Texas Cryptid Canine Video
Posted by: Chester Moore on October 30th, 2015
In the last entry we discussed historical references to red wolf and their hybrids in the American South. This week I bring you a video captured in 2012 in Southeast Texas. Ignore the dates on the video. We had it set wrong.
The tracks of this animal were four inches in length and we estimate due to vegetation and tracks it weighed between 70-75 pounds.
Photo Copyright 2012 Chester Moore
The still included here shows a a distinctly “red wolf” look and at least shows an animal that has much red wolf lineage. The video was taken in one of the counties where the last known “pure” red wolves were captured in 1980 for the federal captive breeding program.
Chester Moore, Jr.
About Chester Moore
Chester Moore is Editor-In-Chief of Texas Fish & Game magazine. He has won more than 100 awards for writing, photography and conservation and was named a “Hero of Conservation” by Field & Stream magazine. He has 12 published books including has published thousands of articles on wildlife since 1992 including many on the subject of mysterious animals. Chester has appeared on The 700 Club, Animal Planet, The Outdoors Channel, National Geographic and NBC Sports. He is host of “Moore Outdoors” on Newstalk AM 560 KLVI where he has broadcasted for 16 years. He and his wife Lisa founded Children's Kingdom Ministries and operate the Kingdom Zoo: Wildlife Center in Pinehurst, TX in the Orange area.
Could it be a pregnant coyote? Hard to tell size. If someone could stand where it is or stand up a yard-stick, that would be helpful.
The date and time of day is not specific: 2012 in Southeast Texas. Summer? Winter? Avg temp that time of year in that location is important because the coat could be thicker or thinner. Time of day would be good for shadow length and also coloration–near dusk, the sun filters through more atmosphere and can color things more red even with a cloudless sky.
The low angle camera angle is making this animal look larger than it actually is. No mystery here, it is a light phase coywolf. They are moving across the entire United States. A darker variety is in my area – practically my backyard – for the last two years. I have a photo of one that was hit by a car and killed about 500 yards from my front door.
Looks like a coyote to me. I’ve seen a few, mostly unhealthy and desperate-looking. It’s a hard life, I imagine.
Red wolf. Textbook straight up red wolf.
DWA: Yeah, you’re right. No doubt about it – but only about 50 are believed to exist in the wild.
Hey Goodfoot, I can only repeat what three NA mammal guides told me. That’s a red wolf. The official position is: *if it exists*, in places other than where reintroduced, it’s limited to a few individuals in…places including where this video was apparently taken.
I tend not to trust extinction pronouncements. It’s still profoundly true: you can’t prove the nonexistence of an animal. People not seeing it = people not *reporting* seeing it. Presuming T.rex and Smilodon to no longer be around appears somewhat safe. Red wolf? Not so much. They *estimated* how many were left and stopped the live-trapping program when they were *fairly sure* they’d gotten the remaining animals. No matter how many degrees you have, you’d have to *prove* to me that’s a coyote…and NA mammal guides compared with that visual indicate you aren’t likely to do that. That the critter still is in those guides, of course, shows an allowance for uncertainty. It’s even shown, “extirpated” of course, in the latest mammal guide for the Smokies, where the reintro effort was terminated and “all” the remaining animals (that they could find) removed.
That leaves a lot of room for error…as this video shows. (50 = quite a few.)
It’s really difficult to distinguish the two, however one key point is that red wolves have much longer ears in relation to the overall size of the head than coyotes, which is what this individual displays. Not sure how one could rule out a red wolf/coyote cross, though, from this video.
DWA: 50 is a few; 50 is a lot. It depends on the situation and the context. But I’m likewise skeptical of extinction pronouncements.
semillama: no way am I ruling out a cross. But in some crosses one species dominates; and red wolf is that species in this case. That animal – whatever genetic makeup it may have – says “red wolf.”