Coyotes in Newfoundland

-3 animals reported as wolves observed crossing pack ice of Marches Point, Port au Port
Peninsula, in March
*first confirmed coyote on the island was a pup hit by a car

Uniqueness of Insular NFLD

-over 30,000 km of heatherlands, bogs and subalpine habitats
-relatively low small mammal population (high in areas with coyotes on the mainland)
-minimal agriculture (usually lots where coyotes are on mainland)
-caribou/coyote interaction as wolves gone

Capture and Monitoring

-over 40 coyotes captured and radio collared since 2006
*largest coyote caught was 52 pounds, ~8 years old
-capture habitat: caribou winter range
-largest home range size of coyotes is in NFLD, very different ecology on the island than
in the rest of North America
-dispersing animals, moving randomly
-if you eradicated all coyotes from a 1000 km² area, in ~2 weeks, could be filled with
new coyotes
-young don’t settle into a territory until ~2 years of age
*hard to track as 75% of coyotes are yearlings and don’t settle
*one got halfway to the west coast from the top of the Burin peninsula in 7 days
-Newfoundland has lowest number of coyotes harvested in all of Atlantic Canada
* NFLD ~702, NS ~70,000 (in 2010)
*even PEI has higher harvests than NFLD
*low harvests in NFLD due to low small mammal population, which is needed to
support high coyote populations

Population Constraints and Hunting

-many young and a huge number die before age 1
-not forming packs so don’t have the ability to hunt moose
*eating moose that have died by other causes, such as sickness
-eat more snowshoe hares as the hare pop. increases
-eat less caribou as caribou pop. decreases
*caribou consumption shoots up in winter
-coyotes are no bigger in body size in NFLD than on mainland
Harp Seals
-6 seal species in NL
*2 arctic
*2 temperate
*2 migratory
-Harp seals most abundant in world (at very least, in top 3)

North Atlantic Harp Seal

-3 pops based on whelping areas:
*main one of interest for researchers in NL is the Northwest Harp Seal
-migrant
-summers in Canadian arctic and W. Greenland
-winters off NFLD and Gulf of St. Lawrence
-found primarily on continental shelf – capable of deep diving (700m)
-hunted in southern Canada, Arctic, Greenland

Estimating Abundance
-total removals by age
-annual age-specific reproduction rates
-independent estimates of pup production
*counting pups relatively easy as they stay on the ice
*can use pup numbers to estimate # of females and immatures

Removals
-reported catches in southern Canada, arctic and Greenland
-struck and lost

Seal hunt catches

-start of low
-huge peak in 1820-1880 for oil (as whale pops were decreasing due to whaling)
-need to take into account Greenland hunt numbers
-for biologists, need to know ho many killed (including seals that may have been lost
during hunt)
*adults can be lost when shot in water
*fat ones float
-need to take into account seals caught as bicatch when fishing (caught in fish nets)

-in 2010, ~50 of pups probably drowned due to lack of ice

Life Histories
-need to differentiate between determinate and indeterminate growth
*determinate growth is in mammals and birds: stop growing at maturity
*indeterminate growth is in reptiles, fish, mullusks: growth continues after
maturity but at reduced rate

Fitness
-assume fitness is maximized

Life History
-age (or stage) specific allocation to growth and reproduction
-variation in traits
*traits linked directly to fitness are life history traits (ie. life span, maturation age,
etc.)
-major components are survivorship and reproduction
*more resources in one will negatively influence the other
-selection acts on product of survivorship and reproduction
-life history traits are directly linked to fitness

Age schedules of birth and death

-starting point for analyses of life history
-on average, if each female produces 1 surviving female offspring, pop is stable
-mortality rate generally not constant over one’s expected lifespan

Measuring Fitness (Ro)

-Ro: net reproductive rate- used for lifetime reproductive output
-age specific survivorship and fecundity
-only works if population is stable

Measuring Fitness (r)

-r: the intrinsic rate of increase (aka Malthusian Parameter)
-does not require a stable population
-it’s the per capita growth rate

This is easy?
-seems to be easy – simply the best strategy has highest fitness and will replace all others
-But
*many different traits exist (even within a species)
*environment is unstable

Cost of Reproduction
-seeking a mate may increase risk of predation
-being full of eggs may expose one to predation
-etc
-dependent on environment
Reproduction and Growth
-reproduction and survival are often size dependent
-if energy is invested into reproduction, growth will decrease

Age and size at maturity

-size can be more important than age (at maturity)
-mortality pre-maturation more important than mortality post-maturation

When should one mature: early or late?

-pros and cons to both, depending on fecundity and size
-phenotypic plasticity in maturity to compensate for changes in environment

Reproductive effort (scheduling)

-no point in conserving resources if an individual female won’t (or has little chance to)
reproduce again
-reproductive effort should increase with age as less likely to survive with age

How does this relate to parental care?

-parenting increases survivorship of young
*but only makes sense to protect young if it doesn’t have negative effect on
fitness of parent through decreased future reproduction