Hábitos alimentarios del Coyote en el parque nacional Pico de Orizaba

Resumen We examined the food habits of coyotes (Canis latrans) from the Pico de Orizaba National Park by analyzing 136 scat samples that were collected for 11 months in a 7 km transect. Coyote diet consisted mainly of mammals (48.96%), plants (20.28%), birds (6.76%) and insects (0.68%). Our results indicate that annual coyote diet consisted of 15 prey-species. Their diet is based mainly on the rodent Peromyscus melanotis (25.68%), followed by the tomato plant Lycopersium esculentum (11.48%), and the jack rabbit Lepus callotis (9.46%). In the dry season, P. melanotis was the main prey item (29.16%), followed by L. callotis (8.33%). The most important items in the diet of coyotes in the rainy season were P. melanotis (22.36%) and L. esculentum (14.47%). There was no significant variation in prey consumption between seasons.