Coyotes

[sardog1]

How different is the genetic make up of coyotes vs. wolves? My understanding is that when the mate together they do have fertile off spring (same with domestic dogs)

As it happens, a fascinating study of coyote and wolf genetics has just been published this past summer, and it's available for free:

"Genetic Characterization of Hybrid Wolves across Ontario"

This article and others in the same vein that were published earlier are going to turn management of wolves and coyotes upside down in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada.

 

[DougPaul]

How different is the genetic make up of coyotes vs. wolves? My understanding is that when the mate together they do have fertile off spring (same with domestic dogs)

Wolves and coyotes are enemies in the wild, so while they may be capable of successful mating, they probably don't do so very often.

Doug

 

[Chip]

As it happens, a fascinating study of coyote and wolf genetics has just been published this past summer, and it's available for free:

Related article.

"This is an evolutionary mechanism to generate new variation that can work faster than genetic mutation," added Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum..

Kind of a silly statement; like the wolves and coyotes made a decision regarding evolution and mutation.

Given where these animals came from and the degree of documented genetic diversity, the researchers can tell that a few coyote females mated with male wolves north of the Great Lakes.

Subsequent coywolf population expanded into western New York and western Pennsylvania, which also have populations of pure coyotes..

I've seen this described before. Only in areas where both species are rare will they mate. Like the case of the Polar Bear/Grizzly hybrid in Canada. It's a survival mechanism.

"Not mating per usual
While hybridization happens and "is a natural process," according to Kays, it's also not mating per usual. Wolves often "persecute coyotes rather than breed with them," he said, so it's still rare for these distinct, yet related, species to make love and not war.

The same holds true for dogs and coyotes.

"Generally coyotes kill dogs; dogs avoid coyotes," he said, but interbreeding does sometimes occur, although he and his team found very little DNA evidence for it in their sizable sample from the Northeast. He believes "coy-dogs" are more common in the Southeast.

Like Doug said. Not normal activity, but it's occured.

 

[Chip]

Interesting, and somewhat disturbing: Apparently Wolf/Dog hybrids and and pure wolf puppies are bred and sold like any other dog. No need to reintroduce the wolf, breeders and dog owners are already doing it.

And it also appears there is a certain amount of interest in Wolf/Coyote hybrids ownership.

 

[forestgnome]

Very interesting stuff...thanks for the links!

Found another one in same area. This one died well before the hunt. His antlers are well polished so he died no earlier than September, but he died well before the hunt. I'm not knowledgable enough to know if he died this or last autumn, but there was a bit of red flesh on a neck bone.

Understand, I'm not a conspiracy wacko type. I'm not proposing that coyotes are taking healthy adult bull moose. I'm just very curious and I'm not fuzzy for absolutes. Only healthy bulls grow antlers like this.

Concerning the idea that a hunter missed a clean shot and the moose survived for a few weeks and traveled far, I don't think so. In my own experience, I'd say that a hunter with a rifle has to be really drunk to not kill a moose cleanly with a rifle. I could hunt moose with a baseball bat. Any hunter that fails to kill a moose with a rifle in hand was probably fated to be a vegatarian.

 

[Dave Bear]

As I said in the previous thread on the coyotes, three took down a healthy buck in between my dad's farm house and barn where they stayed to finish off a hindquarter. He lives in the Lakes Region of NH and the yard lights were on while they fed. They are much more brazen than in the past and back then they would come up to the door of the barn when a cow was calving. This was also in the fall when they didn't have the advantage of deep snow to chase it down and exhaust it. Its evolution whether it involves hand of man ( people doing raise and release illegally) or not they should be respected as ambitious and cunning.

The people that do the studies of the wildlife in the woods should have the best insight to what they are capable of and their habits. On the other hand that is the same resource that said for many recent years that they are not and could not be part wolf.

Patrick, perhaps the moose had a run in with a motor vehicle that weakened him even though he was distant from the road.

 

[sardog1]

Concerning the idea that a hunter missed a clean shot and the moose survived for a few weeks and traveled far, I don't think so. In my own experience, I'd say that a hunter with a rifle has to be really drunk to not kill a moose cleanly with a rifle. I could hunt moose with a baseball bat. Any hunter that fails to kill a moose with a rifle in hand was probably fated to be a vegatarian.

