Twenty years ago, a wildlife biologist told me he was concerned that a rapidly spreading coyote population in Georgia would have an adverse impact on the state’s two fox species, the red fox and the native gray fox. Coyotes, he noted, kill foxes and could displace them.
Now, a new University of Georgia study shows those concerns may be valid, particularly for gray foxes. “Gray fox populations, especially in the Southeast, seem to be declining, and have been for some decades,” said study co-author James Beasley, associate professor in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
The main reason for the decline, the study suggests, may be competition with coyotes for food. Non-native to Georgia, coyotes began showing up in the state in the 1970s from the West and Midwest and have rapidly expanded to every county.
Part of the UGA study was done at the Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL), an expansive, heavily forested preserve in South Carolina just across the Georgia border from Augusta. The researchers documented the fox decline, in part, by examining decades of trapping records from SREL. “Gray foxes used to be really abundant (on SREL),” said Beasley. “But now we don’t see them nearly as frequently.”
Georgia Department of Natural Resources biologists see similar trends. “We’ve seen declines in both gray foxes and red foxes, but it’s more pronounced in gray foxes,” said DNR biologist Emily Rushton.
While fox numbers declined, coyote populations shot up during the same time — leading UGA researchers to conclude that coyotes may be putting heavy competition pressure on foxes.
The study also examined why foxes and coyotes seem to be able to coexist in the West and Midwest. It found that over long spans of time, foxes and coyotes in those regions learned to carve out their own specific niches for food sources to avoid competition with each other. In the Southeast, however, not enough time has passed for a similar process to take place. But will it happen fast enough to prevent a greater loss of foxes?
IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The Draconid meteor shower, visible next week, will reach a maximum of 20 meteors per hour Thursday night. Best viewing: In the northern sky after nightfall.
The moon will be new on Wednesday. Venus is high in the west just after sunset. Jupiter and Saturn are in the southwest at dark.
Charles Seabrook can be reached at charles.seabrook@yahoo.com.
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