COYWOLVES
07-04-2005 | 11:30 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Typical Buck
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 554
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From: Pa.
COYWOLVES
Has anyone got any of these big ones yet?
Web Contact:
Ron Fontaine, Webmaster
190 Federal Street, PO Box 8
St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819
[email protected]
Phone: 802-748-8121 [/align]
Eastern Coyotes Are Becoming Coywolves
Biological Investigators Discover Wolf Ancestry
By DAVID ZIMMERMAN, News Correspondent
- A handsome, stuffed, wild canine presides over the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife's conference room on Portland Street in St. Johnsbury.
Shot in Glover in 1998 by Eric Potter, the animal, a male, is a puzzler. With its gray, tan, black, and beige pelage, it looks like a coyote. But, as Fish and Wildlife biologist Thomas Decker points out, it weighed 72 pounds at death, and it's built like a wolf.
"It's smaller than a wolf, and larger than a coyote," Decker said. "It's a hybrid" - a cross - "between a large, eastern coyote and a wolf."
He said the animal's ancestry was confirmed by genetic testing. What it is not, he said, is a cross with a domestic dog. In fact, none of the coyotes tested in New England in recent years have turned out to carry dog genes, Decker said.
In New Hampshire, Eric Orf, a biologist with the state Fish and Game Department, agrees with Decker, saying it is "wrong" to call the animals "coydogs," because they have no dog DNA.
The "coywolf" is thus becoming a poster animal for issues that biologists, farmers, and sportsmen are trying to sort out: What are the "coyotes" now seen or killed in the Kingdom? And where do they come from?
For answers, researchers are turning more and more to genetic studies, called DNA profiles. The answers that geneticists come up with will help shape wildlife management plans - and may be decisive in the question as to whether wolves should be reintroduced in New England.
In point of fact, as hybrids, wolves already are here.
Several years ago, for example, Donald "Rocky" Larocque of Lyndonville, who is a mechanic for the St. Johnsbury highway department, was hunting deer in East Barnet. It was late in the season - Thanksgiving, he recalled in a phone interview - and late in the day he encountered a large "coyote" and shot it.
The animal, a female, weighed about 60 pounds, and appeared heavyset, more like a wolf than a coyote. Larocque said he showed it to Rodney Zwick, a professor at Lyndon State College, who was impressed enough to send the animal to a biologist in Kansas. Its DNA was tested, and it was "part wolf," Larocque said.
Based on DNA tests, a picture is emerging on the relationship of coyotes and other wild canines in the Northeast, although the history is still quite fuzzy.
In the Colonial era, there were few if any coyotes in New England. Wolves were here. But, strangely, because there are so few ancient wolf specimens still around in museums, DNA research to determine what kind of wolves they were cannot be done, according to a pair of biologists, Paul J. Wilson, a DNA profiler at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and Walter J. Jakubas, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
The scant evidence, according to Jakubas, suggests they were not "timber wolves," or gray wolves (Canis lupus), as northern and western wolves now are called. Rather, he said they appear to have been similar to the red wolves (Canis rufus) found in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park north of Toronto. Red wolves are also in the southeastern U.S., where a captive breeding project has been started to save them from extinction.
The settlement of New England destroyed or drove off the resident wolves, according to the scenario developed by Jakubas and Wilson. In the last century, they speculate, coyotes replaced wolves, filling their empty biological niche. The researchers said coyotes appear much abler than wolves to live among people.
What is unclear, is where the coyotes came from. "We don't know," Decker said.
Eastern coyotes are larger and heavier at 32 to 38 pounds than western coyotes at 22 to 30 pounds.
The diet of eastern coyotes includes white-tailed deer, while western coyotes feed mostly on rabbits and small game. The coyote in the Fish and Wildlife conference room had four pounds of deer meat in his belly when he died. But, aside from diet, part of the reason for the eastern coyotes' larger size may be hybridization with wolves.
The Fish and Wildlife specimen and Rocky Larocque's animal certainly have wolf genes. More tellingly, a study by Wilson and Jakubas shows that of 100 coyotes collected in Maine, 22 had half or more wolf ancestry - and one was 89 percent wolf. Over half of the specimens had eastern coyote ancestry, but only 4 percent were mostly descended from western coyotes (Canis latrans).
