> medical research is the major reason for this disappearance. People
> don't realize how common it is for a pet that is "allowed to roam" to
> disappear even in a rural environment.

A recent Ph.D. student in my department studied movement and diet of
urban coyotes here in Seattle. 50% of their diet was fruits and
vegetables (right out of our gardens), but roughly 20% consisted of
CATS. Hooray for coyotes! Cats were the major meat item in their diet
(this was determined from scat analysis, finding claws and other such cat
indicators in with tomato seeds). With the continued spread of coyotes
through the northeast, we might find urban coyotes more and more to our
benefit in reducing cat numbers. Tim's study showed 6 active dens in the
greater Seattle area in one year. If their that common in our city,
imagine how it is in the country.

Mike Smith
Univ. Washington
Seattle WA
whimbrel at u.washington.edu

FMI: Quinn, T. 1992. The distribution, movements, and diet of coyotes in
urban areas of western Washington. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Washington.