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Abstract
We studied the activity patterns of the coyote (Canis latrans) in a tropical deciduous forest in the Mexican Pacific coast over 3 years. Fifteen coyotes (six females, nine males) were fitted with radio-collars equipped with activity sensors to determine the influence of seasonality (dry vs. wet), gender (males vs. females) and diel intervals (dusk, night, dawn, and day) on activity patterns. We found differences in activity patterns between diel intervals, but the only pair of diel intervals that showed significant differences was dawn (more active) vs. day (less active). We found no differences due to sex or season on any of the four studied diel intervals. Coyote activity patterns in this tropical forest could be responding to prey availability, human avoidance or thermoregulation.
Acknowledgements
We thank M.A. Casariego, E. Martínez, A. de Villa, P. Martínez, E. Fernandez, A. González, and all Earthwatch volunteers for their help during field work. We specially thank A. Peña for assistance. R. Parker and D. Wroe helped us with live-trapping. We thank SEMARNAT for research permits. The following persons and organizations provided logistic and economic support for the study: Boone and Crockett Club, Brignione Family, Denver Zoological Foundation, Earthwatch Inc., Environmental and Research Foundation, Estación de Biología Chamela IB-UNAM, Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, Fundación Ecológica de Cuixmala, Gargollo Family, Idea Wild, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, Nike Inc., M. Quesada, K. Stoner and Wildlife Conservation Society (Field Vet-Program). M.G. Hidalgo-Mihart received a graduate scholarship from CONACyT (Agreement 128761) during the study.