Coyotes 30 miles from wilderness, first time seeing it in my neck of the woods

[hack89]

17. Turns out that eastern coyotes are actually coyote - wolf hybrids.

The Eastern coyote (Canis latrans "var.&quot , also known as the New England canid or tweed wolf, is a wild canid of mixed eastern wolf-coyote parentage with mild influences from gray wolves present in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick,[2] Nova Scotia,[3] and Newfoundland and Labrador.[4] It was first noticed during the 1930s and 40s, and likely originated in the aftermath of the extermination of the eastern wolves in the northeast as well both populations of gray wolves in the maritime and hybrids between gray and eastern wolves in the western Great Lake regions, thus allowing coyotes to colonize former gray and eastern wolf ranges and mix with the remnant wolf populations.[5] However, it is suspected that the gray wolf markers present in some eastern coyotes may have been bridged over from the eastern wolves who have a history of hybridizing with both gray wolves and coyotes since the northern gray wolves are not known to readily hybridize with coyotes.[6] This hybrid is smaller than the pure eastern wolf, and holds smaller territories, but is in turn larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western pure coyote.[5] Hybridization between the coyote and eastern wolf was facilitated by the close relationship between the two species, both of which diverged from a common ancestor 150,000-300,000 years ago,[7] whereas the gray wolf, which is Eurasian in origin and diverged 2 million years before, is slightly distantly related from both. However, introgression of gray wolf genes into eastern wolf populations had also occurred across eastern Manitoba, into Ontario, and parts of the southern Quebec, as well as into the western Great Lakes states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.[8] As a result, both the gray wolves and the eastern wolves, although mostly the latter, have contributed their roles as among two of the three Canis species for the modern day eastern coyotes' genepool. As of 2010, the eastern coyote's genetic makeup is fairly uniform, with minimal influence from the wolves or western coyotes.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_coyote