitutions.

Committee: Allen Otte MM (Committee Chair); Russell Burge MM (Committee Member); James Culley MM (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2012, Environment and Natural Resources

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are the top predator in the metropolitan Chicago area, and other urban areas of North America. As such, coyotes play an important role in the dynamics of the urban ecosystem. Coyotes have increasingly come into conflict with humans as both human and coyote populations have increased in the areas surrounding major cities. Sarcoptic mange is an important disease of coyotes throughout their range, and is capable of epizootics with high prevalence and mortality rates. My objectives were to examine the dynamics of sarcoptic mange in an urban coyote population, determine the effects of changes in mange prevalence on coyote population dynamics and determine whether mange infection resulted in altered habitat selection and use. Coyotes were trapped and radio-collared during 2000 - 2011. Individuals were examined for signs of sarcoptic mange at the time of capture. Visual observations of individuals being radio-tracked meant that animals that had developed signs of sarcoptic mange could be identified based on hair loss patterns after capture. Three hundred ten coyotes were examined for signs of sarcoptic mange during the course of the study and 49 (16%) were diagnosed with sarcoptic mange at some point. Sarcoptic mange incidence remained relatively steady in the study population throughout the study, implying that mange infection during this time period was enzootic. The majority of mortalities due to sarcoptic mange occurred during the winter (December – January). There was no evidence that changes in the prevalence of sarcoptic mange had any effect on annual survival rates, nor was there any relationship between annual survival and mange-specific mortality rates. Coyotes with sarcoptic mange showed a significantly higher mean percentage of locations in medium-density urban areas during the period spanning 60 days prior to death. Sarcoptic mange is currently enzootic in the Chicago metropolitan area. This does not preclude epizootics in the futu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stanley Gehrt PhD (Advisor); Robert Gates PhD (Committee Member); Patricia Dennis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology; Ecology; Parasitology; Wildlife Management

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2008, Natural Resources

I conducted scent station surveys throughout northeastern Illinois to determine factors associated with a gray fox population decline, and to assess land cover associations of urban mesopredators. When detected, gray foxes were collared and radiotracked. Results of my study indicated that gray foxes may have been negatively affected by urbanization, intraguild competition with coyotes, and interspecific interactions with raccoons. Generalist mesopredators were found to interact with the landscape at spatial scales that were larger than those accomodated by remnant habitat patches. Mobile mesopredators were positively associated with a high degree of urban development whereas less mobile mesopredators were positively associated with a moderate degree of development. Domestic cats, however, were positively associated with a high degree of urban development, likely due to their association as a companion animal. Habitat associations of urban mesopredators are important to understand in order to manage and control the spread of disease, mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, and understand how mesopredators can influence the wildlife community existing within urbanized landscapes.

Committee: Stan Gehrt Ph.D. (Advisor); Robert Gates Ph.D. (Committee Member); Charles Goebel Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Ecology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology

Fighting can be extremely costly in terms of energy use and potential for injury or death. Therefore, the ability to accurately assess a threat is advantageous, allowing an animal to retreat from conflict if its chances of winning are low. Game-theoretical models of agonistic behavior suggest that animals should base decisions about conflict escalation on an assessment of their opponent's fighting ability or resource-holding potential (RHP). Individuals can assess an opponent's fighting ability relative to their own using a number of physical and behavioral cues. Some aggressive displays, including some vocalizations, are believed to function as such cues, or advertisement displays, of an animal's RHP. Studies of advertisement displays have typically focused on contests between individuals. However, just as correct assessment of a rival is advantageous in conflict-escalation decisions between individuals, it might be expected that correct assessment of group size would be an important criterion in determining potential costs in contests between groups. Social animals would benefit from accurate perception of group size when assessing the fighting ability or RHP of a competing group in the same way that individual competitors benefit from assessment of their single competitor's size and strength. A number of studies have been published in recent years investigating group-level assessment in agonistic contests. These studies have focused on territorial vocal signals of various group-living species to determine whether competing groups glean information about group size from these acoustic signals and adjust their behavior in a manner consistent with the predictions of game-theoretical models of agonistic behavior. The goal of this thesis research was to determine whether group-size information is available in the group yip-howl of the coyote. The approach to this investigation was two-fold: a) conduct a field experiment with radio-collared coyotes and measure their mo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Douglas Nelson (Advisor) Subjects: Biology, Zoology

Master of Science in Environmental Science, Cleveland State University, 2010, College of Science

This study used coyote howl surveys combined with GIS to locate local coyote (Canis latrans) populations, determine the habitats where coyotes occur and estimate coyote group sizes in Bedford, North Chagrin and West Creek Reservations within the Cleveland Metroparks, Ohio. The CMP were established in 1917 and are the oldest park districts in the state of Ohio. There are 8,500 hectares (21,000 acres) of land in 16 reservations and in 2008 approximately 43,000,000 people visited the Cleveland Metroparks. Bedford, North Chagrin and West Creek Reservations have a mixture of park, forest, woodlots, residential neighborhoods, industrial areas, commercial property, open water, streams and wetlands. Coyotes have become the “top terrestrial predator” in northeastern North America and these animals are choosing to live in urban areas where humans are present and few natural habitats are available. Very little is known about the ecology and behavior of these elusive Canids around residential neighborhoods. I examined where coyotes actually lived along park boundaries. I performed howl surveys in Bedford, North Chagrin, and West Creek Reservations. Data were collected to determine coyote location, estimation of coyote group sizes and what types of habitats coyotes responded from. Overall, coyotes were heard 16.9% of the time when howl surveys were performed. Bedford Reservation had a minimum of 13 coyotes during winter months and 11 coyotes during the summer. It is believed that three coyote groups (Bedford, Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Walton Hills) were present around Bedford Reservation. North Chagrin Reservation had at least five coyotes during the winter and four coyotes in the summer months. West Creek Reservation had three coyotes respond to surveys in the winter and five coyotes replied during summer surveys. North Chagrin and West Creek Reservation each had one coyote group. Bedford Reservation coyote groups had similar responses during all three seasons (dispers (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wentworth Clapham PhD (Advisor); Robert A. Krebs PhD (Advisor); Andrew R. Lammers PhD (Committee Member); John Holcomb PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; Area Planning and Development; Behaviorial Sciences; Biology; Communication; Ecology; Environmental Science; Information Systems; Management; Remote Sensing; Urban Planning