"The [introduction] of eastern Canadian wolf genes into eastwardly expanding coyotes could have provided a composite genome [Canis latrans X lycaon] that facilitated selection of animals with a larger body size ... that may be more adept at preying on deer than smaller western coyotes," Wilson and Jakubas report in their study. The study, co-written with Shevenell Mullen of the University of Maine, is awaiting publication.
In plain language, Wilson said his work suggests the large, eastern coyotes in Canada are hybrids of the smaller western coyotes and wolves that met and mated decades ago as the coyotes moved toward New England from their earlier western ranges. The animals, he said, may become amplified in size by further crossings between the now-larger eastern coyotes and Canadian wolves.
Vermont's Tom Decker said he wants to see more evidence published to support that view. However, he said, collecting evidence is difficult since no systematic genetic sampling of the state's coyotes has been done.
The gaps may soon be filled. Biologist Roland Kays, who is curator of the New York State Museum in Albany, said he and his associates are planning a major investigation to supplement the study by Wilson and Jakubas of coyotes from Maine. Their work "opens up a lot of new questions," Kays said.
Between 100 and 1,000 animals from throughout New York and New England will need to be studied to sort out their backgrounds, he said. Kays and his associates would like to get samples, particularly whole animals, along with information on where they were from. He can be reached for further information at 518-486-2005.
The outcome of further studies could discourage wildlife officials and conservationists who have talked about reintroducing wolves to the Northeast, Decker said. The usual goal of reintroduction efforts is to preserve true species, not create more hybrids.
The other side of the reintroduction coin is that hybrids may be better suited than purebred wolves to survive in 21st century New England.
"Once you get that coyote-and-wolf hybrid," Paul Wilson said, "it is a very adaptable animal."
The Caledonian-Record is a daily newspaper serving Northern Vermont and Northern New Hampshire. Visit our website updated daily at www.caledonianrecord.com
Web Contact:
Ron Fontaine, Webmaster
190 Federal Street, PO Box 8
St. Johnsbury, Vermont 05819
[email protected]
Phone: 802-748-8121 [/align]
Eastern Coyotes Are Becoming Coywolves
Biological Investigators Discover Wolf Ancestry
By DAVID ZIMMERMAN, News Correspondent
- A handsome, stuffed, wild canine presides over the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife's conference room on Portland Street in St. Johnsbury.
Shot in Glover in 1998 by Eric Potter, the animal, a male, is a puzzler. With its gray, tan, black, and beige pelage, it looks like a coyote. But, as Fish and Wildlife biologist Thomas Decker points out, it weighed 72 pounds at death, and it's built like a wolf.
"It's smaller than a wolf, and larger than a coyote," Decker said. "It's a hybrid" - a cross - "between a large, eastern coyote and a wolf."
He said the animal's ancestry was confirmed by genetic testing. What it is not, he said, is a cross with a domestic dog. In fact, none of the coyotes tested in New England in recent years have turned out to carry dog genes, Decker said.
In New Hampshire, Eric Orf, a biologist with the state Fish and Game Department, agrees with Decker, saying it is "wrong" to call the animals "coydogs," because they have no dog DNA.
The "coywolf" is thus becoming a poster animal for issues that biologists, farmers, and sportsmen are trying to sort out: What are the "coyotes" now seen or killed in the Kingdom? And where do they come from?
For answers, researchers are turning more and more to genetic studies, called DNA profiles. The answers that geneticists come up with will help shape wildlife management plans - and may be decisive in the question as to whether wolves should be reintroduced in New England.
In point of fact, as hybrids, wolves already are here.
Several years ago, for example, Donald "Rocky" Larocque of Lyndonville, who is a mechanic for the St. Johnsbury highway department, was hunting deer in East Barnet. It was late in the season - Thanksgiving, he recalled in a phone interview - and late in the day he encountered a large "coyote" and shot it.
The animal, a female, weighed about 60 pounds, and appeared heavyset, more like a wolf than a coyote. Larocque said he showed it to Rodney Zwick, a professor at Lyndon State College, who was impressed enough to send the animal to a biologist in Kansas. Its DNA was tested, and it was "part wolf," Larocque said.
Based on DNA tests, a picture is emerging on the relationship of coyotes and other wild canines in the Northeast, although the history is still quite fuzzy.
