From what I remember they are all related but there has been enough separation (in time) between Western wolves and coyotes that they won't breed and those wolves will kill coyotes.
Eastern or red wolves are related much closer to the coyote and can and do breed. Making coywolves.
tobywon's Link
Meet The Coywolf | Full Episode | Nature
The coywolf, a mixture of western coyote and eastern wolf, is a remarkable new hybrid carnivore that is taking over territories once roamed by wolves and slipping unnoticed into our cities. Its appearance is very recent — within the last 90 years — in evolutionary terms, a blip in time. Beginning in Canada but by no means ending there, the story of how it came to be is an extraordinary tale of how quickly adaptation and evolution can occur, especially when humans interfere. Tag along as scientists study this new top predator, tracking it from the wilderness of Ontario’s Algonquin Park, through parking lots, alleys and backyards in Toronto all the way to the streets of New York City.
I know most of the adults in my area of Ohio are huge...
Had a family pack (I suspect) carrying on at night within a hundred yards behind the house a few months ago, that actually gave me the willies.... It was actually kinda scary listening to them carry on so close....
Out west the coyote are much smaller. Took one to buyer in Moscow, Idaho in 1976 that weighed 28 lbs. She said it was the biggest she had that year.
Tell ya what lewis, it was chilling... I live on the edge of small village, kinda suburbia and hear them a few times a year a couple hundred yards or so from the house over on the next hill, but that night I didn't know they were back there at the time and that close to the house when I let my lap dogs out... When I let the dogs out they usually go barking out the door to run the critters out of the yard (usually coon at night and squirrels during the day)... The lap dogs think the yard is their territory, but they usually won't venture to far out into the woods or field without me... That night their barking out the door set off the pack of yotes which were just out of sight of the porch lights... I immediately starting screaming and calling the dogs back, and these yotes were so aggressive that my yelling didn't seem to bother them as they kept up their howling, yapping, barking... After retrieving the dogs, I grabbed a big light but they were just out of view due to the foliage at the time... Am sure had I not been there, I'd have lost a dog or two that night...
Was aware there were a few yotes around cause I see one from time to time and as said hear them every once in a while... One winter just down the road from home while driving I spied one in a field feeding on a deer carcass in broad daylight about a hundred yards or so away... Pulled over and got out the binocs and watched this HUGE coyote at his feast... I got a good long look at this guy and swear he was near big as a German Sheppard... As I pulled off the side of the road for a better look, he immediately took notice and as he intently watched me I could see he was growling at me as he tried to feed undisturbed... His glaring stare looked like he wanted to eat me... I wanted to go home and grab a varmint rifle but thought better of it due to location...
I have small grandchildren come over and am wise enough to NEVER take my eyes off them when they are playing in the back yard or wonder into the back field or woods... They usually don't get too far away from me while playing, but I always keep my eyes on them...
I think I'm gonna try to blast one or a few yotes if able after bowseason in February this year... After that night couple months ago, they've declared war...8^)
Will's Link
From what I've gathered and determined, the northern US line or lapover of the western coyote to the eastern coyote/wolf, is likely western Ohio, or Indiana because if I remember correctly from that program, the DNA of Chicago yotes were determined to be 100% from the western subspecies, and I know the ones around here in eastern Ohio grow big, so likely a high percentage of coywolf around here... Personally have only had one chance to weigh a dead one from around here and it weighed a tad over 40 pounds, but have seen bigger... As WV Mountaineer said, they are big in WV too, so that lapover region would make sense... This whole eastern coywolf is a new evolving species, will be interesting what studies will show in the future,
Hey Lewis, I remember the thread and that picture of that buck and the outcome of finding him dead... Sad... I'd say kill them all but will have the yote and wolf loving crowd come down on me...8^) Didn't used to feel that way until realize the aggressiveness of the ones around here... They've evolved too far...
I've encountered coyotes while hunting in NM, CO, NV, and AZ and all were about half the size of the eastern coyotes that I trap. The western coyotes were more curious and gullible, at least from what I saw.
The eastern coyotes have a lot more diversity. A good deal of the coyotes that I've trapped have been dark, and almost black sometimes. One was mostly black, with a white chest patch, and had shorter legs than most coyotes. It was running in a pack with the common brown coyotes.
