![]() As natural climates and habitats change at a rate faster than ever before, hybridization is a way for different species to keep up and adapt in order to survive. The coywolfdog has taken an interesting evolutionary short cut. “Hybridization seems to be a way that evolution can work very rapidly compared to what we traditionally think,” says Kays. Rarely have we seen such a successful hybrid colonize such a large area.Ī group of coywolves bred in captivity. They’re smart, traveling by railroad track and looking both ways before crossing the highway. They’re opportunistic predators, meaning that they’ll take whatever they can get, another quality that makes them supremely adaptable to new environments. They eat discarded food, including fruits and vegetables, as well as available mammals. They are heftier, faster, and have larger jaws than coyotes, and their songs are a blend of wolf howl and coyote yip. Since its inception, the eastern coyote has established itself as a new top predator where wolves once reigned. “It’s not only persisting but thriving,” says Kays. Some scientists say that the eastern coyote may be the most adaptable animal on the planet. The coywolves found in cities like Toronto, where they prey on dogs, cats, or rodents, are still smaller, explains White. ![]() ![]() Meanwhile, the carnivores have infiltrated towns and cities along the eastern seaboard, and in areas where they can hunt in packs for larger prey like deer, they’re growing larger and stronger. Since then, coywolves have reoccupied the original territories of the eastern wolf and have even migrated on ice floes from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, where they’ve developed a liking for moose and caribou. Bradley White at Trent University says that researchers believe the coywolf originated about a century ago in Ontario, Canada. In fact, the creature’s presence has become so commonplace that the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation has a guide called “ Living With Coyotes in New York City,” which includes “Five Easy Tips for Coexisting with Coyotes.” Roland Kays of North Carolina State University. “They’re so, so sneaky that most people don’t ever see them,” says Dr. They’ve taken to being nocturnal, and they can work their way through neighborhoods without causing trouble or even being noticed, a secret to their success. In New York City alone, just within the past year, eastern coyotes have been spotted in Chelsea, Long Island City, Queens, the Upper West Side, and the Bronx. Their hybrid offspring–known as eastern coyotes, coywolves, or coywolfdogs if you want to be comprehensive–are multiplying, and neighborhoods across the northeast are starting to notice. The result of their circumstantial romance is a mesopredator weighing in at about 55 pounds (twice the weight of coyotes), with a genetic makeup around 8 percent dog, 8 percent wolf, and 88 percent coyote. Interspecies dating is a wonderful thing, but for a wolf, the larger and handsomer of the two canines, a coyote is still a serious downgrade, even if some dog genes are thrown into the mix (lonely wolves have also been known to flirt with local dogs). Wolves in eastern North America, whose populations steadily dwindled due to deforestation and hunting, had no choice but to settle for coyotes. But if you heard one 150 years ago, this is probably the English translation of her cries: “I have literally no dating options left in my species … Any wolves out there? Anyone!” Have you heard any wolves howling in the northeast recently? Most likely not, since there aren’t any of them left. ![]()
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