They will also scavenge other predator’s kills.
Physical Characteristics of a Coyote’s Niche:
The coyote’s niche varies. Most of the time, you will hear the coyote before you see it. It makes a high pitched yip or howl that is usually heard at dusk, sunrise, or at night. Coyotes are scavengers who will eat whatever they can get.
Biological Characteristics of a Coyote’s Niche:
Most of the time, coyote’s live and hunt in pairs, but large groups have been seen. If there are packs, they usually have six closely related adults, yearlings, and young. The packs are smaller than those of wolves and the relationships between each member are a lot more unstable. Coyote’s are capable of making their own burrows even though they appropriate the burrows of woodchucks or American badgers. Their territorial range can be as much as 19km in diameter around the den. In areas where wolves have been removed, the coyote usually flourishes. They fill the biological gap and are more able to live among people than wolves are.
Food Web:
Predator/Prey Relationships:
Predator/Prey Relationship: A relationship in which an organism (the predator) catches and eats another organism (the prey) of an unlike species.
The coyote usually eats small animals such as voles.
In this relationship the coyote plays the role of the predator. The vole is the prey because the coyote eats it.
Inter/Intraspecific Competition:
Interspecific: The coyotes of Yellowstone don’t have much competing species. The only large competition comes from the wolves. They are much larger, stronger, and faster, which makes it all the easier to get kills. A coyote might try and scavenge from their kill, but the wolves may not like them taking their food and chase and possibly kill the coyote.
Intraspecific: Coyotes often hunt alone. Other coyotes in the area can easily use the same area for hunting, thus causing competition. They don’t usually come in contact with each other, but the less food will eventually make the less fortunate one leave the area and the competition for that area is gone.
Parasitic Relationships:
Parasitic Relationship: A relationship in which one organism (the parasite) benefits from another organism (the host) at the host’s expense.
The coyote has several parasites. These include: mite, ticks, and fleas. They all cause very minor affects on the coyote and they don’t kill their host.
In this relationship, the coyotes are the host and they mites, ticks, or fleas are the parasites because they are benefiting from their host, who suffers.
Commensalism Symbiotic Relationship:
Commensalistic Relationship: A relationship in which one organism benefits and the other is not harmed, but they also don’t benefit.
A raven is a scavenger like the coyote. When not flying, they ravens will take shelter in the trees. This is commensalism because the raven gets shelter, but nothing is done to the tree, be it good or bad.
Mutualistic Symbiotic Relationship:
Mutualistic Relationship: A relationship in which both organisms help one another for mutual benefit.
The American Badger and the Coyote have a mutualistic relationship. They hunt together. The coyote will chase the prey until it finds a hole to hide in and then the badger will dig through the hole and the coyote will continue to chase it until it catches it.
Limiting Factors:
Abiotic: Coyotes may find it hard to get shelter due to the other organisms.
Biotic: There is some competition between other organisms for food.
Density-Dependent: The number of wolf kills would affect those of the coyote
Density-Independent: Lack of food forces the deer to move areas and makes their main food source.
Population Graph:
- Amount of food
- Competition
- Lack of water
- Shelter
- Climate changes
- Humans/Other Predators
The Risk:
The coyote is at risk due to the reintroduction of the wolf. The wolves take the place as top predator, making it difficult for the coyotes to get food. The wolves are the only interspecific competition they have. The coyote population should drop because of this. The other animals that the coyote hunts will benefit because their main predator is gone and the wolves are unlikely to go after small mammals.
Affects on Related Organisms:
Vole – The vole will most likely benefit from the lower population of the coyote. They should multiply fast due to the lack of predators.
Elk – The elk population will start to decline. Before the wolves, coyotes were the largest predator. However they usually did not hunt larger prey. The wolves however do and since they can take them down a lot easier, the population will steadily decline.
Deer – The deer of Yellowstone face a similar dilemma as that of the elk. The wolves will hunt them and their numbers will slowly decrease.
Grass/Plants – Due to the rise in the vole population the amount of plants will decrease. The voles eat the plants, but with less coyotes to keep the vole population in check, the amount of voles will go up, causing the plants to be eaten faster than before.
In the Future:
The Yellowstone ecosystem will change drastically in the coming years. In 50 years, the ecosystem will become almost unrecognizable from what it is today. The wolves will take over the spot of top predator which will make the other animals such as deer or elk a large target for them. Without them to eat the vegetation, the vegetation will grow more. The smaller animals that eat the vegetation will gain a lot of food which will make their populations rise. Since the coyote will have to compete with the wolves for food like deer and elk, they must turn to scavenging or eating smaller prey, even scavenging can be difficult for them as the wolves still pose a threat to them if they try and eat from their kill.
The area will no longer look how it is today. The plants will probably be more widespread and the small animals that eat it will benefit. With the wolves as the top predator the larger prey will slowly lose its population, yet another way the plants will benefit. The smaller animals will be all over the place because their predators don’t have a large source of food, due to the wolves’ competition. The area will most likely have a lot more vegetation than it does now, so the coyotes will have a harder time finding their small prey. The changes will mostly make the lives of the small animals and the larger predators easier at the expense of the predators in the middle.
