About This Project

Increasing urbanization can negatively impact wildlife health and alter disease transmission, making it crucial to understand and mitigate human impacts on wildlife health in cities. I am assessing different dimensions of human impacts on coyote health, including dietary shifts and rodenticide exposure, across natural and urban landscapes in Los Angeles. A better understanding of these interactions will help direct wildlife management, public health and conservation policy.

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What is the context of this research?

Recent Los Angeles (LA) area research demonstrated that urban coyotes use more human associated diet sources (e.g. human food and ornamental fruit), but the health effects of this dietary shift, in conjunction with other urban impacts, such as changes in landscape use and toxicant exposure, remains unknown. Since LA is made up of very diverse environments and coyotes can inhabit a variety of landscapes ranging from natural to urban, LA coyotes present an ideal study system for the intersecting effects of urbanization, diet, rodenticides, and pathogens on wildlife health. We will assess the different dimensions of anthropogenic impacts on coyote health across a diverse urbanization matrix, with direct applications to urban pathogen control, conservation, and wildlife management.

What is the significance of this project?

Results will directly inform local veterinary, wildlife and public health agencies since coyotes are potential carriers of zoonotic diseases (which can be transmitted from animals to humans; e.g. leptospirosis) and diseases that matter for wildlife conservation (e.g. canine distemper). This study also addresses key knowledge gaps regarding the health effects of rodenticides in urban coyotes, which is relevant to local wildlife conservation since rodenticides impact more sensitive non-target wildlife (e.g. local mountain lions and bobcats, both of which have experienced fatalities due to rodenticides). Fortuitously, a recent rodenticide ban also presents a rare opportunity to assess the success of a science-based conservation policy by comparing rodenticide levels before and after the ban.

What are the goals of the project?

My project will explore the intersection of urbanization, diet, rodenticides, & pathogens in local coyotes. I will investigate how urbanization and human associated diet impact rodenticide levels by comparing diet and rodenticide exposure in coyotes from different levels of human development. I will also assess coyote health (via pathogen testing) relative to rodenticide levels and diet composition. Diet composition will be measured by stable isotopes of whiskers, and rodenticide levels will be assessed by testing liver samples. I will also compare rodenticide levels before and after a recent rodenticide ban to assess if the prevalence of rodenticides dropped, thereby informing wildlife management agencies and conservation policy planning efforts in California.