Can a correlation between the two data sets be observed?

Two independent groups of researchers centered in eastern Colorado were studying the effects of climate change on animal populations. One group was monitoring Canis latrans, the common coyote, and the other was monitoring Cynomys ludovicianus, the black-tailed prairie dog. Eventually they each learned of the other’s work, and they subsequently got together to compare the data that they had both collected over a period of nearly a decade. When the data were correlated and normalized, the following graph was constructed.