Large Coyotes in Michgan

[foxx]

Here's a story of a coyote kill near my home in Michigan.

It includes reports of coyotes attacking and killing HORSES nearby. Take a look at the size of this beast! Some say they are breeding with wolves and becoming their own species. IDK, but around here we are keeping our pets indoors at night! (except the horses and cattle, though)

http://www.abc12.com/story/28018724/large-coyote-killed-by-dairy-farmer-in-lapeer-county

[DrThunder88]

If anyone else is getting an error from that link, here's the photo from another source:

http://i62.tinypic.com/23k6sdw.jpg (http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/28022903/dairy-farmer-hunts-large-coyote-in-lapeer-co)

Of course, it is important to note how the shot is framed with the coyote held closer to the camera than the dude holding it. The text of the story says the coyote was "about 50 pounds", which makes me think it weighed in under 50 if it was weighed at all. That's still big for a coyote but not coyotezilla.

Also, coyote-wolf hybrids would not likely create a new species unless they were in a genetically isolated area, and, since coyotes are pretty ubiquitous, the allele frequency in any given area's population is not likely to change significantly enough to warrant the classification of a new species.

[foxx]

The idea of the possibility of a new species came from an academic study I found in our local library a while ago. Wish I could remember it now. I am no expert on any of this, but it made a good argument for the idea. Kinda like the various turkeys around the country. For sure, these 'yotes are bigger and badder than the western desert varieties I've only seen in pictures and read about. But, deer size varies by region as well, could be for the same reasons, I guess.

Anyhow, any coyote that kills horses is bigger than I want running around my back yard! :)

[foxx]

Of course, there are other theories...

search DogMan of Luther, MI.

He's been seen around our camp on the edge of the Luther/Baldwin swamp quite frequently, and been blamed for plenty of mischief none of the rest of us care to take credit for! :)

[limige]

Oh you must mean the legend of the dogman

Dogman song: http://youtu.be/64p_hx1znbs

[bythebook]

Limige my daughter in law had a taxidermy shop for a couple of years. Three of the biggest coyotes she mounted were over 50 lbs. the biggest was 53 lbs. Also Pa. Game Comm. said in there book a couple of years ago that they had enough prove thru DNA that 90 % of Coyotes killed in Pa. had Wolf DNA in them.

[limige]

Doesn't surprise me.
Enough yotes running around for sure

[DrThunder88]

Going on what foxx said, I checked around on the hybrids, and there is a compelling argument for treating eastern coyotes as a separate population of hybrids. Still, I'd like to see more about western coyotes to verify that western coyotes do not have wolf DNA themselves. The paper I read (http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/downloads/GeneticsOfEasternCoywolfFinalInPrint.pdf) cites a study of western wolves that shows no western wolves have coyote DNA, but if the thesis of that paper is that eastern coyotes are distinct from western coyotes for their wolf genes, they should be able to show some work that western coyotes do not have wolf DNA.

Still, if it is a result of hybridization, it's quite interesting.

[Stockrex]

:oOh, so the wolves in MI and PA are shacking up with the coyotes?

[DrThunder88]

At some point they did, but if I'm reading the paper correctly it needn't be a continuous arrangement. But who are we to judge? Our own ancestors shacked up with Neanderthals at some point (if your ancestors are European or Asian, I mean).

[sixonetonoffun]

Wouldn't doubt its in part from hybrid wolf/dogs. Guy next doors dogs are constantly interacting with the coyote pack that lives in the fence line. In fact one of his dogs was caught in a coyote set trap this fall. (Too many dogs).

One night this winter I was woke up from the dogs vs yotes fighting over a dead coon under my bedroom window. It was quite interesting in spite of being woke out of a dead sleep.

On the plus side the ferral cat population is nearly non-existent.