WASHINGTON PREDATOR-PREY PROJECT
  • Overview
  • Research Topics
    • Community Dynamics
    • Wolf-Cougar Interactions
    • Carnivore-Ungulate Interactions
    • Mesopredators
  • Products
  • Outreach
  • Updates
    • Updates from the field (blog)
    • WPPP in the news
    • COVID-19 Statement
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COYOTES &
BOBCATS

Canis latrans
Lynx rufus

Picture
Picture
Photo: Kate Orlofsky (2017)

​We are examining the movements and population dynamics of two common mesopredators, coyotes and bobcats, within the context of the greater wildlife community. The recent wolf recolonization has created a mosaic of variation in large carnivore presence. We are using a combination of GPS tracking technology, fecal genotyping, and cameras at kill sites to jointly examine facilitation and suppression. We hypothesize that scavenging is a critical yet overlooked factor determining mortality risk for mesopredators, creating hotspots of intraguild interactions across the landscape. Carrion may thus present a “fatal attraction” whereby local-scale clustering of competing carnivores leads to landscape-scale suppression of subordinate mesopredators. Coyotes and bobcats are being used to test this hypothesis, because they differ strongly in their scavenging activity but are otherwise ecologically similar. 

Funding: National Science Foundation
Collaborators: Jonathan Pauli (U Wisconsin), Lisa Shipley (Washington State U), WDFW
UW Project Leads: Laura Prugh (PI), Becca Windell (PhD Student)

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  • Overview
  • Research Topics
    • Community Dynamics
    • Wolf-Cougar Interactions
    • Carnivore-Ungulate Interactions
    • Mesopredators
  • Products
  • Outreach
  • Updates
    • Updates from the field (blog)
    • WPPP in the news
    • COVID-19 Statement
  • People
  • Partners