Wile E. Wolf-Coyote?

[nastygunz]

New Hampshire’s coyotes are part wolf, and big

Running into a coyote in New Hampshire is reason for pause, not that it’s likely to happen. Those who have seen them may think the coyote looks rather wolf-like. That makes perfect sense, because, well, the coyotes in New Hampshire and all of New England are actually coyote-wolf hybrids.

No need to worry; that’s not new. Nothing has changed in New Hampshire’s coyotes in the past two or three decades. It’s just that science has only recently come through with the results of genetic testing that proved the eastern coyote is in fact part wolf.

“What we have is still mostly coyote, but because it has a wolf genetic component, it has the opportunity, it has a future as something more than the coyote it is today,” said Strafford resident Chris Schadler, an expert on wolves, coyotes and other members of the Canidae family.

As coyotes migrated east due to development out west, they took a northerly route that took them into wolf territory. Coyotes subsequently mated with a type of red wolf, producing a bigger, stronger, faster and more adaptable animal. The coyotes in the western part of the United States weigh about 15 to 25 pounds, whereas the eastern variety weighs in at about 35 to 45 pounds, with some specimens growing larger â€" in some cases much larger, said Schadler, who gives frequent lectures on coyotes and wolves.

Coyotes have thick fur, a pointy snout and a bushy black-tipped tail. They can be silvery gray to a brownish red color and they can be 48 to 60 inches long, according to state Fish and Game.

Still, it would be rare that coyotes would grow larger than 50 pounds, said Patrick Tate, a state Fish and Game Department biologist. Coyotes first appeared in New Hampshire in the 1940s, but their populations didn’t start increasing until the 1970s. Their growth was aided by the absence of another, the gray wolf, which was extirpated from New Hampshire long ago as settlers cleared land and shot them, fearing for their livestock and safety.

Schadler said male coyotes are likely to be somewhat visible in the coming months as they are on the prowl for food for their pups. They might appear to be bold, but that’s only because they are hunting and so focused on catching food. She also said those who own livestock need to be sure they maintain their fencing and bring their animals in at night.

Fish and Game drew some fire when the idea of closing part of the coyote hunting season was discussed at a public session. Some people inferred it was a formal Fish and Game proposal. Tate said it was more of a department discussion. There is sentiment that there should be a closed season when coyotes are giving birth to pups. Coyotes currently are at a healthy population level, where there is no threat to the species, Tate said.

As it stands now, there is no closed season on coyotes and no daily limit for hunters. Night hunting for coyotes was permitted this year from Jan. 1 to March 31. 

Coyotes have grown big enough in New Hampshire that hunters are blaming lesser deer numbers on them, though wildlife officials, such as Tate, said it is unlikely coyotes are taking enough deer to truly impact population numbers. Schadler said studies have shown deer make up about 14 percent of the eastern coyote’s diet, and much of that is scavenge. She said they still prefer small mammals and rodents. Tate suspected that since New Hampshire is sitting at the northern edge of deer range, a few severe winters are more likely the root cause of the population fluctuations.

The eastern Coyote is an omnivore and a generalist. They do well in any habitat. During winter months, they’ll kill deer and snowshoe hare. During the spring they’ll switch to eating vegetative matter and they’ll begin to prey on fawns. During summer months, coyotes will munch on apples, raspberries and blueberries. Schadler said they’ll even climb trees to get to a good apple. They’ll dine on some nuts in the fall before turning back to deer again. And, Tate said, that can be deer that coyote packs take down themselves, but it is more often road kill or deer that have been lost by hunters. They’ll also snack on turkeys.

When coyote populations are pressured by hunting, coyotes have larger litters and young animals will begin to breed at a younger age to make up for lost animals. With that in mind and that they’ve successfully adapted to any number of habitats, Schadler said they aren’t going anywhere.

Today, coyotes live on the fringes of Nashua and Manchester, in the north woods of Pittsburg and everywhere in between. A recent research article detailed the existence of thousands of coyotes that live in the city of Chicago. Using radio collars, biologists tracked coyote movements and found they mainly stuck to green spaces. Ones that didn’t were often being fed by humans, Schadler said.

“They can live right next to humans for years and they can be very tricky and out of sight,” Tate said.
“The coyote is the only large carnivore that has ever migrated into human settlements,” Schadler said. “Most move away. This one can live with us.”

There were at one time about 17 subspecies of wolves in the lower 48 states. People eradicated most of those. In New Hampshire, people also removed mountain lions and wolverines, other species that would have competed with wolves. Coyotes were on the move by that time, Schadler said.

“As a result of wiping out the wolf, we’ve opened up this kind of vacuum for something to come in its place,” Schadler said.

