Case Study: The Effect of
Coyote Removal in Texas
By: Noah Hibbard and Emma
Church
Location:
Food chain of the plains of West Texas:
Primary Producers:
• Various species of grasses and herbaceous flowering plants
(forbs)
Primary Consumers:
• Jackrabbits
• Cottontails
• Ground squirrels
• Rodents
Secondary Consumers:
• Badgers
• Bobcats
• Skunks
• Grey fox
Tertiary Consumer:
• Coyote
Why Remove Coyotes?
Coyote Removal
Humans eliminate coyotes because:
• increasing game populations of those species
• to protect their livestock, pets, and small children
The effect of removing coyotes from an environment varies for
each different community.
Effect of coyote removal on primary and
secondary consumer population
How Population Size is Affected by:
*Natality- The ratio of the number of births to the size of the
population; birth rate
*Immigration- the act of entering another place
*Mortality- death rate
*Emigration- the act of leaving one place
Reasons for the Exponential Growth, Plateau, and Transitional
Phase:
• Addition and Removal of Coyotes
Why did the rodent species increase
after the coyotes were removed?
After the three year experiment, what
would be the repercussions of adding
coyotes back into the ecosystem?
What would happen to the coyotes if
more rodents were introduced into the
ecosystem?
Information Received from:
http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/coyotes.pdf