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Coywolf Menace!

D

dreeness

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Dec 8, 2004
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:eek:

There's a pack of these denned up on a hill about 1km from here, big and bold, they just walk around in broad daylight, and they don't run when you yell at them.

From Wikipedia:
Coywolves are canid hybrids of wolves and coyotes. They have recently become common in eastern North America, where they have been considered eastern coyotes, eastern wolves, or red wolves.

Eastern Coyotes
Many eastern coyotes are coy-wolves, a canid hybrid, which, despite having a majority of coyote (Canis latrans) ancestry, also descends from wolves, either the Gray wolf (Canis lupus) or the Red wolf (Canis lupus rufus, formerly Canis rufus), which is on balance more coyote than wolf. They come from a constantly evolving gene pool and are viewed by some scientists as an emerging species. The genetic composition of these animals is debated amongst scientists.

A study showed that of 100 coyotes collected in Maine, 22 had half or more grey wolf ancestry, and one was 89 percent grey wolf. A theory has been proposed that the large eastern "coyotes" in Canada are actually hybrids of the smaller western coyotes and grey wolves that met and mated decades ago as the coyotes moved toward New England from their earlier western ranges.

The Red Wolf
The Red Wolf is a Grey Wolf sub-species. Strong evidence for hybridization was found through genetic testing which showed that red wolves have only 5% of their alleles unique from either Gray wolves or coyotes. Genetic distance calculations have indicated that red wolves are intermediate between coyotes and grey wolves, and that they bear great similarity to wolf/coyote hybrids in southern Quebec and Minnesota. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA showed that existing Red Wolf populations are predominantly coyote in origin. However, other scientific evidence may point to the species being evolved from a common ancestor of the Coyote and Eastern Wolf which would explain a similar DNA.

Eastern Coyotes in Ontario
On March 31st, 2010, a presentation by Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources research scientist Brent Patterson outlined key findings that most coyotes in Eastern Ontario are wolf-coyote hybrids and the Eastern wolves in Algonquin Park are, in general, not inter-breeding with coyotes.

Other reports
On the April 20, 2011 episode of "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files," analysis of DNA extracted from the corpse of a so-called "Texas chupacabra" showed it to actually be a coyote/Mexican timber wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) hybrid.

Behavior
Coywolves have the wolf characteristics of pack hunting and aggression and the coyote characteristic of lack of fear of human-developed areas. They seem to be bolder and more intelligent than regular coyotes.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf
 
Whereabouts in the States [or maybe Canada] do you live if you don't mind me asking?

Is this a new hybrid? After all, wolves & coyotes have been around a long time and could reasonably have been interbreeding for thousands of years. Possibly wolves have been recently making something of a comeback and their range increasing.

And have there actually been any incidents involving these critters other than something else to worry about?

This seems a little contradictory:
Eastern Coyotes in Ontario
On March 31st, 2010, a presentation by Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources research scientist Brent Patterson outlined key findings that most coyotes in Eastern Ontario are wolf-coyote hybrids and the Eastern wolves in Algonquin Park are, in general, not inter-breeding with coyotes.
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Are they shy? :lol:

/sorry, first thing I thought of when I saw the title?
 
Are they shy?

/sorry, first thing I thought of when I saw the title?
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Your coat is hanging by the door.... :D
 
I live in a swampy, forest-y rural area in Southern Ontario in Canada, the nearest city is Stratford, where Justin Bieber (bleah) is from.

But these wolf-things are getting to be a problem all over the place, even in Toronto:

link


Coyote spotted in the Beach in Toronto
Toronto Star? - 1 day ago

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Another coyote spotted in Toronto's Beach area 680 News

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Coyote snatches another dog from Neville Park ravine insideTORONTO.com

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Coyote spotted in The Beach Newstalk 1010

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Neville Park coyote strikes again, attacking small dog
Toronto Star? - 4 days ago
So for Peters, the death of his beloved Maltese in a coyote attack on ... bite a child, but it hasn't happened yet,” she said of Toronto's experience.

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Police cite public safety in Cabbagetown coyote shooting
Toronto Star? - 12 Feb 2013
This video still shows a coyote in Cabbagetown on Feb. ... Moments later, Toronto police officers are stalking it through the residential streets of ...

