AUGUST 8,
2019
by Bev
Betkowski, University of
Alberta
City
coyotes' garbage-based diets are affecting their gut bacteria and that could
affect how they interact with humans, new University of Alberta research shows.
"It
could possibly promote aggressive behavior," said Scott Sugden, who
conducted the research to earn his master's degree in science.
In analyzing
the gut microbiome of
76 urban and suburban coyotes, Sugden found urban coyotes were surviving on a
protein-poor diet that
lacked game native to their natural diets, like rodents and deer.
Stomach
contents revealed scrounged meals that included leather gloves, a still-wrapped
burrito, fast food wrappers,
even a chunk of pineapple.
"There's
not much nutrition there for a carnivore," said Sugden.
Alongside
this change in diet,the microbiome of the coyotes contained less of one
specific bacterial group, Fusobacterium. Lower abundances of these bacteria
have been loosely associated with aggression in dogs, so the same possibility exists
for their wild canine relatives, he said.
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