Coyotes and Wolves Share Close Ancestry

Coyote DNA
"In 1993, a study proposed that the wolves of North America display skull traits more similar towards the coyote than those wolves from Eurasia.[50] In 2016, a whole-genome DNA study proposed, based on the assumptions made, that all of the North American wolves and coyotes diverged from a common ancestor less than 6,000–117,000 years ago. The study also indicated that all North America wolves have a significant amount of coyote ancestry and all coyotes some degree of wolf ancestry, and that the red wolf and eastern wolf are highly admixed with different proportions of gray wolf and coyote ancestry."

"Coyotes may occasionally form mutualistic hunting relationships with American badgers, assisting each other in digging up rodent prey.[92] The relationship between the two species may occasionally border on apparent "friendship", as some coyotes have been observed laying their heads on their badger companions or licking their faces without protest. The amicable interactions between coyotes and badgers were known to pre-Columbian civilizations, as shown on a Mexican jar dated to 1250–1300 CE depicting the relationship between the two.[93]"

Shocking...

Coyotes and wolves can breed and produce viable offspring. Doesn't that mean they are the same genetically?

drippin' rock said:

Coyotes and wolves can breed and produce viable offspring. Doesn't that mean they are the same genetically?

Click to expand...

So can dogs

The scientific American did a recent article about this. They were saying the common ancestor for the Gray Wolf and the coyote was around 50,000 years ago. That a lots of inbreeding occurred when the populations are stressed. When they are healthy we know that wolves and coyotes do not interbreed. This is seen by the studies in Yellowstone where the wolves hunt down and kill coyotes and the coyote population has decreased in Yellowstone since the return of the wolf. This argument is being used to delist the red wolf and the eastern wolf by saying that they are wolf coyote hybrids . I have argued for a long time that the big coyotes we have here are not full coyotes but coyote wolf crosses or red wolves. Most every genetic study I have seen seems to back this, there is very little domestic dog dna in these animals but a healthy mix of wolf and coyote dna. In the south more coyote (being the red wolf) and in the north more wolf or 50/50 wolf (those being the eastern wolf). Plus I observe "certified" red wolves all the time, there is a captive red wolf breeding program not 10 miles from my house. I, for the life of me, can not tell them apart from some of the "coyotes" I have harvested over the years in GA. The ones I have harvested in GA look nothing like the coyotes I have harvested in traditional coyote territory. Nor do they sound alike at night, western coyotes do not form packs nor do their howls sound like the ones here. Ours will form packs and do hunt deer....