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Coyote sighting in Cabbagetown prompts public safety alert from ...
National Post

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Toronto police warn public after coyote spotted in downtown Globe and Mail

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Coyote spotted in east Toronto neighbourhood CBC.ca

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Toronto police too quick to shoot coyote in downtown ...
Toronto Star? - 14 Feb 2013
Toronto police too quick to shoot coyote in downtown neighbourhood: Hume. The police downing of a coyote in Cabbagetown says more about ...

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Sunday Supplement: Toronto's urban coyotes, the first Skywalk, and ...

blogTO (blog)? - 17 Feb 2013
toronto parking ticket As city dwellers, it's easy to forget that Toronto is a bustling metropolis of wildlife too. On Wednesday, our coyote ...

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Two takes on coyote shooting
Toronto Star? - 17 Feb 2013
Those condemming the shooting of the coyote in Toronto seem to forget that a year ago an 8-year-old girl was attacked by a coyote in her ...

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Toronto coyote might have been a 'coywolf'
Sun News Network? - 13 Feb 2013
TORONTO — There's a good chance the coyote police shot and killed in Toronto on Monday was actually a coywolf, the producer and director ...

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Coywolves, a hybrid breed of wolf and coyote, in Toronto
DigitalJournal.com? - 15 Feb 2013
Toronto - An eery howl in the night signaling that a coyote is around is common for those who camp in the woods. It is also becoming much ...
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Are they shy?
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Unfortunately, no. Last Saturday night /Sunday morning, around 3am, the electricity went off, and I sort of needed it to be on because the sump pump had been running, and I didn't want the basement to flood. So I went out back to get the generator going, and as I was getting the plywood and the tarps off it, I thought I could here something, but you know, probably just the wind... So I get the generator running, and I'm walking back to the house, and there's one of these things in the lane, and it just stands there, I shout "Yaa! Yaa!" at it, but it doesn't give a damn. You think of coyotes as scrawny little dogs, well this thing was easily sixty pounds, basically a wolf by any other name. So I yelled at it some more, and it just stared at me, basically like it was saying "hey, f*ck you", eventually it walked off, but none too fast.
 
:(

And today I heard that a pack of these things took down a steer not far from here a few nights ago.

They are essentially wolves, but nobody wants to call them that.
 
What makes you say they're hybrids rather than actual wolves if they are in fact the same size as wolves?
 
It's the MNR that calls them coyotes or possibly "coywolves", but from what I've seen of these things, they're pretty much wolves. I've seen their footprints in the snow, and they're as long as the palm of my hand, about 3.5 inches. That would be like something at least sixty pounds, one heck of a big coyote or even a coyote hybrid.

link to image

I don't think they are coyotes with a bit of wolf in them, more the other way round, wolves with a bit of coyote in them.
 
The longstanding debates over what's a wolf (versus a coyote or a "coywolf" hybrid) have erupted again in the northeastern USA.
Cry wolf? Debate over presence of wolves in Northeast

Are wolves hunting and howling in the Northeast woods again, more than a century after they were rooted out of the region?

Advocates who think so say a recent DNA analysis shows a strapping canine shot by a coyote hunter in upstate New York last winter was actually a wolf. They believe there are other wolves in New York and New England, saying they could be crossing the frozen St. Lawrence River while heading south from Canada. And they want the government to protect them.

“There has to be other wolves here,” said John Glowa, president of the Maine Wolf Coalition. “We have no doubt that eastern wolves are coming down and crossing the St. Lawrence. And they’re being killed. And they’re being called coyotes.”

Not everyone is convinced.

The test results are the latest entry in a long-running disagreement in the Northeast about the presence of a charismatic wild animal dogged by a reputation as a big, bad villain in children’s stories and as a livestock poacher to farmers. It’s a surprisingly complicated question, in part because eastern coyotes typically share some genetic material with wolves. ...

“The question is: What is a wolf? And that is not as simple as it sounds,” said Daniel Rosenblatt, New York Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/science-new-york-maine-animals-albany-16b7b0a8cb860a90fd332565aae29d57
 
Apparently, nearly all wolves and coyotes in Eastern American states of the USA and Canada are to a certain extent hybrids. Nearly all have DNA from each other as well as dog. So even though they will all try to kill each other (if the numbers are right), they will also cross if the cicumstances occour.Did I mention this in another similar thread?.
 
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