| This was a coyote I saw in Cades Cove. When I showed the photos that I took of him to a ranger at Cable Mill, he told me that the coyotes had interbred with the Red wolves that the Park Service tried to reintroduce to the ecosystem some years back. Initially, he said, there were a number of coyotes that had a lot of Red wolf genetics in them, but that they'd mostly been bred out. He said that this individual was the last one in the pack there that looks like a Red wolf. (And, yes, I acknowledge that a lot of my learned friends argue persuasively that coyotes and Red wolves are actually the same animal. I don't feel that way, but concede that they may be correct.) |
10 comments:
What's the main difference between a wolf and a coyote? (Of course, I Google it and save you the trouble.)
Great pics. I especially like the landscape with the expanse of snow.
Timber wolves and coyotes are very closely related. One of my favorite writers when I was a kid, Ernest Thompson Seton, referred to the coyote as "the little prairie wolf". And therein lies the main difference: size. Coyotes are generally much smaller than Timber wolves. And much more lightly built, specialized for smaller prey like rabbits and such (although they will take young deer and rarely even adult deer).
There is a second species of wolf here in the States called the Red wolf. It came very close to total extinction but the last groups of them were trapped (in Louisiana) and a breeding program was enacted. They are also smaller than Timber wolves, but not as small as coyotes.
The National Park Service tried to reintroduce Red wolves to the Smokies, but the problem was that coyotes had already moved into the Park and had filled the ecological niche. The danger was that the coyotes would interbreed with the Red wolves and basically genetically crowd them out. So the Park Service rounded up the Red wolves (after they'd already interbred with coyotes, leaving a small genetic imprint behind in the Park) and moved them to the Alligator Wildlife Refuge/Wilderness in eastern North Carolina where their numbers have increased dramatically (there are no coyotes there, and not likely to be now that Red wolves have established a large and imposing presence as the top predator).
Thanks for the info. We have the same problem here with the dingos interbreeding with feral dogs. There are very few genuine dingos left in the wild.
Seems I've read about a large island park in Australia that has a big dingo population. Are they still pure dingo there? (I've forgotten the name of the park...but I do recall listening to a park ranger mention that the dingoes there are really aggressive and to be avoided.)
Since it's on an island that's undeveloped, there would be little chance for domestic dog genes to filter in.
You're probably thinking of Fraser Island. With an area of 184 000 hectares it is the largest sand island in the world:
fraserisland.net/
wiki/Fraser_Island#Dingoes
The reason that dingoes are not afraid of people and may come across as aggressive (as any wild dog is) is because in the past people fed them.
That's the place! Thanks!
And when they collected the last of the red wolves, they were all males. What we call the red wolf is in reality a conglomeration of wolf, coyote and German Shepherd dog. This was a failed attempt to preserve an already hybrid species...oh well...at least they tried.
Quite possibly.
I've just been sent this and thought you'd appreciate the message:
How wolves change rivers
Thanks for the link!
Reintroducing parts of the web of life that have been knocked out is always a good thing.
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