Posted on 11/07/2011 8:14:28 PM PST by jazusamo
Hybrid offspring of coyotes and wolves have spread south along the eastern seaboard, a new DNA study confirms.
Scientists already knew that some coyotes, which have been gradually expanding their range eastward, mated with wolves in the Great Lakes (map) region. The pairings created viable hybrid offspringidentified by their DNA and skullsthat have been found in mid-Atlantic states such as New York and Pennsylvania.
Now, new DNA analysis of coyote poop shows for the first time that some coyotes in the state of Virginia are also part wolf. Scientists think these animals are coyote-wolf hybrids that traveled south from New England along the Appalachian Mountains.
The study also identified another coyote migration route moving through the southern states.
"You have a situation where you have these two waves of coyotes coming into the mid-Atlantic, a terminus for coyote colonization," said study leader Christine Bozarth, a research fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.
Northern Virginia in particular seems to be a convergence point for coyote migrations, Bozarth saidand the animals' numbers are increasing there, especially in suburban areas where food is more plentiful.
(See "Coyotes Now at Home in Eastern U.S." )
Versatile Coyote Already Widespread
Coyotes are originally residents of middle America, particularly between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico.
By the end of the 20th century, the versatile animalwhich can eat almost anything, from shoe leather to fruithad spread to nearly every corner of the U.S., even New York City.
The coyote is "one of the animals that will be left at the end, like the cockroaches, raccoons, and rabbits," Bozarth said.
For the new study, Bozarth and colleagues collected coyote scat samples in northern Virginia and extracted DNA. The team then compared the coyote DNA with that of representatives of every canid species found in eastern North America. ( Get a genetics overview .)
The study, published October 17 in the Journal of Mammalogy, found evidence that Virginia coyotes mated with Great Lakes wolves but not with the rare red wolf, which is hanging on in just a few isolated spots in the U.S. South.
That's "good news for the red wolf," whose survival is already threatened by inbreeding, which reduces the species' genetic diversity, Bozarth noted.
Hybrid Coyotes Taking Down Deer?
For now, it's impossible to say how "wolfy" the newly identified coyote-wolf hybrids really are, Bozarth addedjust that "at some point down the line, a coyote mated with a Great Lakes wolf-even generations ago."
Scientists have not yet studied the behaviors of the Virginian hybrids to see if they're killing bigger wildlife or otherwise changing the ecosystem, Bozarth added.
But other East Coast hybrids seen alive or identified by their remains are noticeably larger, with more wolf-like skulls, jaws, and teeth, Bozarth noted. (See pictures of new hybrid species appearing in the warming Arctic .)
Given this, coyote-wolf hybrids "should be able to do things like take down deer, which a little, scrappy Great Plains wily coyote would not be able to do on its own," Bozarth said.
Indeed, the research highights "just how successful and adapted these hybrids are to the eastern forests," said Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum in Albany.
For instance, Kays's research on the previously known eastern hybrids has shown that a third of their diet is deera much higher proportion than in western states.
Coyotes in Mid-Atlantic "Here to Stay"
Jonathan Way, a wildlife biologist and head of the Massachusetts-based education group Eastern Coyote Research, called the new paper "timely."
Coyotes coming from the west are moving not only through the Great Lakes but also south of the region, through Ohio. But until now, it was unknown how that southern route of colonization was influencing coyotes in the mid-Atlantic region, Way said by email.
According to Way, these two fronts of coyote expansion have probably made the Virginia animals "hybrids of a hybrid."
That's because the Virginia hybrids are most likely a combination of northeastern coyote-wolf hybrids, which are slightly bigger and more wolf-like, and nonhybrid coyotes coming through Ohio.
"The results of the paper are clear and important, and confirm that mid-Atlantic coyotes have DNA from [Northeast] animals ... and western coyotes," Way said.
Whatever their exact genetic makeup, one thing is clear, study author Bozarth emphasized: Coyotes and coyote-wolf hybrids in the mid-Atlantic are "absolutely establishedthey're here to stay."
