[Right Wing Professor]

Man you don't know your coyotes thats for sure.

They woke me last night, killing something in the back field.

A coyote will adapt to eating garbage over a deer in about 30 seconds, and if garbage isn't around he'll re-adapt back to the deer, mouse or bird or whatever else is around in equal amount of time.

That's not genetic adaptation. A population fo coyotes that likes mostly off garbage and hardly ever hunts will tend to lose characteristics that adapt them for hunting. The coyotes that are good hunters and not good garbage stealers will tend to die off at the expense of the good garbage stealers. That change will be genetic, and they won't be able to adapt back in 30 seconds. I read somewhere (I'll see if I can dig out the article) there are already signs this may be happening in the northeast.

[mordo]

Man you don't know your coyotes thats for sure.

They woke me last night, killing something in the back field.

Well I have observed them myself at day and night at fairly close range, less than 200 feet away with plain eye sight and with 10X50 field glasses.

The coyote is a very opportunist feeder and he is very adaptable.

The genetic adaptation scientist thinks he sees evidence of a genetic change going on, but all that is going on is that the coyote is substituting garbage for carrion. This is a good example where in the belief or bias of a scientists is revealed and he sees evidence of a hypothesis.

Coyotes opportunists and will eat what is readily available. Mice, rats, ground squirrels, rabbits, carrion and a wide assortment of other mammals make up the bulk of their diet. Snakes and birds, as well as an occasional wild turkey or white-tailed deer fawn, also are preyed upon by coyotes.

Pups often eat a steady diet of grasshoppers in the late summer when they begin hunting their own food. Crickets, beetles and other insects are eaten by coyotes of all ages.

Coyotes like fruits and berries, such as mulberries, blackberries, wild strawberries and wild cherries. A thicket of ripening wild plums or a persimmon tree may be visited by coyotes regularly. Coyotes also like watermelons.

Coyotes are scavengers too. Coyotes eat table scraps, including vegetables, thrown out by farm families. In urban areas or around campgrounds, coyotes sometimes raid garbage cans for discarded scraps. Although coyotes do not cause a large problem to sweet corn growers, they sometimes pull down a stalk or two and nibble on the ears of corn.

Coyotes also feed on carrion. Following deer season, coyote droppings often are full of deer.

So much for the genetic coyote hypothesis.