Karen Johnson
was awarded a five thousand dollar scholarship in the student
category for her masters thesis at the University of Prince
Edward Island. She will be studying the impact of coyotes,
an introduced species, on the ecological niche currently occupied
by red fox. In the past 200 years, the coyote has steadily
extended its range from the northwest corner of the United
States to P.E. I. via ice flows in adaptation to changes caused
by human encroachment. The unique situation of P.E.I. in the
southern Gulf of St. Lawrence makes it an ideal laboratory
to study the impact of the introduction of new predators in
established ecosystems. |