Eastern Coyotes: Part Wolf, Part Dog, Extremely Adaptable

In this one-of-a-kind performance, Dr. Roland Kays will present the latest research about coyotes to a soundtrack performed by Senator Jaiz. Making the most of the unique presentation space, Dr. Kays will explain how hybridizing with wolves and dogs has allowed these coyotes to rapidly evolve into a larger predator, helping them to fill the ecological niche left open by the local extinction of wolves in the East. Now that they have colonized all our wild areas, coyotes have begun to be seen in urban areas, leading to new questions about their adaptability to city life. NC State students will help study this new question during the Fall 2016 semester by running camera traps on campus and contributing the pictures and data to the eMammal citizen science project. 

Copies of Dr. Kays new book, Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature, will be available for on-site purchase and signing. 

Dr. Roland Kays is the head of the Biodiversity Research Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and a research associate professor in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology program at NC State. Eban Crawford/Senator Jaiz is part of the Television/Emerging Media Group at NC Museum of Natural Sciences.