The addition of domestic dog genes may have played a minor role in facilitating the eastern hybrids' adaptability to survive in human-developed areas. nubilus) influences in their gene pool, thus suggesting that the eastern coyote is actually a four-in-one hybrid of coyotes, eastern wolves, western gray wolves, and dogs, and that the hybrids living in areas with higher white-tailed deer density often have higher degrees of wolf genes than those living in urban environments. lupus familiaris) and western Great Plains gray wolf ( C. Īside from the combinations of coyotes and eastern wolves making up most of the modern day eastern coyote's gene pools, some of the coyotes in the northeastern United States also have mild domestic dog ( C. By 2012, the genetic composition of the park's eastern wolves was roughly restored to what it was in the mid-1960s, rather than in the 1980s–1990s, when the majority of wolves had large amounts of coyote DNA. By 2001, protection was extended to eastern wolves occurring on the outskirts of the park, thus no longer depriving Park eastern wolves of future pure-blooded mates. This susceptibility to hybridization led to the eastern wolf being listed as Special Concern under the Canadian Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife and with the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario. The main nucleus of pure eastern wolves is currently concentrated within Algonquin Provincial Park. This has caused concern over the purity of remaining wolves in the area, and the resulting eastern coyotes are too small to substitute for pure wolves as apex predators of moose and deer. Extensive hunting of gray wolves over a period of 400 years caused a population decline that reduced the number of suitable mates, thus facilitating coyote genes swamping into the eastern wolf population. Coyotes and wolves hybridized in the Great Lakes region, followed by an eastern coyote expansion, creating the largest mammalian hybrid zone known. Their range also occurs in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Varieties Eastern coyotes Įastern coyote, a coyote-wolf hybrid in West Virginia near the Virginia state line.Įastern coyotes range from New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Hybrids also reach sexual maturity when they are two years old, which is much later than occurs in pure coyotes. Ĭompared with pure coyotes, eastern wolf × coyote hybrids form more cooperative social groups and are generally less aggressive with each other while playing. Executive Director Peggy Callahan at the facility states that the howls of these hybrids are said to start off much like regular gray wolves with a deep strong vocalization, but changes partway into a coyote-like high pitched yipping. At six months of age, these hybrids were closely monitored at the Wildlife Science Center. Despite being delivered by a female coyote, the hybrid pups at birth were much larger and heavier than regular coyote pups born and measured around the same time. In one captive hybrid experiment, six F 1 hybrid pups from a male northwestern gray wolf and a female coyote were measured shortly after birth with an average on their weights, total lengths, head lengths, body lengths, hind foot lengths, shoulder circumferences, and head circumferences compared with those on pure coyote pups at birth. Hybrids of any combination tend to be larger than coyotes but smaller than wolves they show behaviors intermediate between coyotes and the other parent's species. 2.3 Northwestern wolf × coyote hybrid experiment.
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