Knowledge increases informative reporting by the public about urban coyotes

Abstract

Many municipalities use information about human-wildlife interactions collected in citizen-provided reports to monitor conflicts and guide management actions. However, high volumes of reports that describe benign wildlife behaviour can reduce the efficiency with which officials address reports that require management interventions, a situation that has occurred in Edmonton, Canada. We used data from a survey of Edmonton residents (n = 5,926) that asked respondents to anticipate whether they would alert officials if they witnessed (a) a coyote exhibiting benign behaviour in a natural area and (b) conflict-prone behaviour near human dwellings. We used path models to explore the predictors for two response variables; the agreement with reporting a benign sighting and the difference between scores for agreement to report conflict-prone behaviour and a benign sighting, which we interpreted as more informed reporting. As predictor variables, we considered a set of demographic, situational, cognitive, and experiential factors measured in the survey. A greater tendency to report the benign sighting was associated with prior 311 calls, higher risk perceptions, having experienced less severe interactions with coyotes, and greater knowledge of the consequences of food conditioning in coyotes. A greater tendency to anticipate reporting a conflict-prone coyote was associated with lower risk perceptions and greater knowledge of the consequences of food conditioning in coyotes, which is frequently associated with conflict. Further, individuals with higher risk perceptions were more likely to have experienced more severe interactions with coyotes, which were sometimes associated with living on a greenspace. Our results suggest that education campaigns could help people recognize benign behavior and identify and mitigate potential conflicts with coyotes. Education could occur as part of report receipt by city staff and outreach could target areas where coyote interactions are more likely, such as in residential areas along greenspaces.