Coywolf

Late January 2016 In the Woods just beyond my house.

"Coywolf Basic Info

The coywolf is currently most commonly called “eastern coyote”. However, recent research suggests that this animal is both genetically and morphologically intermediate to western coyotes and eastern wolves. So, even though most people refer to these canids in the Northeast simply as “coyotes”, their background is much more complex and recent science states that we should more properly call this animal coywolf. It is important to note that this hybridization episode did not occur recently; rather, the animal has always been a hybrid of two different closely related species since it colonized the Northeast US starting 50-70 years ago (and now, they are found throughout the region). Initially they were called coydog, then eastern coyote, but we now know that coywolf is the most appropriate descriptor of this animal because the original wolf found in the Northeast was most probably the smallish (~60 pound) eastern wolf (Canis lycaon), which is very closely related to (and possibly the same species as) the red wolf (Canis rufus). The eastern wolf is actually more closely related to western coyotes than they are to the larger gray (western) wolf (Canis lupus). Thus, the coywolf has “native” wolf genes and got here on its own four feet: it therefore should not be considered non-native or invasive. Furthermore, it is questionable if the gray wolf actually ever lived in the Northeast, or if the eastern wolf and possibly gray/eastern wolf hybrids (which are common in the Great Lakes states, Canis lupus x C. lycaon) were endemic to this region."

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