100# Coyote or Wolf?

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BigN

BigN

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Adirondack Mountains, Waaay Upstate New York
I found these tracks near my tree stand this morning. I had to do a double take at the sheer size of them. I went back to the car and got a tape measure and went back. At first I thought maybe it was just melted or so but I followed them for several hundred yards in all directions and they were all this size. There were normal size coyote tracks along side of them for a long way, then he went off by himself across a frozen pond. I'd like to put a trail cam up but it's state land and some wingnut would steal it for sure. I'd love to see this monster up close.
 

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Can be tough distinguishing dog tracks from coyote especially in melted snow. The snow melt will also exaggerate their size.
 
Not a coyote, proportionally wrong (width vs length) for a Yodel Dog.

That leaves Wolf or Domestic Dog.

How many (if any) wolves do you have in your area? If very few...then logic dictates it is a dog track.

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I've been hearing about some sort of mix bread wolf/coyote in the north east. Not 100% sure about it as most well know how "rumors" of such things go. But if there was such an animal, the track may very well look like that. If not, then Flints assessment is correct. Definitely not a pure yote and more than likely a regular large dog but the mix is a possibility if that rumor is true.
 
Well, maybe it wasn't a Chupacabra then.

Probably an experimental mutant that escaped from the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center near there.

They are acclimated to that NY weather.

rc
 
There's been rumors of mixed breeds coyote/dogs and coyote/wolves here but I haven't seen any. Every year we have several wolves killed in my area but there are not many around. They come across the St Lawrence River from Canada when it's frozen. On a side note, Plum Island Research Facility is about 400 miles south of here so I just don't know about the "escaped from lab mutant" theory and it's too cold for the Chupacabra here :)
 
We have CoyDogs in my area. They're a bigger problem than Coyotes. Coyotes will shy away, CoyDogs will not. They tend to be larger, look like mutts (they are after all a crossbreeding of Coyotes and domesticated dogs), and tend not to be as afraid of people. Some have been mistaken for wolves, both by tracks and by looks. They tend to get a lot closer to where people live and make more trouble than Coyotes. My advice, if you see it and it doesn't look like a family pet, shoot it.
 
There's been rumors of mixed breeds coyote/dogs and coyote/wolves here but I haven't seen any.
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It isn't a rumor, it's established scientific fact (corroborated by DNA testing) dating back over thirty years. The coyotes found in the northeast (the "eastern coyote") are in fact coyote-wolf crosses. Ten minutes on google will reveal enough studies to dispel any doubts on the subject.

As for the track indicating a 100 pound animal, that's very doubtful. Wolves paws spread out like snowshoes to aid them in running on snow. No doubt, many of these "eastern coyotes" have picked up that trait from the wolf genes. I owned a 70 pound female wolf (runt of the litter) for many years. Her tracks on snow would make you think you were following a canine much larger than she actually was.
 
Maybe thats why many of the yotes I took in Northern PA were on the very large side of the scale for yotes. Many were 50+ pounds. Never thought to have them tested. Just assumed with the very heavy deer population that they were just eating very well and just big. Kind of like most your Northern white tail deer are much larger than Southern white tail.
 
Wolves don't normally mate with coyotes, but the theory (which is pretty well established as fact now) is that as wolves were culled back in eastern Canada, the void was filled with spreading coyotes. Those two canids (neither of which had strong numbers in the 50's and 60's), began to mate with each other. Then, starting in the 1960's they began spreading down into New England, New York, etc. Various states have tested these animals and found as high as 50% wolf, down to 5 or 10% wolf genetic makeup depending on the area. The animals with highest percentage of wolf are those found along the northern tier of states from Michigan east to Maine. As you get further south and west you get less wolf and more coyote makeup until the wolf genes disappear entirely.

Google coywolf or coyote-wolf and the like, and you'll come across endless documentation on this. Really, this is old news and I'm surprised people who live in those areas aren't very aware of it.

.
 
Where Woof! :eek:

I read a news story about a year ago of a lone gray wolf from Minn. that was confirmed seen in Mich. and moving east. Several wolves from the Yellowstone packs have wandered down into Utah, even Colorado. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a couple wolves or crosses from the North Woods that made it to the Adirondacs. Those guys can travel real quick when they want to, say, for mating purposes.

That said, my German Shorthair's prints are nearly double in size in the snow than in soft soil. He only thinks he's a wolf.:evil:
 
I can't speak for coy-wolves but I have seen coydogs. Coydogs aren't a new thing by anymeans.

Although 100lb coydog would be a heck of a stretch.
 
It's a good ways out in the woods and I spend a lot of time out there, never seen any dog.
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Late one evening in the Colorado backcountry, I began to hear a coyote pack yipping for attention. You don't get any further out in the woods than we were. But it sounded like a dog had gotten in with the pack. His voice sounded exceptionally silly in amongst those coyotes'.

I've never seen a dog out there either, but I've certainly heard one.
 
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Wolve coming out of our leased hunting land in central Wisconsin (photo taken by one of the bowhunters)....

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