photo by Bruce Marsh
Here is one of our Maine Coyotes….going about her important work in this ecosystem of one of our Maine landowners. Our coyotes can have large territories, but within their territories are what is called their core areas, the places where they spend most of their time. So too, our urban coyotes in our cities in Maine, like Bangor and Portland, have core areas as well.
So here is just how amazing our major carnivores, like Coyotes, are….how they affect health in our ecosystems, and affect other species…..just by their presence!
Dr. Stan Gehrt, out of Ohio University, has been conducting urban Coyote research in Chicago for the past 12 years or so…..and this is his latest finding ~ The researchers have found that domestic cats are recognizing Coyote’s core areas (which are green refuges within the cities) and staying away from them, in order to survive. Instead the cats are spending more time closer to human abodes and buildings.
THE AMAZING RESULT ~ Bird species that would otherwise fall prey to domestic cats in these green refuges, are protected by coyote’s presence there. And as a biologist, I would suggest that if we were able to do that research here in Maine in our rural areas, we would begin to see the same happening.
So if you would like to support that wonderful diversity of bird species on your land, protect the Coyotes that share your land with you!……as this Maine landowner, who took this photo, does.