The only known population of wild red wolves live in two counties in eastern NC, only about 70 miles south of me. Biologists have tested the DNA on some of the coyotes that I've trapped and they were confirmed to NOT have any red wolf DNA (which was good news). A game biologist friend of mine told me that he can't tell a dead coyote from a dead red wolf from an inspection. Only a DNA test can differentiate between a coyote and red wolf. They are that close.
Zbone's Link
" The red wolf is protected by the Endangered Species Act, but a new study found that it is a mix of gray wolf and coyote DNA. "
Yep, see linky:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/science/red-eastern-gray-wolves.html?_r=0
"
In 2000, some scientists began to argue that the eastern population of gray wolves was in fact a separate species, which they called Canis lycaon. The Fish and Wildlife Service recognized that species in 2013, and officials argued that the gray wolf, now deemed to be limited to the western United States, was doing well enough to be taken off the list. The new analysis, published in the journal Science Advances, paints a profoundly different portrait of the American wolf. Bridgett M. vonHoldt of Princeton University and her colleagues sequenced the genomes of 12 gray wolves, six Eastern wolves, three red wolves and three coyotes, as well as the genomes of dogs and wolves from Asia. Dr. vonHoldt and her colleagues found no evidence that red wolves or Eastern wolves belonged to distinct lineages of their own. Instead, they seem to be populations of gray wolves, sharing many of the same genes.
What really sets Eastern wolves and red wolves apart, the researchers found, is a large amount of coyote DNA in their genomes. The new study revealed that coyotes and North American wolves shared a remarkably recent common ancestor. Scientists had previously estimated their ancestor lived a million years ago, but the new study put the figure at just 50,000 years ago. “I could not have put money on it being so recent,” Dr. vonHoldt said. That ancestor gave rise to two species — the predecessor of today’s gray wolves and that of today’s coyotes — somewhere in Eurasia. Dr. vonHoldt said that the two species then migrated into North America. There, coyotes evolved into small predators that specialize in taking down smaller prey. Wolves took a different path, relying on their larger size and great speed to prey on moose and other big mammals. As wolves were killed off in the East, coyotes spread from the Midwestern prairies over the past two centuries to take their place. Surviving wolves interbred with the coyotes, producing hybrid offspring. Dr. vonHoldt and her colleagues found that the genomes of Eastern wolves that lived in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario were half gray wolf and half coyote. Red wolves are even more mixed: Their genomes are 75 percent coyote and only 25 percent wolf.
"
Maybe 80 - 90 pounds be more realistic...
"The eastern wolf (Canis lycaon or Canis lupus lycaon), also known as the eastern timber wolf, Algonquin wolf or deer wolf, is a canid native to the northeastern side of North America's Great Lakes region. It is a medium-sized canid which, like the red wolf, is intermediate in size between the coyote and the gray wolf. It primarily preys on white-tailed deer, but may occasionally attack moose and beaver."
"The Eastern coyote (Canis latrans var.), also known as the Tweed Wolf, or Coywolf, is a wild North American canine of mixed coyote-wolf and dog parentage that is present in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. It was first noticed during the early 1930s to the late 1940s, and likely originated in the aftermath of the extirpation of the eastern wolf in southeastern Ontario and the Labrador wolf in the eastern Canadian maritime provinces, thus allowing coyotes to colonize the former wolf ranges and mix with the remnant wolf populations. This hybrid is smaller than the eastern wolf and holds smaller territories, but is larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western coyote."
"
For northeastern coyotes, hybridization with the dog was estimated to have occurred between 11 and 24 generations ago, and there is no evidence of recent dog-coyote crossing. There was some evidence of first and second generation wolf-coyote hybrids back-crossing with coyotes. For Ohio coyotes, the wolf DNA was present in the nuclear genome but not the mitochondrial genome, indicating hybridization between male wolves and female coyotes."
