PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Urban coyotes never stray: New study finds 100 percent monogamy

Urban coyotes never stray: New study finds 100 percent monogamy
2012-09-26
(Press-News.org) COLUMBUS, Ohio - Coyotes living in cities don't ever stray from their mates, and stay with each other till death do them part, according to a new study.

The finding sheds light on why the North American cousin of the dog and wolf, which is originally native to deserts and plains, is thriving today in urban areas.

Scientists with Ohio State University who genetically sampled 236 coyotes in the Chicago area over a six-year period found no evidence of polygamy - of the animals having more than one mate - nor of one mate ever leaving another while the other was still alive.

This was even though the coyotes exist in high population densities and have plenty of food to eat, which are conditions that often lead other dog family members, such as some fox species, to stray from their normal monogamy.

To cat around, as it were.

"I was surprised we didn't find any cheating going on," said study co-author Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist with Ohio State's School of Environment and Natural Resources. "Even with all the opportunities for the coyotes to philander, they really don't.

"In contrast to studies of other presumably monogamous species that were later found to be cheating, such as arctic foxes and mountain bluebirds, we found incredible loyalty to partners in the study population."

The study appears in a recent issue of The Journal of Mammalogy.

The loyalty of coyotes to their mates may be a key to their success in urban areas, according to Gehrt.

Not only does a female coyote have the natural ability to produce large litters of young during times of abundance, such as when living in food-rich cities, she has a faithful partner to help raise them all.

"If the female were to try to raise those large litters by herself, she wouldn't be able to do it," said Gehrt, who holds appointments with the university's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and Ohio State University Extension. "But the male spends just as much time helping to raise those pups as the female does."

Unlike the males of polygamous species, a male coyote "knows that every one of those pups is his offspring" and has a clear genetic stake in helping them survive, Gehrt said.

The research was done in Cook, Kane, DuPage and McHenry counties in northeast Illinois. All are in greater Chicago, which is home to about 9 million people and is the third-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.

It's also home to an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 coyotes. Gehrt has previously said he "couldn't find an area in Chicago where there weren't coyotes."

"You've got lots of coyotes in this landscape," said senior author Cecilia Hennessy, who conducted the study as a master's degree advisee of Gehrt and is now a doctoral student at Purdue University in Indiana. "You've got territories that abut each other. And coyotes can make long-distance forays. So you'd think, based on previous investigations of dog behavior, that cheating would be likely.

"But to find nothing, absolutely nothing, no evidence whatsoever of anything that wasn't monogamy, I was very surprised by that," she said.

The finding came through a wider study of Chicago-area coyotes that Gehrt has led since 2000. As the largest study ever on urban coyotes, it's a long-term effort to understand the animals' population ecology, how they adapt to urban life and how to reduce their conflicts with people.

"A powerful part of the new paper is that we have long-term field work, behavior observations, to accompany Cecilia's genetic work," Gehrt said. "So many genetic studies only analyze samples but know very little about their subjects, whereas we follow these individuals nearly every day and often to the completion of their lives. It's a nice mesh of lab and field work."

The scientists used live traps - either padded foothold traps or non-choking neck snares - to catch the coyotes for the study, although pups were simply dug from their dens and held by hand. Small blood and tissue samples were taken from all the animals. The adults, which were anesthetized, also were fitted with radio-collars for tracking their movements and ranges. Afterward, all the coyotes were released where they were caught.

Later, Hennessy, who previously was a plant genetics technician and biology major at the University of Cincinnati, used genetic techniques in the lab to test the animals' DNA and determine their family trees.

Coyotes maintain monogamy through long-term pair bonding, a term meaning an animal stays with the same mate for more than one breeding season, and sometimes for many.

A male coyote, for his part, practices diligent mate guarding - keeping other males away from the female.

During estrus, which is the time when the female can become pregnant, the pair "will spend all their time together - running, finding food, marking their territory. They'll always be right at each other's side."

"We've been able to follow some of these alpha pairs through time, and we've had some of them stay together for up to 10 years," Gehrt said. "They separate only upon the death of one of the individuals, so they truly adhere to that philosophy, 'Till death do us part,' " Hennessy said.



INFORMATION:

Funding was provided by the Cook County Animal and Rabies Control and by the Cook County Forest Preserve District, and by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation.

Contact: Stan Gehrt, (614) 292-1930; Gehrt.1@osu.edu
Written by Kurt Knebusch, (330) 263-3776; Knebusch.1@osu.edu


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Urban coyotes never stray: New study finds 100 percent monogamy

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Prison rehab tied to parole decisions

2012-09-26
According to a new study co-authored by Simon Fraser University economics professor Steeve Mongrain, parole board decisions can have a huge impact on whether or not prisoners are motivated to rehabilitate. The Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, has just published their study Rehabilitated or Not: An Informational Theory of Parole Decisions online. Mongrain and his colleagues argue that parole boards need to consider the length of prisoners' original sentences, as well as their behaviour in prison, in granting early parole and determining eligibility for parole ...

New tool for CSI? Geographic software maps distinctive features inside bones

2012-09-26
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A common type of geographic mapping software offers a new way to study human remains. In a recent issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, researchers describe how they used commercially available mapping software to identify features inside a human foot bone – a new way to study human skeletal variation. David Rose, a Captain in the Ohio State University Police Division and doctoral student in anthropology, began the project to determine whether the patterns of change inside the bones of human remains could reveal how the bones were ...

Improved communication could reduce STD epidemic among black teenagers

2012-09-26
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Black urban teenagers from low-income families face a rate of sexually transmitted disease up to 10 times higher than their white counterparts, but recent studies at Oregon State University have identified approaches to prevention programs that might reduce this problem. The research, based on interviews of black adolescents ages 15-17 in San Francisco and Chicago, found that information from parents, teachers and other caring adults is actually listened to, more than the adults might think. And the problem of youth getting "mixed messages" from different ...