A wounded moose does not need a few weeks to wander a long distance and then die. There are many, many tales of hunters who have had to trail a wounded moose for hundreds of yards in order to find it, either dead or alive. Using an inadequate cartridge is one reason, another is poor shot placement, and a third is shooting a cartridge that is adequate for short to medium range at a too-distant animal. And sometimes, even the right round in the right spot does not result in a quick recovery of an eventually-dead animal.

And some moose are shot out of season.

 

[Skyclimber]

The day we were there we saw a deer so close that I could see the fur (not really the word I want) on it's antlers.
.

I believe the word you are looking for is "Velvet."

 

[forestgnome]

Davebear, that's amazing about the coyotes at the farm! Chilling!

Couldn't agree more with your comment about the study of such things. Respect the efforts of experts, but I don't blindly agree, especially with absolute statements, such as "never" and "imposssible". They are simply incapable of knowing for sure.

As far as a car hit, he's about 6 miles from a road and on the other side of some big mountains.

Sardog, what I mean by "a few weeks" is that those two bulls in question were freshly dead and it was mid-November for one and late November for the one on Big Bickford. Agree with your point about out-of-season hunting and I had the same thought. Not a reasonable place for poaching, but you never know. Most poaching happens very close to dirt roads. I wish I could F@G on the scene for some invstigating. I wouldn't know what to look for, beyond the obvious.

Whatever it was, there's no doubt that the Eastern Coyote is more powerful and brazen than in the past.

 

[sardog1]

Sardog, what I mean by "a few weeks" is that those two bulls in question were freshly dead and it was mid-November for one and late November for the one on Big Bickford. Agree with your point about out-of-season hunting and I had the same thought. Not a reasonable place for poaching, but you never know. Most poaching happens very close to dirt roads. I wish I could F@G on the scene for some invstigating. I wouldn't know what to look for, beyond the obvious.

Whatever it was, there's no doubt that the Eastern Coyote is more powerful and brazen than in the past.

I finally got around to reading the entire article that I linked to above, "Genetic Characterization of Hybrid Wolves across Ontario." I found this very interesting paragraph, which I share here with the full knowledge that it might reduce my coyote cred just a tad:

"The eastern wolf ranges in size from smaller animals in Algonquin Provincial Park to larger animals in northeastern and northwestern Ontario (Kolenosky and Standfield 1975). We propose that this cline is likely related to the introgression of more coyote genetic material in the south and eastern wolf x gray wolf hybridization in northern Ontario. The introgression of genes may further be influenced by selection based on factors such as prey size (Hillis 1990; Mulders 1997). Canis lycaon within Algonquin Park prey predominantly on white-tailed deer and beaver (Castor canadensis; Forbes and Theberge 1996). With the ecological changes in Algonquin Park from a high density of deer in the 1960s to the present lower densities and the highest moose densities in the province (Whitlaw and Lankester 1994), a selection for larger animals that can utilize moose more effectively might occur in the future (emphasis added). The connectivity of the Algonquin Park population to the northern animals may facilitate this natural evolution."

If you have been following all things cervid in northern New England recently, you know that moose are doing pretty well and that whitetail deer have some "issues" in the portions of Maine and NH where land cover changes have made it tougher for deer.

Coyotes are known as a highly adaptable species. Given the various admixtures described in the article, I'll make these predictions:

1. Someone will eventually come up with a widely-accepted name for the wild_canids_larger_than_foxes that currently occupy northern New England. It's plain from the genetic evidence in this article and elsewhere that they are not "coyotes" and not "wolves" in the classical understanding of those terms. They might end up being "coywolves," a term which I dislike a fair bit. The "Tweed wolf" and "Tweed coyote" appellations in the article appeal to me only slightly more.

2. Right about the time the nomenclature settles down, we'll be talking about the regular effect on moose populations from predation by this yet-to-be-named canid.

 

[Chip]

one study of 200 coyote in Maine showed that one "coyote" was 89% wolf, so there's some near pure in our backyards.