Date Completed

Spring 2026

Abstract

Dens are critical to the life history of many mammal species, particularly when raising young. Excavating a den is energetically costly, so several species can use existing dens, and multiple species may inhabit the same den complex simultaneously. However, the extent of den sharing among urban mammals is understudied. Between March 2021, and June 2023, we used camera traps to monitor a multi-species den site in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. We documented den visitation and use by at least 11 mammal species, including red fox, coyote, raccoon, woodchuck, and Virginia opossum. Coyotes and red foxes both exhibited scent-marking at the den site, and red foxes had at least one pup in the springs of 2021 and 2023. Interestingly, we documented use of the den by these competing carnivore species while red foxes had young inside the den. These observations improve our understanding of mammalian urban den use and interspecific interactions at such dens located in non-developed fragments of habitat. To place our findings in the context of other studies on red fox and coyote interactions, we conducted a literature review in the Scopus database. It returned 37 relevant articles, which included the following dynamics: resource competition, spatial and temporal niche partitioning, numerical effect, behavioral response, and aggression. Preliminary analyses suggest that the direction of these relationships may vary with study location and season. The situation we documented seems to represent a site which had high competition between red foxes and coyotes, for which the former compensated with increased vigilance.

Document Type

Presentation

First Advisor

Remington Moll

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

College or School

COLSA

Department or Program

Natural Resources and the Environment

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

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