Population aging will have long-term implications for economy

2012-09-26
WASHINGTON — The aging of the U.S. population will have broad economic consequences for the country, particularly for federal programs that support the elderly, and its long-term effects on all generations will be mediated by how -- and how quickly -- the nation responds, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. The unprecedented demographic shift in which people over age 65 make up an increasingly large percentage of the population is not a temporary phenomenon associated with the aging of the baby boom generation, but a pervasive ...

Treatment for 'untreatable' progeria has roots in untargeted basic cell research

2012-09-26
BETHESDA, MD, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012---The good news widely reported this morning of positive results from a clinical drug trial at Boston Children's Hospital for the previously "untreatable" rapid aging disorder in children known as progeria has its scientific roots in basic biology discoveries made in recent years. A paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports that the use of farnesyl transferase inhibitors (FTI) significantly slows the progress of progeria, a rare and until now "untreatable" lethal genetic disorder. Also ...

What can the water monster teach us about tissue regeneration in humans?

What can the water monster teach us about tissue regeneration in humans?
2012-09-26
LA JOLLA, CA---- Based on two new studies by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, regeneration of a new limb or organ in a human will be much more difficult than the mad scientist and supervillain, Dr. Curt Connors, made it seem in the Amazing Spider-man comics and films. As those who saw the recent "The Amazing Spiderman" movie will know, Dr. Connors injected himself with a serum made from lizard DNA to successfully regrow his missing lower right arm - that is, before the formula transformed him into a reptilian humanoid. But by studying a real ...

Disparity in breast cancer between black and white women can be eliminated by regular screening

2012-09-26
Regular mammography screening can help narrow the breast cancer gap between black and white women, according to a retrospective study published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment in August. Earlier studies have shown that black women in Chicago are more than twice as likely to die of breast cancer compared to white women. Black women with breast cancer reach the disease's late stages more often than white women, and their tumors are more likely to be larger and more biologically aggressive. But according to the study, when women of both races received regular ...

The crucial Asian American note

The crucial Asian American note
2012-09-26
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Asian Americans likely to vote in November strongly prefer Barack Obama over Mitt Romney, but a large portion of voters – nearly one-third – remain undecided and could play a crucial role in battleground states, according to two reports released today by the National Asian American Survey. Drawn from a nationally representative sample of more than 3,300 interviews, the reports offer the most comprehensive portrait of Asian American political views. Among the fastest growing groups in America, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders exceeded the 5 percent ...

Exercise does a body -- and a mind -- good

2012-09-26
We've heard it time and time again: exercise is good for us. And it's not just good for physical health – research shows that daily physical activity can also boost our mental health. But what actually accounts for the association between exercise and mental health? A new article in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explores whether certain psychosocial factors may help to explain the benefits of daily physical activity for adolescents' mental health. Karin Monshouwer of the Trimbos Institute in the Netherlands and ...

Incorporating safety into design important for active living and injury prevention

2012-09-26
Designing or modifying buildings and communities to facilitate physical activity must include strategies to maximize safety. A new report released today, Active Design Supplement: Promoting Safety, by the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene's Built Environment and Healthy Housing Program, and the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) provides explicit guidelines for urban planners, architects, public health advocates, and others to consider when promoting active designs. Experts from New York City's ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Face‑/edge‑shared 3D perovskitoid single crystals with suppressed ion migration for stable X‑ray detector

Multiple solutions help fly embryos overcome the fundamental problem of ‘tissue tectonic collision’

GLP-1 weight-loss drugs pose hidden risks for young women

Strategies for enhancing energy‑level matching in perovskite solar cells: An energy flow perspective

3D‑printed boron‑nitrogen doped carbon electrodes for sustainable wastewater treatment via MPECVD

Screening anionic groups within zwitterionic additives for eliminating hydrogen evolution and dendrites in aqueous zinc ion batteries

New tectonic geodynamics textbook bridges scientific disciplines

Tiny and powerful – metamaterial lenses for your phones and drones

Study used AI models to improve prediction of chronic kidney disease progression to end stage renal disease

Peanut shell biochar composite shows promise for removing antibiotic-resistant bacteria from aquaculture wastewater

Compact genetic light switches transform disease control

Sunglasses for plants, and sustainable agriculture

Nearly half of those with diabetes unaware they have the disease

Emergency department visits by uninsured children in Texas soar 45% after COVID-era federal funding ends

Bright children from poorer backgrounds twice as likely to receive hospital mental health treatment than affluent high-achievers

‘Artificial cartilage’ could improve arthritis treatment

Breathing device could have profound impact on survival for people with sleep apnoea and type 2 diabetes

Artificial intelligence assessment indicates stress levels in farmed Amazonian fish

Keith Cole receives grant to conduct integrated research on mobility, cognition and aging

Internationally recognized malaria researcher Stefan Kappe, Ph.D., appointed new director of the UM School of Medicine's Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health

Lung cancer genetics study launches open-source data platform to research community

Pre-conception radiation exposure from CT scans increases risk for miscarriage and birth defects

Boston University appoints Kenneth Lutchen to top research job

For video-on-demand platforms, release strategy matters: streaming episodes gradually boosts consumers’ searches, subscription rates

Sleep strengthens muscle and bone by boosting growth hormone levels. Here's how

Only 1 in 7 online health images show proper technique to accurately measure blood pressure

Children receiving biofeedback speech therapy improved faster than with traditional methods

Scientists discover why the flu is more deadly for older people

The salmon superfood you’ve never heard of

How does chemotherapy disrupt circadian rhythms?

[Press-News.org] Urban coyotes never stray: New study finds 100 percent monogamy