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[Dean Romig]

She is a pretty good example of one of the color variations of the Eastern Coyote. I posted these pics on FB yesterday and have had hundreds of comments from folks calling it a yellow lab, a husky, a shepherd-yellow lab mix, a coywolf, a coydog, and a few more but people are adamant that it can't be a coyote because it is too pretty, too fluffy, too big, too well-fed... ad nauseum. I have seen coyotes that look just like this in Vermont where I spend about all of my hunting time. A trapper there trapped a 64 lb. female that looked just like this one about 4 years ago. He said the blonde ones don't fetch as much $$.

In any case, just for the heck of it I looked up the terms coy-wolf, coywolf, coy-dog, coydog and any variation I could think of and they all came back with basically the same thing - those terms are not scientific but represent the thoughts of rural folks who attempt to describe coyotes with the attributes of the Eastern Coyote, which over thousands of years has developed through cross-breeding with other canine species to what it is today. So, it is what it is - a big blonde Eastern Coyote.





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[Gary Laudermilch]

The Eastern coyotes come in all sorts of colors. One of the reasons their pelts generally do not bring as much. Too hard to match colors. I've seen blonde, red, and charcoal black in addition to the more common grey. I once caught a red that was colored just about like a red fox except it lacked the black legs and white tail tip. It as unique and quite stunning. Take a look at a pack of grey wolves and you will see the same color variations.

[Bruce Hering]

Dean:

Thats a yote. Crossbred, no doubt, but a coyote no doubt.

I dont know how much you may have read on the subject of coyotes but it would seem that based on genetic findings a good percentage of the Eastern strain has cross bred with "other canine" species.... dogs and wolves.

[Stan Hillis]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

In any case, just for the heck of it I looked up the terms coy-wolf, coywolf, coy-dog, coydog and any variation I could think of and they all came back with basically the same thing - those terms are not scientific but represent the thoughts of rural folks who attempt to describe coyotes with the attributes of the Eastern Coyote, which over thousands of years has developed through cross-breeding with other canine species to what it is today. So, it is what it is - a big blonde Eastern Coyote.

Evidently the opinion of the same kind of experts who denied there are panthers in GA years ago, after i'd seen them alive. If "they" say the EC has developed through cross-breeding with other canine species, I wonder why did it stop doing that?

I have personally trapped animals that I am sure were a cross between a dog (German Shepherd, in one particular case I remember) and a coyote. They don't even act like a coyote in a steel trap. A coyote turns it's head away from you when you approach it in a trap. A coy-dog is aggressive and growls and bares it's teeth at you. JME.

SRH

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Stan Hillis

Evidently the opinion of the same kind of experts who denied there are panthers in GA years ago, after i'd seen them alive. If "they" say the EC has developed through cross-breeding with other canine species, I wonder why did it stop doing that?

I have personally trapped animals that I am sure were a cross between a dog (German Shepherd, in one particular case I remember) and a coyote. They don't even act like a coyote in a steel trap. A coyote turns it's head away from you when you approach it in a trap. A coy-dog is aggressive and growls and bares it's teeth at you. JME.

SRH

I dunno Stan - Did I ever say they had stopped doing that?

I will say though Stan that we are far, far less likely to see a coyote that exhibits any "coy-dog" attributes than we are likely to see a coyote that looks like a plain ol' Eastern Coyote. The one I pictured looks like a lot of other blonde Eastern Coyotes I have seen, admittedly she is the biggest I've seen.

I will say that a lot of the guys I know both in VT as well as Maine and NH refer to all coyotes as "coy dogs" just like a lot of folks say "fisher cats" and "Canadian geese."





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[Stan Hillis]

No Dean, i didn't say you said that. My point is that if the so called experts you quoted have decided that the Eastern Coyote has become what it is because of cross-breeding with other canine species there is no reason to think they have stopped cross breeding with other canine species which, obviously, include dogs.

I do not believe, and did not insinuate that, the canine you pictured is a coy-dog. At least it doesn't look like any of them I have ever seen up close. The coy-dogs I have seen all had a much more "doggy" looking head than a pure coyote. For every coy-dog I've ever seen up close I have seen hundreds of brindled yellow/brown looking plain ol' coyotes. They are probably rare, but I'm convinced they do exist, regardless what the "experts" say. It's not only about looks. As I said earlier, IMO coy-dogs are much more defensive, even aggressive, than 'yotes.

[Dean Romig]

I agree Stan, and I think today's Eastern Coyote got its superior size from crossing with wolves in Canada on its migration across Canada and down into the Northeastern US and not as much with domestic dogs of course until just the last couple of hundred years at most.





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