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Swear I just saw a wolf

Check the size of the tracks when you get down and let us know what happens.

I saw a Sasquatch Sunday on the way out of the woods. He did a tree knock then he chucked rocks at me.

I still have a tough time telling fawns from yearlings (until they're dead...) and have been at this for over 30 years now and have always had little problem filling all my tags (till the last few years, anyway) ... so don't feel bad, lol!!

Peepin, that's what you get for taking his jerky.

Pat, I have heard this statement too from friends that see coyotes fairly often. I suspect that our coyotes are getting larger. There are groups that want to do a Yellowstone type release of wolves into the ADKs. I think that originally the gray wolf was not native to NYS and thats been successful in keeping this from happening. But clearly, our coyotes are hybrids with wolf blood, which is why they are so much larger than western yotes....

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Saw this last year, on a power line in Southeastern Mass. Walked half the power line then followed a deer run into the Swamp. Seems to big to be a coyote to me.

Saw this last year, on a power line in Southeastern Mass. Walked half the power line then followed a deer run into the Swamp. Seems to big to be a coyote to me.

You just might have.

I don't think they can do anything to you because there is no legislation prohibiting it. For example you cannot shoot moose in NY because there is a specific restriction on it.

It was kind of like that years ago when a friend of mine reported a coyote to the DEC. They denied that they were here. Now they are like rats you see them everywhere.

The critter you saw has a number of names, and is described "as a large Coyote-like animal that is the result of hybridization with wolves and dogs (Lawrence and Bossert 1969; Silver and Silver 1969; Lawrence and Bossert 1975). This animal has been variously called coydog, eastern Coyote, Tweed Wolf, brush Wolf, northeastern Coyote, Coyote, new Wolf, and Coywolf, and it has scientifically been described as Canis latrans var. (Lawrence and Bossert 1969; Silver and Silver 1969; Lawrence and Bossert 1975; Parker 1995) and as Canis latrans × C. lycaon (Way et al. 2010; Wheeldon et al. 2010a) according to researchers. The Eastern Wolf has only recently been described (Wilson et al. 2000, 2003) (supported by Kyle et al. 2006, 2008; Fain et al. 2010; Mech 2010; Rutledge et al. 2010b; Mech 2011; Chambers et al. 2012; Rutledge et al. 2012a). The work of earlier researchers (including Lawrence and Bossert 1969; Silver and Silver 1969; Kolenosky and Standfield 1975; hilton 1978; Schmitz and Kolenosky 1985; Schmitz and Lavigne 1987) did not acknowledge, or know of, the presence of this smaller species of wolf, instead recognizing it as a subspecies of Gray Wolf (C. lupus lycaon). how - ever, these authors (Kolenosky and Standfield 1975; Schmitz and Kolenosky 1985) recognized several forms of wolves and noted that coyotes mated with the smaller algonquin type wolf (i.e., the Eastern Wolf)." In other words, we have a "Canis Soup" wolf, coyote, and dog. Here in Allegany County we have a strain of yotes that are very wolf like and big. We also have the strain of little foxy coyotes, and ones in between...Canis Soup de jour. I got a trail cam shot of this yote last winter, looks like a small German Shephard. Is that what your yote looked like?

It's no wonder.....

Pat- what town are you hunting in?

Pat, they would not have thrown the book at you. A few years ago a guy in Webster killed an 85lb. coyote. I know that they tried some dna tests on it but just to try and determine if there was any wolf/dog hybridization. I'm not sure of the results but no problems for that guy. I shot a 60lb. coyote a few years ago. We grow 'em big here in NY I saw a monster just the begining of this bow season and just missed a decent one when i clipped a small branch.

I too took one during the rifle season about 15 years ago that weighed 86lbs...on a legit scale...

I too took one during the rifle season about 15 years ago that weighed 86lbs...on a legit scale...

Pat, some of the biologists I know are pretty well convinced that the Coyotes that inhabit the East are essentially all hybrids. The term Coywolf is becoming more and more accepted to describe what these things really are. Short of asking them to hold still while we take a swab and run a dna test I don't know how the DEC could possibly expect anyone to know if they are looking at a pure coyote, a pure wolf or a hybrid of varying percentages. And at what point would the dead dog be considered one vs the other?

There was a pretty good show last week on these critters on PBS. It's obvious they are here to stay and expanding their range. (at link)

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

I've read that they cannot satisfactorily differentiate between dogs, coyotes, wolves genetically really as their genetics are so close as to be insufficient to tell. However, they perform measurements of the skull, teeth and other morphological features of the skulls and can tell for sure if its coyote, wolf or intermediate. As Ace says, all our yotes are supposedly intermediate between western coyote and gray wolf.

recent

Watch this PBS video and you might be enlightened about what you see. Its called "Meet the Coywolf"

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/meet-the-coywolf/meet-the-coywolf/8605/

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