Big dog! Made me think twice about following their tracks into a few thickets
Our Eastern coyotes and their present size is a direct result of the American government's 75 year war to rid the West of wolves. Strychnine, among other , poisons was a major contributing factor. With the extirpation of bison, elk and pronghorns (to deprive Indians of their food sources) wolves and cousin coyotes were vulnerable to carcass baits. The poisons killed them in quick but ugly fashion.
Since wolves were pack animals, they weer much easier to eradicate. Coyotes suffered along the way too, but are not just pack animals but can be loners or small groups. Anyhow, due to low numbers and hunting pressure from bounties, poisons, etc. coyotes moved I think in the 1950's and 1960's to East of the Mississippi River into territories they previously had not occupied. Along the way, they interbred with red wolves. So our Eastern coyote is a hybrid as are almost all red wolves now.
By the way, I was shocked to learn that the bounties existed until the 1960's. So from 1885 to 1960, wolves, and other species collateral damage, were persecuted.
Coyotes have a way of self regulating their populations based on presence of other coyotes. A coyote female can have a litter of maybe 10 or more or 3 or 4 based on their territory, size and prey availability. If you could eliminate coyotes (good luck!) from a territory, it would be repopulated in short order by other packs.
Flores said that to limit coyotes consistently, you need to remove 80% of the population every year! I don't recall if this was forever or for 10 years say.
One study done in Texas on a sizable ranch involved a University and biology students and some manner of determining population. Then professional trappers worked on them for a year at a very significant cost. A year later, the population was back at 80% of the level before the trapping was done.
Sure shooting one helps a deer or three right where you hunt, but in the grand scheme of things it isn't making much of a difference.
I also have the Coyote America book, but have not started reading that one yet. By the way, I recommend reading that book to anyone as I found it very informative about many species and that pronghorns were almost as numerous as bison and that elk and grizzlies were grassland species. They retreated to the mountains to escape the persecutions from many sources and reasons. Its not an easy read like Jack Reacher novels by Lee Childer, but it was very informative.
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I keep seeing that factoid repeated over and over and over as if it were some kind of extraordinary and unique ability that coyotes have to decide ahead of time how many pups are going to have come spring… And it's a load of crap!
It's very simple math…
If it takes X calories to get a female through the winter and Y calories to produce one pup, then a female with access to (X + 5Y) calories will produce five pups. If she has access to (X +10Y), she'll have 10. Or maybe she lives where life is so easy that she only needs (X-2Y) worth of calories to get herself through the winter. That's worth two more pups right there.
Coyotes that range far and wide eating mice &'freeze-dried wild plums tend to live in pairs and don't generally have large litters. Coyotes with ready access to a vast quantity of roadkilled deer are more likely to have larger litters because they're so well fed. And they are more likely to stay packed up, because with greater numbers they can defend those roadkills from other, single or paired-up 'yotes.
And of course, being 20 pounds heavier than any nomadic individual that might come cruising through your turf has its own set of advantages.
Honestly, in some areas that are completely overrun by whitetails and where human hunting pressure is clearly not sufficient to get the herds under control, then these super-coyotes May be about the only thing standing between the landscape and a complete collapse of the historic ecosystems there. Not that I expect human hunters to like it all that much, but we are never happy with numbers that the land can actually support, which is how we got into this fix in the first place.
Because if the hunting wasn't so damned easy for them and there weren't so bloody many roadkills around, the selective pressures would favor their remaining as pretty typical coyotes. It just remains to be seen whether Susie Homemaker is going to tolerate a 90 pound predator once the deer numbers have been suppressed a bit and Big Hungry Dogs start cruising her neighborhood looking for their next meal.
Because wolves are just great out there in Yellowstone where they would never bother anybody or eat any livestock… but these damn coyotes, I'll tell ya.. they're a real menace.
Flores book cites an instance where gray wolf semen was used to inseminate a female coyote. When the pups were born, the coyote killed them. Gray wolves & coyotes are mortal enemies, whereas the red wolf & coyote are "familiar" (whatever that technical term means!) and have interbred.
I recommend the book and also American Serengheti.
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Ummmmm, she may have killed them, but hardly likely due to genes of the sire, am sure their was other factors inciting infanticide such as maturation, etc., etc.... Mothers of many species are known to kill their young, even domestic dogs...
