The effects of coyote removal in western Texas
Coyotes also known as Canis latrans, are part of the Canidae family of carnivorans. Other animals that belong to the Canidae family are dogs, wolves, foxes and jackals. A member of this family is called a Canid. The coyote is a close relative to the gray wolf having diverged from it, and is native to North America. It primarily eats other animals. Its diet consists of larger hoofed animals to small rodents and fish. Reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and birds are also eaten. Sometimes fruit and vegetables are eaten too but to a lesser extent. Only 10% of the coyote’s diet is fruit and vegetable, 90% consist of other animals. Some coyotes even prey on young black bears, harp seals and rattlesnakes.…show more content… Once a removal rate of 75% or more of breeding population of coyotes is reached, ranchers see a minimum decline in deaths among their sheep. However in the long run, it can have adverse effects on the ecosystem. Fewer predators will mean more herbivores that compete with livestock over food. Ranchers might have to buy extra food to feed their animals; this might offset the monetary gain from losing fewer animals to coyotes. Coyote removal should not be promoted as a ranch management strategy because it has such negative effects on the ecosystem. In this study it is shown that biodiversity declines and this extends to plants as well. Biodiversity in animals is also good for biodiversity in plants because animals will have selective grazing, only grazing on certain plants, leaving other alone. The plants that are left alone can be grazed upon by other species. We need more data that researched the monetary gain of ranchers by removing coyotes; this study only covers the ecological and faunal impact of the treatment, not the floral and monetary while the ranchers are primarily interested in protecting their livestock so that they have less losses. Experiments I would like to see done is a comparison between the percentages of coyotes removed and the monetary gain and I would like an experiment where the impact of removing keystone predators is measured throughout the entire food web and not just microherbivores and