In the Colonial era, there were few if any coyotes in New England. Wolves were here. But, strangely, because there are so few ancient wolf specimens still around in museums, DNA research to determine what kind of wolves they were cannot be done, according to a pair of biologists, Paul J. Wilson, a DNA profiler at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and Walter J. Jakubas, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
The scant evidence, according to Jakubas, suggests they were not "timber wolves," or gray wolves (Canis lupus), as northern and western wolves now are called. Rather, he said they appear to have been similar to the red wolves (Canis rufus) found in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park north of Toronto. Red wolves are also in the southeastern U.S., where a captive breeding project has been started to save them from extinction.
The settlement of New England destroyed or drove off the resident wolves, according to the scenario developed by Jakubas and Wilson. In the last century, they speculate, coyotes replaced wolves, filling their empty biological niche. The researchers said coyotes appear much abler than wolves to live among people.
What is unclear, is where the coyotes came from. "We don't know," Decker said.
Eastern coyotes are larger and heavier at 32 to 38 pounds than western coyotes at 22 to 30 pounds.
The diet of eastern coyotes includes white-tailed deer, while western coyotes feed mostly on rabbits and small game. The coyote in the Fish and Wildlife conference room had four pounds of deer meat in his belly when he died. But, aside from diet, part of the reason for the eastern coyotes' larger size may be hybridization with wolves.
The Fish and Wildlife specimen and Rocky Larocque's animal certainly have wolf genes. More tellingly, a study by Wilson and Jakubas shows that of 100 coyotes collected in Maine, 22 had half or more wolf ancestry - and one was 89 percent wolf. Over half of the specimens had eastern coyote ancestry, but only 4 percent were mostly descended from western coyotes (Canis latrans).
"The [introduction] of eastern Canadian wolf genes into eastwardly expanding coyotes could have provided a composite genome [Canis latrans X lycaon] that facilitated selection of animals with a larger body size ... that may be more adept at preying on deer than smaller western coyotes," Wilson and Jakubas report in their study. The study, co-written with Shevenell Mullen of the University of Maine, is awaiting publication.
In plain language, Wilson said his work suggests the large, eastern coyotes in Canada are hybrids of the smaller western coyotes and wolves that met and mated decades ago as the coyotes moved toward New England from their earlier western ranges. The animals, he said, may become amplified in size by further crossings between the now-larger eastern coyotes and Canadian wolves.
Vermont's Tom Decker said he wants to see more evidence published to support that view. However, he said, collecting evidence is difficult since no systematic genetic sampling of the state's coyotes has been done.
The gaps may soon be filled. Biologist Roland Kays, who is curator of the New York State Museum in Albany, said he and his associates are planning a major investigation to supplement the study by Wilson and Jakubas of coyotes from Maine. Their work "opens up a lot of new questions," Kays said.
Between 100 and 1,000 animals from throughout New York and New England will need to be studied to sort out their backgrounds, he said. Kays and his associates would like to get samples, particularly whole animals, along with information on where they were from. He can be reached for further information at 518-486-2005.
The outcome of further studies could discourage wildlife officials and conservationists who have talked about reintroducing wolves to the Northeast, Decker said. The usual goal of reintroduction efforts is to preserve true species, not create more hybrids.
The other side of the reintroduction coin is that hybrids may be better suited than purebred wolves to survive in 21st century New England.
"Once you get that coyote-and-wolf hybrid," Paul Wilson said, "it is a very adaptable animal."
The Caledonian-Record is a daily newspaper serving Northern Vermont and Northern New Hampshire. Visit our website updated daily at www.caledonianrecord.com
07-04-2005 | 11:57 AM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 3,236
Likes: 0
RE: COYWOLVES
I have said numerous times on this board that I shot a 65 pound male in Warren county PA. It bore ZERO resemblance to those skinny pictures of what coyotes supposedly are to look like. My Dad swore then it was part wolf, I'm beginning to believe him.
07-05-2005 | 06:39 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 4,679
Likes: 0
From: Albany, NY
RE: COYWOLVES
I believe it as well. A friend of mine when I lived in NH shot a documented 80lb yote near Keene a few years ago and I have seen ones while deer hunting that would easily go over 50lbs.
07-05-2005 | 08:56 AM
#8
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 45
Likes: 0
RE: COYWOLVES
Funny
I really like the blip about how they are more genetically related to the "red wolf" rather than the eastern canadian grey.
To those in past that said not possible no way you are mistaken NY Outdoors ...... I hate to say it but.
