Can coyotes & wolves cross?

So, you don't agree that the eastern coyote has hybridized with the red wolf?

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I also read the study of wolf coyote interbreeding. Seems that most of them are mixed up northeast. If wolf eat coyote is irrelevant, it is if they mate also, and it seems they do.

http://www.wildlifetech.com/pages/necoyote.htm

http://www.caledonianrecord.com/page...tory/fef373e9d

http://www.apnmag.com/natural%20sele...f%20wolves.htm


" Coyotes and wolves can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. In fact all members of the genus Canis (dogs, wolves, coyotes and jackals) are interfertile. However, in the wild they generally do not interbreed, as wolves often treat coyotes as though they were unwanted competition because they often chase or kill any coyotes they come across. However, when dispersers (wolves that leave their packs and live as lone wolves) fail to find another wolf to mate with, they may turn to breeding with coyotes. For example, it was suspected that a small race of wolves found around Lake Superior and Lake Huron were actually coyote-wolf mixes. This suspicion arose after George Kolenosky, of the Ontario Fish and Wildlife branch, reported that a captive Algonquin park wolf had successfully mated and raised young with a captive coyote in 1971. The offspring were fertile. In 1992, it was confirmed, by a study conducted by Dr. Robert Wayne (University of California of Los Angeles) that coyotes and wolves around Lake Superior were occasionally interbreeding. That conclusion came from genetic tests that showed that some of the wolves possessed coyote mitochondrial DNA sequences. There are also no doubts that red wolves (Canis rufus) and coyotes have hybridized. Red wolves are very rare in the wild and have been stressed by habitat loss, and often are not able to find con-specific mates. So far, all documented coyote-wolf matings have involved male wolves and female coyotes. Coyotes and dogs will occasionally interbreed to produce animals generally referred to as "coydogs," though such matings are somewhat rare. "


Jason

Thought this would interest you all. Found it in my files. Link is long dead, although the full story would be available through the Bangor (Maine) Daily News archives. Coyotes began moving into Maine in the 1930s, but didn't really attract a lot of attention until the 1960s.

New study reveals Maine coyotes' roots
Modern species draws on wolf genetics

By Misty Edgecomb, Of the NEWS Staff e-mail Misty
Last updated: Friday, April 9, 2004

BANGOR - While attempts to reintroduce wolves to Maine continue to linger in political limbo, a new study indicates the predators are already here. As scientists have long suspected, there's a little bit of wolf ancestry in nearly every coyote roaming the Maine woods, according to the study.

Maine's Eastern coyotes are unusually large and more wolflike in behavior than their Western cousins. Biologists have long suspected that as coyotes moved from their native homeland in the West to colonize the East Coast, they interbred with wolves along the way. Several small studies seemed to support the theory.

Now, 100 coyote carcasses and four years of work finally offer significant scientific proof.

(Maine) Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Wally Jakubas and Paul Wilson of Trent University in Ontario worked in cooperation with University of Maine student Shevenell Mullen, who has since graduated, to study coyote carcasses provided by Maine trappers.

Genetic samples showed that Eastern coyotes in Maine, New York and eastern Canada have a mixed ancestry of Western coyotes and Eastern Canadian wolves - a species that is no longer known to live in Maine, but is common in Canada.

SNIP -- any more and I'll violate Fair Use copyright. For those interested, I can send the full story privately.

I would say, of course, they could and of course they would, given the right circumstances.
Why wouldn't they?

True, but wolves prefer to hunt as part of a group, and coyotes will often pair up to hunt, and there has been evidence of pack activity. It would be unwise for a wolf to take on a pack of coyotes and the nature of coyote packs to be less structured could allow them to accept a wolf as a pack mate.

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Libertarindependent

Coyotes around here weigh a solid hundred pounds. They got the DNA from somewhere.

Pete

On a post above there is a statement about the crossing of the coyote with the red wolf. The coyote absorbed the red wolf.
I have a book put out by the U.S. Fish & Wildwife, Forest Service, and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Admin that documents the coyote life since 1900. It has some great info on the red wolf. Also great info on the migration of the coyote eastward and the cause of the more aggressive and larger coyotes.
According to the documents I have seen on DNA samples of canines almost every breed of dogs will have both wolf and coyote DNA.