The above picture looks a lot like the coyote or coyote/wolf hybrid I spotted strolling through my back yard last week. M speciman was larger — probably 40-50 lbs.
-——Shouldnt the govt put an end to this practice?——
If the government can’t control urban sluts, how do you propose it control coyote sluts?
I was pheasant hunting in N.W. Kansas a number of years ago when a coyote came barreling out of a plumb thicket at me up to about 10 feet away then swerved off and kept running. He wasn't charging me, he had been flushed out by a buddy who was walking the other side of the thicket.
I always thought they were scrawny but this one was a grayish white color and about the size of a real large german shepherd...... It scared the bejesus out of me.
We have coydogs here in Vermont. I'm not sure that we even have any true coyotes here any longer.
That is one really wolf-y looking coyote.
If I lived somewhere rural, I’d probably break down and splurge on some NVGs to take out coyotes and such.
Most of the coyotes here in New England are part wolf these days. They did a DNA test on one in NH and found out it was over 80% wolf DNA.
That’s what concerns me. Our GSD and the King Shepherd in the back of the neighborhood have been killing the yotes around here. The coyotes have attacked a couple of dogs in the neighborhood and a few of the less than intelligent cats have gone missing. There are deer remains in the woods with obvious signs of predation.
Our GSD Max hates the yotes with a passion. He’s good with every dog in the neighborhood but yotes he kills on sight. The ones we have around here are about 35-40 pounds.
I thought Vermont was the only place that called them catamounts.
The deer population in some of the eastern states is extremely high, offering a new niche for the coyote-wolf to feed on.
We’re going to North Georgia this weekend to stay at some friends’ mountain house. This thread is a good reminder why to stay armed even out in the country.
You know, I've often heard the bit about cockroaches surviving whatever destroys us, but I have to wonder if that little factoid comes from the same people who discount the effect of the Sun when they discuss global warming.
Soon after my run-in with Bre’r Coyote, there was an article about them in the local paper. It said that the eastern coyote is bigger than his western counterpart.
Since the wolves are presumably molesting the female coyotes, they should do what they would do with humans. Eliminate the male wolves. Since male wolves come from female wolves, maybe they should be eliminated also.
I thought she preferred to be called Liz?
But no. I didn’t mean to leave her out of the party.
Just so long as Em’s being Chooted, I don’t care who pulls the trigger.
They're not extinct in OR any longer. You may have read about them in NE OR and there's been articles in the Medford Mail Trib recently about a lone wolf from that area that has trekked to Southern OR.
The last I read which was a week or so ago it has been hanging out in Douglas County not far from the Jackson County line. It has a tracking collar, that's why they know where it came from and keep up on his location.
I've seen many coyotes in OR while hunting but they've always been the standard size ones, I don't doubt there are some larger ones and probably the chances are better that a few have mated with dogs.
I’ve read that some refer to them as coywolves in the NE and Canada.
Yeah, they are not thinking things through. They say it because the roaches can survive the radiation, but they forget that they are completely dependant on humans for survival. German roaches would be worse off than German Shepherds if we were gone.
We have Coyotes in Chicago. They live in the freight train yards and forest preserves and travel along the railroad tracks.
Choot, didn't want you to appear to be baconuvinistic.
I would sincerely advise you to *not* let the dog out alone.
Domestic dogs often mistake coyotes for ‘normal’ dogs but coyotes never mistake *dinner* for anything.
My Dobe just doesn’t like *any* strange dogs around and the Ibizans, being “primitive dogs” themselves, know there’s something ‘wrong’ about coyotes and go into hunt mode but other “nicer” dogs/more domestic breeds could make a deadly error in judgement.
I don’t know your firearm laws but if you can, at least chuck a rock at it next time and yell or something to make sure it understands you *are* a threat to it.
If I find one sniffing around near my goats, I’m going to have a really cool fluffy tail ornament for my truck antenna.
:)
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