Posted on 11/04/2015 6:47:50 PM PST by Lorianne
It is rare for a new animal species to emerge in front of scientists’ eyes. But this seems to be happening in eastern North America. ___ Like some people who might rather not admit it, wolves faced with a scarcity of potential sexual partners are not beneath lowering their standards. It was desperation of this sort, biologists reckon, that led dwindling wolf populations in southern Ontario to begin, a century or two ago, breeding widely with dogs and coyotes. The clearance of forests for farming, together with the deliberate persecution which wolves often suffer at the hand of man, had made life tough for the species. That same forest clearance, though, both permitted coyotes to spread from their prairie homeland into areas hitherto exclusively lupine, and brought the dogs that accompanied the farmers into the mix Interbreeding between animal species usually leads to offspring less vigorous than either parent—if they survive at all.
But the combination of wolf, coyote and dog DNA that resulted from this reproductive necessity generated an exception. The consequence has been booming numbers of an extraordinarily fit new animal spreading through the eastern part of North America. Some call this creature the eastern coyote. Others, though, have dubbed it the “coywolfâ€.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
These coywolves are dangerous. They ran down and killed a young woman in Canada a few years ago, and are known to attack dogs being walked on a leash. I live in rural north western Virginia have personally seen them try to lure my GSD away from the house to be ambushed by the pack. A local animal control officer warned me to be wary of them when there are two or more, as they have no fear of humans. Local deer hunters killed one in the fields near me and it was huge compared to the western coyotes I saw in California.
Wolves, dogs and coyotes reproducing together? Are those three different species all combining with no trouble? And the resulting coydog is a new species? Is everything a species? I have two children. That's two new species right there, I guess.
Well I think they fear humans plenty because we hunters would kill them all if they showed themselves. My son dropped one two years ago.
>> led dwindling wolf populations in southern Ontario to begin, a century or two ago, breeding widely with dogs and coyotes.
And out pops another Trudeau!
“It is not the strongest of a species that survive. It is not the smartest of a species that survive. It is the members of a species that adapt to change the best that survive”.
-Darwin
Wait, if wolves and coyotes are actually different species, and they breed, why are the offspring not sterile mules? Are wolves and coyotes then just different dog breeds rather than separate species?
“Species” is a term that means whatever biologists want it to mean at a particular time.
There’s no doubt that wolves, coyotes, and dogs interbreed whenever they’re in the same environment. What’s less typical is for a hybrid successfully to occupy an ecological niche so that it sustains itself as a distinctive “breed” or “species,” depending on how you define your terms.
“Local deer hunters killed one in the fields near me and it was huge compared to the western coyotes I saw in California.”
The coyotes I see in Illinois look far larger than the 27lb veriety illustrated here. They still look like coyotes. My wife has a collie mix that is 40+lb and they look bigger. Smaller than my 125lb Rottie/lab mix tho.
First one I ever saw was dead on the road.
I pulled over because I thought someone’s big GSD had been hit.
Imagine my surprise.
Ours are huge and have no fear of people, whatsoever.
Recall the stalking-my-dad story and my own tale, now, of my old goat passing away and a pack of them hanging around 50 feet from the fence where his body laid until we got someone in with a backhoe.
I went out and shined a jack light at them and they came *at* me rather than running away.
I had to pen my surviving goat up until we got her a new friend.
The Dobes won’t even bark when they smell them around here.
They all just stand and stare into the darkness, looking back at me, as if to say “We want you to know they’re out there but we don’t want them to know *we’re* here”.
Can’t blame them.
There is at least 5 in the pack I saw.
On the other hand, I'm glad they haven't arrived (yet) in Johnson City, TN. Just a matter of time, I suppose.
There’s a pack of “coywolfs” in my neighborhood. If you lose your cat or dog, don’t bother looking. And that goes for your pit bull, your Shepard, your Doberman and your Rottweiler. They’re tough but they’re well outnumbered.
10-4 on these large coy-dog-wolves. Friend in NC mtns. shot one trying to kill one of his Walker hounds. Said it must have had a partner to come after his Walker. Have been within 20 feet of one large pack leader calling to the pack, having chased 10 deer through friend’s woods in the rain. Stalked within shotgun/plug range, and something made him see my movement (silent on wet leaves) and he hauled tail. Was as large as an Alsatian, with coyote head and brush tail.
Confounding all this cross breeding-acc. to game warden, a local up the ridge raises timber wolves crossed with alsatians, and result is not a sterile female. One go out and they are starting to see seriously large pack coy-dog-wolves. We don’t walk without sidearms/mace.
Cool pic. Where did you find it? Or what storyline is it part of?
Google found it on a wallpaper upload site. I searched for wolves with metal teeth.
http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2013/07/26/124463/7a3d63e129aaaa645ec579e3dd8f81e5.jpg
Haldane’s Rule applies to hybrids from species that have different chromosomes.
A true hybrid is usually infertile.
That doesn’t apply to coyotes and wolves that are related species.
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