Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Throughout the past several decades, coyotes have become common inhabitants of urban areas in the southeastern United States. Because their southward expansion is recent, there is a lack of information on activity patterns of urban coyotes in the Southeast. We trapped and radio-collared 20 coyotes to determine seasonal activity patterns along an urban-rural gradient in east-central Alabama during 2007 - 2009. We created an urban-rural gradient based on percentage of urban land-cover in home ranges. Percentage of urbanization in home ranges was 2% - 45%. Mixed logistic-regression models indicated that coyotes along the gradient were active at similar times during all seasons. Information presented in this study will allow biologists and resource managers to gain an understanding of movements of coyotes in urban areas and will be helpful in predicting and mitigating potential human-coyote interactions in the Southeast.