Is this a coyote?
08-23-2011, 12:56 PM
#18
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,904
The white "trimming" on the chest and tip of the tail really make me think it's a hybrid. The crown of the skull and the stop of the brow (over 25yrs growing up as a conformation dog breeder) look dodgey to be a purebred coyote. It's definitely a juvenile. I'd just as easily believe that it has NO coyote in it at all (wild mutt dog) as I would believe it's a hybrid, and I'm NOT prone to believe it's purebred coyote at all.
The easy explanation for why you saw "two identical dogs" running together at night, even if it is a hybrd or mutt dog is that these are juveniles, and it's VERY common that siblings from a litter, especially of dogs, will stick together until adulthood, or beyond. Domesticated dogs are actually more intrinsically "pack animals" than wild coyotes. Even still, seeing a pair of juvenile coyotes that age together wouldn't be uncommon. At that age (and this time of year I'd assume), the older "kits" are getting kicked out making room for the younger litter as they're becoming more mobile (should be breeding late winter-jan to march depending on area, welping in the spring to early summer-march to May, and the new pups will be VERY active by now-3 to 5months old, making the older kits a threat to them).
When I was growing up as a kid on the farm, wild dogs were a bigger problem than coyotes EVER were. Coyote, hybrid, or just plain mutts, I'd be taking these out if I were you...
The easy explanation for why you saw "two identical dogs" running together at night, even if it is a hybrd or mutt dog is that these are juveniles, and it's VERY common that siblings from a litter, especially of dogs, will stick together until adulthood, or beyond. Domesticated dogs are actually more intrinsically "pack animals" than wild coyotes. Even still, seeing a pair of juvenile coyotes that age together wouldn't be uncommon. At that age (and this time of year I'd assume), the older "kits" are getting kicked out making room for the younger litter as they're becoming more mobile (should be breeding late winter-jan to march depending on area, welping in the spring to early summer-march to May, and the new pups will be VERY active by now-3 to 5months old, making the older kits a threat to them).
When I was growing up as a kid on the farm, wild dogs were a bigger problem than coyotes EVER were. Coyote, hybrid, or just plain mutts, I'd be taking these out if I were you...
09-04-2011, 04:53 PM
#20
Super Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Trumbull County, Ohio
Posts: 9,520
Dogs, and I don't think they have much 'yote in them at all. WHere I'm from we have a lot of coyotes, and also a good amount of stray dogs. The dogs will do more damage than the yote's will. I'd shoot them without thinking twice if you got the chance.
-Jake
-Jake
