Morphologic Variation in the Coyote, Canis latrans, in the Southern United States

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Morphologic variation in the coyote, Canis latrans, from the southern United States was examined using univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. The taxon was sexually dimorphic with male skulls larger for 20 of 21 characters assessed. Fourteen male and 12 female measurements showed significant interlocality variation. A matrix of correlation among characters was computed, and the first three principal components were extracted. These accounted for 87.9% of the total phenetic variance in the character set of males of 94.1% among females. Three-dimensional projection of localities onto principal components showed that, for both males and females, large individuals occurred in more eastern localities (male.sbd.eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi: female.sbd.Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and eastern Texas) and smaller animals occupied western localities (western Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri). In general, coyotes were most similar to those in nearby geographic areas. Large size for both sexes was positively correlated with high actual evapotranspiration.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: