3.4 | Coyote use on raccoon temporal activity (Figure
1b,c)
Overall, our hypothesis for raccoon-coyote temporal interactions was
largely correct, with raccoons at DMP consistently exhibiting no shift
in time use relative to coyote intensity of use zones. However, there
was reduced overlap between coyotes and raccoons within the high coyote
zone. Results for the other sites varied by survey year (Figure 3).
Below, we first present for each site the results for the comparison of
raccoon activity between the high and low coyote zone. Then we provide
the comparison of raccoon and coyote temporal activity within the high
coyote zone (relative to the same comparison in the low coyote zone), to
determine if there is evidence that a shift in raccoon activity between
zones is due to temporal avoidance of coyotes.
HMC: At the most rural site, we found results for the effects
of coyotes varied by survey. The 2016 and 2017 surveys exhibited no
shifts, while surveys in 2018 and 2019 showed significant shifts in
raccoon activity between coyote low and high zones (W = 15.12, 10.02,p < 0.00 respectively) (Table 1). Results were
consistent even when the 2017 survey was broken up into summer and
winter survey seasons since it covered an entire year, indicating no
shifts in raccoon activity between coyote zones. When comparing coyote
and raccoon temporal activity within each zone the 2018 survey showed
some evidence of decreased temporal overlap between coyote and raccoons
in the high coyote zone, while for 2019 the confidence intervals were
too wide to be meaningful (Figure 3).UMBS: For both surveys, we found there were significant shifts
in raccoon activity between coyote zones (W = 9.63, p <
0.00 for 2016, and W = 7.39, p = 0.025 for 2015). Both surveys
showed evidence of reduced temporal overlap between coyote and raccoons
in the high coyote zone.
SNWR: We found that again, results varied by survey, with two
out of three surveys showing significant shifts in raccoon activity
between coyote zones; 2016 (W = 6.08, p = 0.047) and 2018 (W =
10.46, p < 0.00) showed shifts, while in 2017 (W =
3.65, p = 0.162) raccoons did not shift activity. Only the 2018
survey showed evidence of reduced temporal overlap between coyotes and
raccoons in the high coyote zone.
DMP: We found that raccoons exhibited no shifts in activity
between coyote zones consistently across for all four years surveyed in
our study. Curiously, three out of the four surveys (2018, 2019, and
2020) showed evidence of reduced overlap between raccoons and coyotes in
the high coyote zone, with the difference reaching significance in the
2020 survey (Δ4 CI in the high coyote zone: 0.46-0.58
vs. low coyote zone: 0.61-0.80).