Tall Timbers, UF monitoring coyote behavior at Livingston Place

Jun 11, 2024

We can now see in real time how coyotes move on Livingston Place using GPS collars.

Tall Timbers has partnered with Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, Hance Ellington to better understand coyote behavior on the Red Hills landscape. Understanding how coyotes use our landscape will give us a better understanding of predator-prey dynamics in the system. We can also understand how prescribed fire impacts coyote foraging and movement.

With the help of Dr. Ellington’s PhD student, Dakotah Shaffer and USDA Wildlife Services, we successfully collared six coyotes on Livingston Place in the spring of 2024. GPS locations for the coyotes are uploaded by satellite minimally on an hourly basis. The collars will stay on the coyotes for a year and automatically drop off at that point we can retrieve them and make sure all of the locations were properly uploaded.

In addition to watching the coyote movements we are also monitoring their potential prey items on Livingston Place. We have cameras placed every square kilometer to capture photos of other wildlife on the property. Based on the thousands of camera images we will collect we will attempt to predict potential predation events.

Shaffer is conducting similar research at the UF-owned DeLuca Preserve in Osceola County.

This project will continue on Livingston Place over the next two-three years. We will be sharing more information as we compile and analyze the data.

 

About the Author
Kim Sash
Kim is the Biological Monitoring Coordinator at Tall Timbers, helping connect research and land conservation work. She brings a great depth of experience in hands on land management and research, in addition to being our go to person for any reptile and amphibian questions.
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