US Forest Service Research and Development Effects of Snowmobile Trails on Coyote Movements within Lynx Home Ranges - Rocky Mountain Research Station - RMRS - US Forest Service
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Effects of Snowmobile Trails on Coyote Movements within Lynx Home Ranges

In its decision to list Canada lynx as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that "snowmobile trails and roads that are maintained for winter recreation and forest management create packed snow corridors that give other species access to lynx habitat." Scientists have expressed concern that compacted snow from snowmobiles could provide coyotes with access to lynx habitat from which they were previously excluded by deep, unconsolidated snow. The Chief of the Forest Service also ranked assessing the impacts of recreation as one of his 4 highest information needs. The concerns for lynx led to a controversial policy of allowing no net increase in compacted snow from groomed snowmobile trails across millions of acres of federal lands. The Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), in cooperation with Region 1 of the U. S. Forest Service, the Clearwater National Forest, and Idaho Department of Transportation, initiated a 3-yr study that investigated how coyotes used compacted snowmobile trails within lynx home ranges in western Montana.

RMRS scientists captured coyotes in lynx home ranges and fitted them with radio collars. Researchers then backtracked coyotes for 322 km recording habitat and snow characteristics. This involved mapping all compacted snow from snowmobiles near the track. In addition, they snow-shoed 358 km of paired random trails during the same period to determine how they used habitat and compacted snow compared to what was available in their territories. Coyotes remained in their home ranges throughout the winter months despite deep snow. They used compacted snowmobile trails for only 7.69 % of their travel distance and traveled on them for a median distance of 124 m. Coyotes used compacted forest roads (5.66 % of total travel) and uncompacted forest roads (4.62 % of total travel) similarly. Coyotes did not travel closer to compacted snowmobile trails than was expected (coyote mean distance from compacted trails = 368 m, random expectation = 339 m) and the distance they traveled from these trails did not vary with daily, monthly, or yearly changes in snow supportiveness or depth. However, they strongly selected for naturally shallower and more supportive snow surfaces when traveling off compacted snowmobile trails. Coyotes were primarily scavengers in winter (snowshoe hare kills comprised 3% of coyote feed sites) and did not forage closer to compacted snowmobile trails than random expectation. The study concluded that it was unlikely that snowmobile recreation increased competition between coyotes and lynx in western Montana.

Results from this study have: 1) provided the scientific bases for relaxing restrictions on groomed snowmobile trails as part of lynx conservation standards across millions of acres of federal land; 2) increased understanding of coyote winter ecology relative to lynx management; and 3) provided the scientific template for a second study that is replicating the methods in the dry-snow environment of northwestern Wyoming.

More information for this study can be found in:

Kolbe. J. A., J. R. Squires, D. H. Pletsher, and L. F. Ruggiero. In press. The effect of snowmobile trails on coyote movements within lynx home ranges. Journal of Wildlife Management.

Rocky Mountain Research Station
Last Modified: Monday, 28 April 2008 at 17:17:20 EDT (Version 1.0.5)