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Escarpment Magaz ine Summer 2012
So, how does all this relate to the large coyotes that ran across my field
near southern Georgian Bay? Why are these coyotes so large? Per-
haps the coyote is a very adaptable species, and in its new environ-
ment, without competition from the larger grey wolf, it has evolved a
larger body size, which would be advantageous for hunting larger
prey.
But there is a less speculative way to answer the question—genetics.
There has been a lengthy debate over the origins of the two recognized
wolf species inhabiting eastern North America—the red wolf in the east-
ern United States (re-introduced through captive breeding programs)
and the eastern wolf in Ontario’s Algonquin Park and surrounding
areas. A recent genetic study, led by Robert Wayne of the University
of California, Los Angeles, concluded that eastern wolves in Algonquin
Park are mostly grey wolf and a mixture of previously hybridized
wolf/coyote and not a separate species.
Wayne’s analysis, which assessed genetic diversity in dogs, wolves,
and coyotes, found that two eastern wolf samples from Algonquin had
60 percent grey wolf ancestry and 40 percent coyote. They tested coy-
otes fromNew York, NewHampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, andQue-
bec and found them to be on average 84 percent coyote, 8 percent
grey wolf, and 8 percent dog.
In a separate study, Roland Kays of the Buffalo Natural History Mu-
seum found evidence that coyotes near the Great Lakes in the United
States migrated east and bred with grey wolves. These hybrid animals,
still considered coyote, have become the top predator in the eastern
US, filling the void left by the disappearing eastern wolf, which was
hunted out of existence in the United States.
Some scientists, however, are skeptical of the notion that eastern wolves
are hybrids of grey wolves and coyotes. In this camp is David Mech, a
grey wolf expert who has studied these animals for more than 50 years.
Typically, grey wolves do not mate with coyotes, but usually kill them,
he says. In the west, where coyotes and grey wolves live in close prox-
imity, there is no evidence of such hybridizing behaviour. Mech has ob-
served that when the Minnesota population he studies dropped below
one wolf per 39 square kilometres, coyotes from the immediately sur-
rounding area invaded. John andMary Theberge, studying the wolves
in Algonquin Park from 1987 to 1998, found similar evidence of coy-
ote encroachment when wolf populations within the park declined to a
similar level.
Canadian researchers led by Paul Wilson from Trent University, study-
ing the genetics of Ontario wolves, have agreed that indeed there is
hybridizing happening within Ontario, but between the eastern wolf
(Canis lycaon), including the ones in Algonquin Park and the Tweed-
to-Magnetawan areas, and the coyote in central Ontario. According
to their evidence, the eastern wolf is also moving west and mating with
grey wolves in the area of Ontario north of the upper Great Lakes.
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