Using Fecal DNA and Spatial Capture-Recapture to Characterize a Recent Coyote Colonization

The arrival of a novel predator in an ecosystem necessitates many wildlife-management decisions that should be based on sound demographic data. Canis latrans (Coyote) has experienced a dramatic range expansion across North America since the early 19th century, completing its colonization of the continental US in the mid-Atlantic region over the past 20 years. Their arrival in the suburbs of Washington, DC, has generated much public attention, and demonstrated a need for demographic information about this species. To address the challenges of surveying an elusive animal, we used fecal DNA to describe the population genetics and demographics of a newly colonized Coyote population at Marine Corps Base Quantico (MCBQ) in northern Virginia. We collected 331 scats over a period of 2 years at MCBQ, resulting in identification of 23 unique individual Coyotes and 41 total Coyote captures that were analyzed using spatial capture-recapture models. We found evidence of colonization by multiple genetic lineages and a low population density of 0.047 individuals/km(2). Importantly, this study incorporates a new class of models on individual animals identified by genotype data derived from fecal DNA and demonstrates the utility of these models in surveying elusive animals.