Predators

If you only read one book on predators, I would recommend Urban Carnivores: Ecology, Conflict, and Conservation.  

Topics covered include:

• stray and feral cats and dogs
• potential predators of lost pets such as coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and mountain lions, but unfortunately not fishers.
• potential nuisance wildlife when using feeding stations or trapping such as raccoons and skunks.

Coyote Research

Eastern Coyote Research: researcher Jonathan Way has made studying the eastern coyote or coywolf his life's work.

Project Coyote: has lots of information on understanding and coexisting with coyotes.

The Urban Coyote Research Project: research on coyotes in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Also don't forget all the coyote articles on the Lost Pet Research Blog.

Books on Coyotes

Cartaino, Carol.  2010.  Myths & Truths About Coyotes.  This is a very comprehensive yet easy-to-read book including almost everything you ever wanted to know about coyotes.  Personally, I think the author is overly grim in her assessment of coyote risk to cats, but in general it is a rather unbiased account of coyote behavior.

Clark, Timothy W., A. Peyton Curlee, Steven C. Minta, and Peter Kareiva, editors.  1999.  Carnivores in Ecosystems: The Yellowstone Experience.  This book includes a really good chapter on coyote behavior in Yellowstone.  The Yellowstone coyotes are possibly the most easily observed coyotes in the US, so this provides some of the best research on their social behavior.

Way, Johnathan.  2007.  Suburban Howls: Tracking the Eastern Coyote in Urban Massachusetts.  Written by coyote researcher, Jonathan Way, about his research on Massachusetts coyotes/coywolves.  You can get a e-book version from the Eastern Coyote Research store.

Trout Jr., John.  2001.  Solving Coyote Problems: How to Coexist with North America's Most Persistent Predator.  This book appears well researched and contains some good information on both lethal and non-lethal methods of managing problem coyotes.  My only criticism is the lack of actual references so you can't check the sources of his information.

The following are some other good research-based books on coyotes, but they are somewhat out-of-date.  The Eastern Coyote was last published in 1995, and Bekoff's work on coyotes was first published in 1978.

Parker, Gerry.  1995.  Eastern Coyote: The Story of Its Success.  

Bekoff, Mark.  2001.  Coyotes: Biology, Behavior and Management.  

Bobcats Research

Books on Bobcats

Hansen, Kevin.  2006.  Bobcat: Master of Survival.  This is a fairly comprehensive, research-based book on bobcat biology and behavior.