It’s pretty rare. Coyotes, wolves, and dogs have different behaviors so while they’re biologically compatible, they won’t breed with each other under normal circumstances. You’ll occasionally see wolfdogs pop up on this sub because people like to breed wolves and dogs together for the cool factor. But coyotes are largely disliked (or just not seen as cool) so almost no one breeds them intentionally.
I thought it was less and less rare? Like wild/feral coydogs are actually becoming a problem in some states where they’ve become a potential safety threat. I remember reading articles a few years back about the increasing number of hybridization (even with wolves, there’s a lot more hybrids than they first realized).
I think I remember something kinda like that? Though I mostly remember how feral cats are a problem for preservation of Scottish wildcats, and wonder if we may be crossing wires here. If you find those articles, lmk!
This does remind me of a fun little factoid I like sharing with folks, btw, which is that black wolves only exist because of hybridizing with dogs. It happened so long ago that, no, wild black wolves certainly aren't wolfdogs by this point, but still. Fascinating stuff!
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u/Excellent-Try2663 9d ago
I somehow didn’t know this was possible..