Some biologists argue that coyotes are filling the niche left vacant by the wolf. It would appear they are to a degree, but officials said wolves would take far more deer, and they’d take moose as well, something coyotes aren’t capable of. Schadler said the eastern coyote isn’t doing it yet, but expects them to evolve into filling the role of the wolf.

“They’re not as efficient predators as wolves were,” Tate said.

It’s not just that coyotes are bigger and look more wolf-like. On the topic of packs of coyotes, western coyotes are single hunting animals that target small mammals and insects. The eastern variety sometimes hunts in packs, a decidedly wolf-like behavior.

“This is big news when you have a hybrid that is expressing genes in this way,” Schadler said.
Schadler has heard from people that they’ve seen a pack of coyotes take down a deer in deep snow conditions. That makes sense to her, as deep snow would provide coyotes with the best chance at taking a deer.

“There’s a genetic kind of melee going on right now with the eastern Canid population,” Schadler said. Much is happening genetically in the species between the western coyote and the gray wolf. “So we have a mix just north of the border that is very interesting.”

Coyotes can breed with domestic dogs as well, though that is rare. Many theorized that eastern coyotes must have bred with dogs and pointed to that for their larger size. Tate said they would typically only breed with dogs when coyote numbers are low. It wouldn’t be sustainable anyway as coyotes and domestic dogs’ breeding patterns don’t match. Not to mention that coyote parents raise pups together â€" the male hunts for food and the female stands guard and nurses. That home life wouldn’t be possible with a domestic animal. A successfully raised coyote-dog hybrid would come into heat earlier than coyotes would, he said.

In captive interbreeding of dogs and coyotes, the resulting offspring were more dog-like in appearance and coyote-like in behavior, Tate said. For that reason, if the eastern coyote were a dog-coyote hybrid, officials would expect them to look much more like a dog. Additionally, the genetic testing that proved coyotes were part wolf would also have shown dog genes as well.

The eastern coyote is still more of a coyote than it is a wolf. And of course there’s the 100- to 120-pound gray wolf, which resides just north of the border and is all wolf. The big question is how the two species will deal with each other once wolves make the trip south.

And wolves will be back.
“Some day they should come back,” Tate said. “That will change the number of coyotes. It will decrease the number of coyotes. When a wolf pack is established, they kill coyotes on sight as a way to avoid competition.”

Some have pushed to reintroduce wolves into New Hampshire, but others figure it’s just a matter of time before wolves return on their own. Schadler said she worried about the unintended consequences of reintroducing wolves, as there are more ski resorts and developments going up all the time. That just increases the chances that wolves will bump into people.

Gray wolves do not mate with coyotes. Red wolves are smaller and will mate with coyotes. Red wolves and coyotes would have similar hunting habitats, whereas gray wolves would still lean toward bigger animals, Schadler said.

The future of red wolves isn’t so bright. Red wolves have been reintroduced into the southeastern United States. Since coyotes are everywhere and since red wolves breed with coyotes, as genes make their ways along, coyotes are going to get bigger and the red wolves will eventually vanish. The hybridization would become so complete, that red wolves as a species would be doomed, Schadler said.

Western coyotes aren’t really at risk since their populations are isolated. When wolves were reintroduced at Yellowstone National Park, gray wolves killed more than half the coyote population, of which there were thousands of animals. But those were western coyotes. The eastern coyote could prove a more formidable foe, Schadler said.

“If gray wolves were to return to New England, they’re going to find it in a very different situation,” Schadler said, adding that coyotes are much bigger and there are lots of them.

[FinsnFur]

Holy Crap. I started reading this on Tuesday. I'm almost finished.

[nastygunz]

Take your time young fella

[Okanagan]

Take your time young fella

I will take that to heart as well!  Lotta fascinating stuff but not vital to my operations so I kinda bogged down also but skimmed the main points about hybrids.  I had taken the usual assumption that the big eastern coyotes were coyote-dog crosses rather than wolf-coyote.  That eastern coyotes are a wolf/coyote cross, and that a coyote/dog cross is very rare, is news to me and very significant.  Thanks for posting it.






 

[FinsnFur]

Finished!
Yeah theres some interesting points in there. Who actually wrote that Nasty?

[snafu]

Two guys I hunted with for many yrs. On two separate hunts. Seen a domestic dog running within a small group of coyotes. One dog was a German shepherd, the other dog was a Black Lab. Personally, I do not under the mating instinct of a dog vs a coyote. Although rare IMO. It may happen more often than most would believe?

As a side note; Take a homely, husky linebacker type ewe at the local bar for example. You suppose some mule might find her some what attractive....at closing time?

I rest my case. lol

[snafu]

Under estimate...that is

[FinsnFur]

As a side note; Take a homely, husky linebacker type ewe at the local bar for example. You suppose some mule might find her some what attractive....at closing time?

I rest my case. lol

Somewhere, somehow

[Dale]

they all turn into Queens at closing time...