Effects of sterilization on territory fidelity and maintenance, pair bonds, and survival rates of free-ranging coyotes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Predation on sheep by coyotes (Canis latrans) is a longstanding problem for sheep producers. Current research suggests that surgical sterilization of coyotes could prove to be an effective method of reducing their depredation rates on domestic sheep by modifying their predatory behavior. However, for sterilization to be a viable management tool, the territorial and affiliative behaviors of pack members would need to remain in place. We tested whether surgically sterilized coyotes maintained pair bonds and territories in the same manner as intact coyotes. We also examined if territory fidelity and survival rates differed between sterile and intact coyotes. From June 1997 to April 2000, 10 males and 9 females were sham-operated and radio-collared, while 20 males and 6 females were surgically sterilized and radio-collared. We monitored members of 5 sterile and 4 intact packs during 1998, 6 sterile and 7 intact packs during 1999, and 4 sterile and 6 intact packs through the 2000 breeding season. Behaviorally, sterile packs appeared to be no different than intact packs. A half-weight association index showed that social dyads within sterile coyote packs were located together as frequently as dyads within intact packs. Simultaneous radiolocations of members of sterile packs showed that members of sterile packs were significantly closer to each other than would be expected from random locations. There was no difference in size or degree of overlap between territories of sterile and sham-operated coyote packs. Sterile coyotes had a higher annual survival rate than reproductive animals in 2 of the 3 years, and there was no difference in the level of territory fidelity. We concluded that surgical sterilization did not modify the territorial or affiliative behaviors of free-ranging coyotes, and therefore sterile coyotes could be used as a management tool to exclude other potential sheep-killing coyotes.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".