A Coyote of the Huge Kind
Posted by: Nick Redfern on November 9th, 2012
The Center for Fortean Zoology alerts us to a new story on the killing in Missouri of what was assumed to be a coyote, but that weighed in at a highly impressive (and previously unhead of for such an animal) 81 pounds! A hybrid wolf maybe? As the link shows, the body of the beast is being examined right now…
About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.
I’m in WV and coyotes were reintroduced to our area several years ago, and from what i was told, they were bred with red wolves to make them heartier… the coyotes here get very big and aren’t very fearful of humans… I’d say the ones you’re talking about are also hybrids…
There are all kinds of canid hybrids running around out there, for sure. Coyote/dog/wolf mutts show up now and then. In 1989 my (now) ex-brother-in-law shot from his deer stand in Morgan County, AL what looked for all the world like a cross between a German shepherd and a coyote…and possibly a wolf. It had the pointed, prick ears of a coyote, sharp snout and brushy tail, but wolf proportioned paws (really massive) but it had the coat coloration of a dark shepherd. I’m sure it went at least 75lbs. He had it stuffed and mounted.
Holy creepers! That’s one honkin’ big skinwalker coyote!!! Dang!!!!
I have a lot of experience with wolves and wolf/canid crosses. From the picture, it looks like a coyote wolf mix of unknown percentage.
I agree with lobombre and also agree with B.U.M.P. The cross of wolf/coyote with dog makes for something that doesn’t fear man nor his boundaries.
The photo looks like a coyote/wolf or maybe coyote/dog hybrid. Nearly all the coyotes in the Appalachian & Great Lakes regions have some wolf ancestry. What we are watching is evolution in progress. These animals are rapidly evolving to fill the niche of the wolf in the East. They’re “officially” Eastern coyotes, but they are larger and sturdier than Western coyotes, with larger skulls and more robust teeth. Since the prey shapes the predator, they’ll eventually stabilize as a wolflike animal large enough that a pair or a small family group can pull down deer.
True wolves are extending their range southward and eastward as well. It’s already been established that North American wolves have some domestic dog in their ancestry. The wolf is really more or less a superspecies which hybridizes readily with dogs, coyotes, and jackals in various parts of its nearly worldwide range. That goes a long way toward explaining wolves’ and coyotes’ adaptability and their longevity as a species.
*Should have said
“That goes a long way toward explaining wolves’ and coyotes’ adaptability and their longevity as species”, not “That goes a long way toward explaining wolves’ and coyotes’ adaptability and their longevity as a species”.