Track: Ecology, Conservation, and Archaeology
Using GIS To Analyze Habitat Selection by Coyotes in Urban Tucson, Arizona
Martha GrinderWolfgang Grunberg , D. Philip Guertin, Paul R. Krausman 325 Biological Sciences East The University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 85721
We radiocollared coyotes in urban Tucson to determine home-range size and habitat use. Land use coverages were previously developed for Tucson and were available on ArcView GIS. We entered coyote locations into ArcView GIS, from which we obtained UTM coordinates of the locations. These coordinates were analyzed using RANGES V, a home-range analysis package. The average home-range size was used to create grid squares, which were laid over the City's land use coverages to determine the availability of various land use types in areas equivalent to the home-range of a coyote. The land use types selected by coyotes, as evidenced by their presence in coyote home-ranges, were then compared to the availability of land use types within home-range sized areas throughout Tucson.
Martha Grinder
The University of Arizona
104 Biological Sciences East
Tucson, AZ 85721
USA
Telephone: (520) 621-3361
Fax: (520) 621-8801
E-mail: MIC@ARUBA.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU