Validating acoustic monitoring as a non-invasive welfare indicator in urban coyotes: Linking vocalizations to health status, social dynamics, and environmental quality
Grantee: Caroline Rowley
Institution: Duke University, United States
Grant amount: $49,978
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Eastern coyote (Canis latrans)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Animal behavior, mammalogy
Research location: United States
Project summary
Coyote populations have expanded dramatically across North America, but population-level success does not necessarily equate to good welfare. Urban coyotes in particular face welfare challenges including disease, parasites, habitat degradation, reliance on anthropogenic food sources, and stress from human-wildlife conflict. This project is a pilot study aimed at validating passive acoustic monitoring as a welfare assessment tool. Data will be collected via GPS collars fitted with microphones, autonomous recording units, thermal camera traps and biological sampling. Using models and machine learning, the researchers will test whether vocal features correlate with established welfare indicators and whether individual coyotes can be identified from their howls alone. The goal is to develop a scalable, non-invasive framework for monitoring the welfare of free-ranging animals.
Why we funded this project
By systematically linking acoustic features of coyote vocalizations to established welfare indicators across multiple domains, this study positions passive acoustic monitoring as a scalable, whole-animal welfare assessment tool that is likely transferable to other similar species using vocalizations for communication.