Impervious surface cover and number of restaurants shape diet variation in an urban carnivore

In the past decade, studies have demonstrated that urban and nonurban
wildlife populations exhibit differences in foraging behavior and diet.
However, little is known about how environmental heterogeneity shapes
dietary variation of organisms within cities. We examined the vertebrate
prey components of diets of coyotes (Canis latrans) in San Francisco to
quantify territory- and individual-level dietary differences and determine
how within-city variation in land cover and land use affect coyote diet.
We genotyped fecal samples for individual coyote identification and used
DNA metabarcoding to quantify diet composition and individual niche
differentiation. The highest contributor to coyote diet overall was
anthropogenic food followed by small mammals. The most frequently detected
species were domestic chicken, pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae), domestic
pig, and raccoon (Procyon lotor). Diet composition varied significantly
across territories and among individuals, with territories explaining most
of the variation. Within territories (i.e., family groups), the amount of
dietary variation attributed to among-individual differences increased
with green space and decreased with impervious surface cover. The quantity
of anthropogenic food in scats also was positively correlated with
impervious surface cover, suggesting that coyotes consumed more human food
in more urbanized territories. The quantity of invasive, human-commensal
rodents in the diet was positively correlated with the number of food
services in a territory. Overall, our results revealed substantial
intraspecific variation in coyote diet associated with urban landscape
heterogeneity and point to a diversifying effect of urbanization on
population diet.