Question

Imagine a neighborhood where coyotes are sometimes seen. The are found rarely eating chickens and cats left outside. Some of the neighbors have taken to putting out poison to try to kill the coyotes. A recent article in the neighborhood association newsletter said killing one or two coyotes will not impact the population since “they have a compensatory, density-dependant breeding rate” which they claim means that the more coyotes that are killed the more they reproduce.

Given what is known about how populations change, do you think this makes biological sense? Why/why not?

Answer 1

Yes, it does. If we kill coyotes in this specific population, the survivor coyotes will have more food resources and they will mate more often than in a extensive population. This is because, killing coyotes will reduce the intraspecific competition, a type of competition between members of the same specie for the same resources or mate opportunities.

So, killing coyotes will allow that more coyotes were able to mate because competition will be reduced and more source of food will be available. Once the population grows until certain number, it will stabilize and the reproduction rate will remain constant.