A while back I read that wolves and coyotes were cross breeding in the eastern US. At the time, this impressed me as creating an extremely intelligent and dangerous animal.
But I haven’t seen anything since about it.
For those of you not familiar with the behavior of either, wolves have about the same intelligence as a 5-year-old, but with advanced social skills; and coyotes are excellent tacticians, developing, communicating with each other, and executing complex schemes.
In some Native American traditions, wolves are placed about on par with humans, and coyotes are synonymous with tricksters, both crafty and ingenious.
A mix of those two animals might be something incredible.
Can’t wait to see a couple pick of some kids camping at Yellowstone.
Well since they can interbreed and have offspring that aren’t sterile, they should be classified as the same species. As currently classified, gray wolves are Canis Lupus and coyotes are Canis Latrans. I’m not a biologist, so I can’t tell you why that is the case.
Anyways, it is possible that different genes give wolves their intelligence and coyotes their tactical senses. If that is the case then you fall into the two intelligent parents trap where the offspring is rarely as smart as either of the parents. Then again, it might be the same genes that are responsible for both behaviors in which case their location and lifestyles cause those specific traits to be expressed.
There are also wolf dogs that are half wolf too.
My dog was acquired from a newspaper ad in the Seattle, WA area when I lived in Federal Way, WA. Wolf crosses are fairly common in the area.
Wolves will ravage the "coyote problem".
If you have any sources about such cross bred animals, please let me know. Thanks.