Now that coyotes are interbreeding with wolves in Canada they’ve gotten larger and more agressive in much of the eastern US. A couple of years ago in my town a cop shot a coyote that was approaching a woman in a graveyard (he happened to be passing by, she was totally oblivious) and the thing turned out to be almost 100 pounds. I’ve seen many others that look at least that large. In Concord (mega-wealthy and insanely liberal) this past summer I saw a large coyote lounging in a field about 60 yards away from a bike path and stopped on a bench to see how people would react. Many people going by, all full of oohs and aahs, one lady expressed concern that the sun might be too hot and if only there was some shade for it to sit under!
That would be a wolf.
Maybe you are right, though, about the interbreeding.
Yea, the hybrids here in N.E. are much more wolf-like. Handsome animals that I wouldn't want to run into unarmed. I hear them often in the fields and saw a pack of them moving through the back yard one moonlit winter night.
Not coincidentally, rabbits, once so plentiful they were almost tame to a human walking amongst them, have become a rarity. Rarebits.