DOI: 10.25338/b8pw5j
title: Data from: Early-life experience influences dispersal in coyotes (Canis latrans)

description: Natal dispersal plays an important role in connecting individual animal
 behavior with ecological processes at all levels of biological
 organization. As urban environments are rapidly increasing in extent and
 intensity, understanding how urbanization influences these long distance
 movements is critical for predicting the persistence of species and
 communities. There is considerable variation in the movement responses of
 individuals within a species, some of which is attributed to behavioral
 plasticity which interacts with experience to produce interindividual
 differences in behavior. For natal dispersers, much of this experience
 occurs in the natal home range. Using data collected from VHF collared
 coyotes (Canis latrans) in the Chicago Metropolitan Area we explored the
 relationship between early-life experience with urbanization and
 departure, transience, and settlement behavior. Additionally, we looked at
 how early-life experience with urbanization influenced survival to
 adulthood and the likelihood of experiencing a vehicle-related mortality.
 We found that coyotes with more developed habitat in their natal home
 range were more likely to disperse and tended to disperse farther than
 individuals with more natural habitat in their natal home range.
 Interestingly, our analysis produced mixed results for the relationship
 between natal habitat and habitat selection during settlement. Finally, we
 found no evidence that early-life experience with urbanization influenced
 survival to adulthood or the likelihood of experiencing vehicular
 mortality. Our study provides evidence that early-life exposure influences
 dispersal behavior; however, it remains unclear how these differences
 ultimately affect fitness.
description: Location data:  Coyotes used in this study
 were captured year-round between 2000 and 2018. Trapping was done
 opportunistically in nature preserves and on private properties across the
 CMA using foot-hold traps or cable restraints. After animals were
 captured, they were transported to a laboratory where they were
 immobilized with Telazol (Zoetis Manufacturing & Research) and
 fitted with VHF radiocollars (Advanced Telemetry Systems and Lotek
 Wireless). Coyotes were located using triangulation with a truck mounted
 antenna or by visual observations. Coordinates were recorded with the
 program LOCATE II (Pacer). Coyotes were located once during the day,
 typically 2 or 3 times per week, and at night during tracking shifts in
 which we focused on a group of coyotes and obtained sequential locations
 at 60 to 120 minute intervals for 5 to 6 hours during the night. When
 radiocollared coyotes disappeared, we conducted flights with a helicopter
 or fixed wing aircraft to locate signals and then confirmed on the
 ground.  Such flights were deployed opportunistically in most years, and
 covered northeastern Illinois and parts of Wisconsin and
 Indiana.    Parent-offspring relationships: 
 Parent-offspring relationships were established using blood or
 tissue samples collected at the time of capture.   Individuals were
 genotyped using microsattelite markers and scored using Genetic Analysis
 System Software (version 8.0, Beckman-Coulter, Inc., Fullerton,
 California). Genotypes of pups were matched with parents using the
 programs CERVUS and PASOS (version 1.0; Duchesne et al. 2005). Further
 details can be found in Hennessy et al. (2012).
 Mortality data:  Of the 85 coyotes in the
 original dispersal analysis, 48 were recovered post-mortem. Mortality data
 for these coyotes included approximate date of death and the suspected
 cause of death. In particular, we were able to identify mortality due to
 vehicle collisions with high confidence.