Coyotes have yellow eyes too... Drew posted the most accurate coyote and wolf information I've come across on these posts yet. I studied coyotes in northern NY. Trapped and radio-collared 19 and collected dozens of hunter killed specimens. The heaviest was about 45#. Canids can consume nearly 20% of their body weight in one sitting and I suspect many of the heavier specimens on record had a full belly at the time. Coyotes can and will interbreed with wolves and dogs, most commonly on the fringes of their range where both species might have difficulty finding their own kind for mating. Coydogs are most often the result of a female coyote being bred by a male dog. Male coyotes can only breed during the early winter as they do not produce sperm at other times of the year. Male dogs can breed year round.
Coyotes can and do move great distances. A female I collared in Plattsburgh NY in November 1994 was killed on I-95 near the New Hampshire coast the following spring, over 200 miles straight line distance away. I think of this everytime I hear the DNR blamed for "releasing" coyotes. A dispersing female such as this traversing occupied wolf country could easily be bred by a wolf. Coyotes are more closely related to red wolves than grey wolves and will readily interbreed. Hybridization has been a big issue for the red wolf recovery effort in NE NC. Genetic tests have shown the Algonquin wolf in southern Ontario was likely a red wolf and may have evolved as primarily a deer predator (though they do kill moose) along the Appalachians, thus their smaller size than the Eastern timber or grey wolf. Coyotes expanding from northern Minnesota through southern Ontario likely bred with the Algonquin wolves and gained 10-15 pounds in body weight as well as other physical characteristics by the time they arrived in northern NY and the rest of new England.
I find it ironic, that while natural resource agencies often get blamed for the expansion of the eastern coyote through "covert" introductions, it was in fact hunters (houndsmen mostly) who brought coyotes to the southeastern US for their training pens. Turns out fences are as bad as keeping coyotes inside as they are keeping them out of pastures.
I also find it ironic that the thousands of wildlife professionals that have devoted their lives and careers to ensuring we all have abundant game and non-game wildlife to enjoy are so routinely bashed by weekend warriors who think that a hunting license gives one the same credentials to manage wildlife as the years of academic study, scientific research and practical field experience attained by most wildlife professionals. Oh, and most of us have an equivalent amount of hunting experience as our most vocal critics as well. Sure, there are some incompetent boobs as in any other profession, but on a whole most professional wildlifers went into the field because they love what they do, and people that love what they do generally do a pretty good job. People who've taken the time to educate themselves as Drew has are unfortunately a rarity. Most pass tall tales and wild speculation off as the gospel truth and then criticize those who work a low paying and thankless job to ensure their most vocal critics have game to shoot. Jeeze louise...
Topic: Wolf or Coyote (Read 1635 times)
