 By Olivia A. Asher thesciencenotebookblog.blogspot.com I’m an intern at the Gotham Coyote Project and I spend most of my time picking through coyote scat. If you don’t know that technical term, scat is another word for excrement. What I’m looking for in the scat is undigested prey items like hair, feathers, bone fragments, and plant material. I examine the prey items under a microscope and compare them to hair and bone from mammals in the reference collection at the American Museum of Natural History to figure out exactly what animals New York City coyotes are eating. For example, if I find a hair in a scat sample I look for a mammal with similar hair in the reference collection and then compare the two hairs to see if they match up. Every time I figure out what a coyote ate - was it a squirrel, or a deer, or a muskrat? - I feel like a master detective. So far the team and I have found that NYC coyotes are mainly eating small mammals, birds, deer, and fruit.  On the left are prey remains found in scat. Using skulls from the Museum's collections (right), I matched the teeth to Microtus pennsylvanicus (aka meadow vole), a rodent found in NYC parks Coyotes living in New York City are a hot topic right now which makes researching them all the more exciting. When I see news stories like today's article in Village Voice about coyotes in New York City, I feel like I know a celebrity. I want to shout “I know those coyotes! I examine their scat!”
I first got my hands on coyote scat about a year ago as an intern from the Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP), a program at the American Museum of Natural History which pairs high school students with scientists on novel research projects. During the SRMP I worked with a team of three other high school students. Now, I have graduated high school and I continue to work at the museum with the Gotham Coyote Project as a volunteer. Making contributions to research is thrilling Check out the poster my team and I made on the preliminary results on the diet of New York City coyotes! And to learn more about students studying coyotes in New York City, watch the videos linked here: Students at the American Museum of Natural History’s Science Research Mentoring Program: https://www.facebook.com/naturalhistory/videos/10153546832411991/ Students at Wave Hill’s Woodland Ecology Research Mentorship: https://youtu.be/KqWrRIKF5mg
2 Comments
2/21/2018 04:24:33 pm
This is actually really beyond my knowledge. This is the first time that I have heard of those terms and explanations. To be honest, I am still having some hard time understanding the concepts that you have shared here. But I have to say that I find them really interesting because I really love learning new things. I might do some personal research regarding this so that I will be able to know some other details and information that will help me understand all of these details here. Thank you by the way for generously sharing your knowledge to us. 2/16/2019 11:56:27 pm
Coyotes are one of the most fearsome animals in the wilderness. Well, they are very ferocious, however, they are not so much hostile than most are. Compared to others, coyotes do not attack people almost instantly, they try to gang up on weak prey. They are also considered as one of the scavenger type of creatures, those who eat off the dead carcasses and the remains of other living organisms. I am really enjoying this blog of yours about the Gotham coyotes. Leave a Reply. |
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