Told ya so.
My idea to the whole thing from what I've read on it is the western yote migrated easternly through the temperate southwest into the red wolves habitat. Being the red was almost extinct at that time, the yotes moving into the area gave them a bit of cross breeding room with the almost extinct reds.
Who knows. makes sense region wise and how the yotes would have migrated from the west but then again here we are 100 years later and plenty of time for them to sew their seeds and spread. Which they have done.
I've actually been following this one a good bit for past year or so. Supposedly they have captured almost 300 yotes total in NY, Massachusettes, and Maine and are currently doing a genetic study accross the northeast.
So far they have found the majority of the study group is this Coywolf mix hybrid. A small portion is more genetically related to the wolf and that same small portion the other way more closely related to the western yote. And all of the wolf genes are more closely related to the red wolf(supposedly extinct) over the grey wolf.
Believe it or not, genetics don't lie.
Out west there is such a size difference and abundancy of western yotes and western wolf that they tend to not interbread. Where as the red wolf is considerably smaller than the grey and closer in relation to the coyote in size and the lack of mating population may have had a determining factor in the hybridization of the two when they encountered each other however many years ago.
Good reading nonetheless.
I really like the blip about how they are more genetically related to the "red wolf" rather than the eastern canadian grey.
To those in past that said not possible no way you are mistaken NY Outdoors ...... I hate to say it but.
Told ya so.
My idea to the whole thing from what I've read on it is the western yote migrated easternly through the temperate southwest into the red wolves habitat. Being the red was almost extinct at that time, the yotes moving into the area gave them a bit of cross breeding room with the almost extinct reds.
Who knows. makes sense region wise and how the yotes would have migrated from the west but then again here we are 100 years later and plenty of time for them to sew their seeds and spread. Which they have done.
I've actually been following this one a good bit for past year or so. Supposedly they have captured almost 300 yotes total in NY, Massachusettes, and Maine and are currently doing a genetic study accross the northeast.
So far they have found the majority of the study group is this Coywolf mix hybrid. A small portion is more genetically related to the wolf and that same small portion the other way more closely related to the western yote. And all of the wolf genes are more closely related to the red wolf(supposedly extinct) over the grey wolf.
Believe it or not, genetics don't lie.
Out west there is such a size difference and abundancy of western yotes and western wolf that they tend to not interbread. Where as the red wolf is considerably smaller than the grey and closer in relation to the coyote in size and the lack of mating population may have had a determining factor in the hybridization of the two when they encountered each other however many years ago.
Good reading nonetheless.
07-05-2005 | 09:21 AM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 7,168
Likes: 0
From: Western Massachusetts
RE: COYWOLVES
My buddy shot one last season that weighed close to 70lbs and another friend shot one that weighed over 70. It almost looks like they have a mane around their neck! We swear they both have wolf in them.
07-05-2005 | 09:36 PM
#10
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 613
Likes: 0
From: Brockport, NY
RE: COYWOLVES
I too enjoyed this article. I too will say I told ya so. Ive always mantained that it was easier to suspect the red wolf, and the easy move up the Appalachian Trail then the other theories. We here in western NY didnt need a biologist to tell us the larger wider skulls, offset crushing teeth, and heavier framed coyote we have wasnt the same animal. As a taxidermist, I laughed at those who suggested we could mount these eastern hybrids on the standard western coyote form. All the metacarpal and tarsal joints, skull, hips, even tails are wider and heavier.
The two problems I had with the article and theory, though...I didnt know there were any red wolves in Canada, as I know them to be native of Arkansas and being reintroduced somewhere in SC to save the original strain. They readily interbreed with...you guessed it, coyotes. Also, the wolf herd or pack structure is much different then coyotes.
Either way, it was too obvious with our red, blonde, grey or black colored coyotes, which matched the color phases of red wolves, to not suspect this all along. LOSTHORN, again, thanks for the article!
The two problems I had with the article and theory, though...I didnt know there were any red wolves in Canada, as I know them to be native of Arkansas and being reintroduced somewhere in SC to save the original strain. They readily interbreed with...you guessed it, coyotes. Also, the wolf herd or pack structure is much different then coyotes.
Either way, it was too obvious with our red, blonde, grey or black colored coyotes, which matched the color phases of red wolves, to not suspect this all along. LOSTHORN, again, thanks for the article!