UC Davis

In social-ecological systems like cities, where humans are the dominant drivers of most ecological processes, humans affect wildlife through direct and indirect interactions. Direct interactions, i.e., human-wildlife encounters, result in individual-level costs and benefits important for the interacting individuals’ health and well-being. Indirect interactions often occur when human behavior, especially at the group or institutional level, affects the abundance and distribution of resources and risks important for wildlife in cities. Importantly, direct interactions can influence indirect interactions by influencing human attitudes towards wildlife and support for conservation or management practices that benefit or harm wildlife. Despite the importance of human-social systems in shaping urban ecosystems and interactions with wildlife, there is little research incorporating social-system characteristics into the study of urban wildlife ecology. I examined the effect of direct- and indirect- interactions between humans and coyotes (Canis latrans) on processes important for coyote ecology and human-coyote coexistence. Coyotes are an ideal system for studying these interactions because they occupy every major city in North America, interacting with humans across a range of social and environmental contexts. Results from this work indicate that human-coyote interactions are shaped by both environmental and social-system characteristics. The availability of suitable habitat plays a major role in increasing survival and reducing coyote behavior related to human-coyote conflicts. Social structures based on socio-demographics, which are responsible for shaping many of the indirect effects of social systems on wildlife, influenced direct human-coyote interactions. Survey respondents from marginalized groups tended to have fewer interactions with coyotes, observe less nonthreatening coyote behavior, and ultimately had less positive attitudes towards coyotes. This research adds to the growing literature demonstrating the interrelatedness of ecosystems and social systems in cities and suggests that increasing human-wildlife coexistence in cities requires the amelioration of environmental injustices.