Ecology Overview   

Here's an introduction to the Ecology of the San Luis Rey Watershed.  For a larger view, please Click Here  Ecology Overview Presentation.

Note: In the building of this presentation, I realized a couple of things regarding my love-hate relationship with coyotes.  I've always hated them because they've eaten our cats and chickens.  They have chewed up my irrigation lines.  And they are generally ugly looking and their yelps at night are simply creepy.   But I love them because they eat rodents and snakes.  With this presentation, I came across information on their territories, habitats, food chain, and their competition for food amongst themselves (intraspecific) and us humans (interspecific).  They are losing the war with us humans because of their habitat loss and increased food scarcity due to our urbanization.  I am not sure us "winning" is a good thing because as part of the food chain, they keep in check the rodents and snakes.  I have a hard time imagining a world without them and me having to deal with an overpopulation of snakes!