Coyotes are not what they seem

[gcode]

Coyotes are not what they seem

We live in interesting times in many ways, and this is as true of the animal world as it is with humans. Zoologists have been researching for the last decade or so the emergence of an creature hitherto undocumented by science but now confirmed to exist. The eastern coyote (Canis Iatrans Var) is, as the name implies, endemic to the eastern parts of North America, though it has been spreading west of the Mississippi as well.  They range as far north as the Canadian tundra and as far south as subtropical Florida, living in prairies, forests, swamps, suburbs, and even cities.  Though not commonly seen, they are everywhere, and the story of the eastern coyote is interesting, especially considering they are not, strictly speaking, coyotes.

[Jim at Gentex]

Interesting!
Here in northeast PA we have quite a few of what are commonly called 'coy-dogs'.

They look and act like coyotes, but when you look closely you see evidence of other breeds of domestic dogs intermingled with them.

So yeah, this article makes sense in that wolves probably originally interbred with coyotes at some point, and then as more and more domestic dog breeds were introduced to North America by humans, the coyotes began interbreeding with them. 

In fact, I just heard a pack of them yipping and howling the other night as my wife and I sat out in the yard by our firepit.  My wife gets nervous when she hears them, but they are actually on the opposite side of the river behind our house, and I have never seen any sign of them crossing over to our side of the river. 

But still, you never know.  That's why I am always armed when walking my dog in the woods behind my house, or just sitting out by the fire. 

Better safe than sorry...  

Now my son and his wife live across that river and a little ways further up the mountain, so they see and hear the coy-dogs more often than we do, but they are also armed and cautious, which is all you can do. 

[ghuns]

When I was a kid, about 14, a local guy said he saw a coyote down the road from our house. I thought he was nuts.

Nowadays, I could walk outside any night of the week, 365 days a year, with a rabbit squealer call, a flashlight, and a rifle and smoke at least one coyote.

They have replaced ground hogs as the most abundant varmint available to hunters around here.

We have a bunch of guys that hunt them with hound dogs that wear radio collars. The dogs will track and chase a coyote. The guys get ahead of the dogs by tracking their collars. When the coyote passes them, they turn out fresh dogs. When they wear the coyote out a bit, usually after a couple miles, they turn loose a few greyhounds. They catch and kill it.

Never knew greyhounds had it in them, but it's something to see.

[beej]

Interesting article. back in the 70's, my wife's family had a female dog get bred by a coyote. It's extremely rare. When she had the pups she had them under some tin from a collapsed barn, and it took a couple weeks for them to find them. It wasn't until they were born that they realized she had been bred by a coyote. all of the pups were too mean to keep except one. So they euthanized them all and kept the one that they could handle, and her family maintains to this day that they never had a smarter dog than, that coy-dog.

[pmartin]

Up here in Vermont the story goes that your dog, if allowed to run free will find 2 dogs playing and will be invited to join in the fun. The playing dogs will lead the domesticated dog out into the woods where they will introduce it to their pack and invite the dog to dinner, as the entree.