Stubborn Survivors: USU Quinney Scholar Presents Rangelands Research
If the world really does end this year, as the Mayan calendar predicts, Utah State University student Shannon Kay is confident the resilient coyote will be among the survivors.
“Coyotes and cockroaches — they’re both amazingly adaptable,” says Kay, a Quinney Scholar majoring in conservation and restoration ecology’s USU’s Department of Wildland Resources.
With faculty mentor Jim Powell, professor in USU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Kay is exploring mathematical models to describe predator-prey interactions between coyotes and jackrabbits, the coyotes’ top menu choice. She’s among 33 USU students presenting findings at the 2012 Undergraduate Research Day on Utah’s Capitol Hill Jan. 24, in Salt Lake City.
Kay and Powell are working with a 31-year-old data set collected in northwest Utah’s remote Curlew Valley by USU emeritus professor Fred Knowlton.
“We have an unprecedented collection of data spanning a period from 1963 to 1993 — much of it covering a range of time before I was born,” Kay says. “It’s an incredible opportunity and I’m glad to be combining my interests in ecology and math. I’ve really found my niche.”
The data reveal oscillating coyote and Black-tailed jackrabbit abundances in the sagebrush-steppe environment, she says.
“Prominent examples of predator-prey oscillations exist but a long-term data set documenting these oscillations, such as this one, is uncommon,” Kay says. “So this is a unique study.”
With Powell, she tested both continuous and discrete mathematical models to explain why coyote populations waxed and waned through the years.
“We tested whether or not resource limitations affected the oscillations,” Kay says. “Each species impacts the others. It’s a constant balancing act.”
She says social structure among coyotes appears to be an important factor affecting the canids’ population dynamics in the study region.
“Coyotes have a social hierarchy in which only alpha pairs breed,” Kay says. “If something happens to the alpha pair, subordinate member of the pack will breed in higher numbers.”
She and Powell found that other factors, such as climate, could also be affecting the oscillations.
“Climate could be a topic for future research on this data,” Kay says. “Understanding data collected about varied wildlife species is important for management efforts. Wildlife managers need to weigh whether or not coyote populations should be controlled through trapping or other means.”
A 2007 graduate of Logan’s Fast Forward High School, the Hyrum, Utah, native says she initially considered majoring in physics or math when she entered USU. She reports experiencing an “aha moment” after taking an introductory course with Wildland Resources professor Fee Busby.
“I fell in love with the class topics and realized that qualitative ecology was definitely what I wanted to do,” says Kay, who will graduate from USU in May 2012. “I look forward to pursuing graduate study in statistics.”
Related links:
USU Department of Wildland Resources
USU College of Natural Resources
Contact: Shannon Kay, kay.shannon@yahoo.com
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu
USU Quinney Scholar Shannon Kay, a conservation and restoration ecology major in the College of Natural Resources, is presenting her research on coyotes at the Jan. 24 Undergraduate Research Day on Utah's Capitol Hill.
With faculty mentor Jim Powell, Kay is exploring mathematical models to describe predator-prey interactions between coyotes and jackrabbits in northwest Utah's Curlew Valley. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Comments and questions regarding this article may be directed to the contact person listed on this page.
