Do Coyotes Catch Roadrunners?
Coyotes can catch roadrunners, but the cartoon version gets the ecology wrong. Here’s what real coyote hunting, roadrunner behavior, and desert food webs show.
Wolf Center
Topic
Category: Misunderstood Mesos
Raccoons, badgers, foxes, fishers, skunks — the middle predators whose absence triggers cascading effects, and whose presence we keep getting wrong.
Misunderstood Mesos: Olinguito
Hiding among the cloud-soaked forests of the Andes Mountains lives an elusive mesocarnivore that has evaded scientific discovery until recently- the olinguito.
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: Aardwolves
Among the shrublands of Africa lives a fascinating mesocarnivore that is named after two other, more popular, species. However, the aardwolf is not related to either the aardvark…
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: Spotted Skunks
When most people think of “skunk,” they picture the notorious striped skunk, a species that we examined in a previous Misunderstood Meso piece. However, another variety of skunk…
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: Pacific Marten
Pacific marten is one of the latest mammals on Earth to have achieved their distinct species declaration. They are so misunderstood that they were believed to be extinct…
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: Cownose Ray
Throughout the Misunderstood Mesos series, we have examined numerous land-based mesocarnivores from around the world, however, the small predator niche is a vital component of marine ecosystems as…
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: North American River Otter
Before the European settlement of North America, river otters inhabited every waterway on the continent. The traditional abundance of this mesopredator and the subsequent drastic reduction in population…
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: Crab-Eating Fox
Just as in North America, the mesocarnivores of South America face threats borne from misunderstanding. The crab-eating fox, also known as the wood fox or maikong, is one…
Wolf Education & Research Center
Misunderstood Mesos: Arctic Fox!
Built to survive in some of the harshest conditions on Earth, Arctic foxes play an important mesocarnivore role in ecosystems of the far North. Living in lands that…
Chris Anderson
