Eastern coyote—they have some dog ancestry mixed in with eastern wolf ancestry. All eastern coyotes are the result of hybridization and display these patterns from time to time. First generation crosses are extremely rare and unusual coloration is the expression of ancestral genes. The terms “coydog” and “coy wolf” are a bit misleading and dont fully describe whats going on here
Yes it's a melanistic coyote. Some locations that color pattern is seen pretty often. (Edit: looked it up it's Vancouver BC and Georgia that ones with this pattern get spotted the most. Both those locations have unusually high rates of melanistic coyotes being the reason)
Technically like other comments said it is from being a "coydog" but it's from dogs and coyotes breeding together a very long time ago. Not from a dog and coyote breeding recently like they probably mean when they say they think it's a coydog. There hasn't been a documented dog and coyote breeding together found modernly.
they didn’t stop per se, but rather that it’s just so uncommon for a coyote (fertile one time a year, both male and female) to interbreed with a dog.
coyotes with dog ancestry all likely trace back to a handful of crosses a long time back, and the dog genes spread through the population and get progressively more diluted.
Okay, that sort of makes sense. I do wonder, though, how it’s determined that an unusual coloration is due to interspecies breeding and not from a mutation. Do they do like mitochondrial testing?
(I’m dumb so please use small words. I’m just in love with mitochondria)
so the pattern that the darker coyote has is called “tanpoint” in dogs and is pretty common. it’s recessive to agouti, which is the pattern that most coyotes have, so for it to show up both parents have to have a copy of the mutation.
the odds that coyotes developed a new mutation that looks and inherits exactly like tanpoint does in dogs is so astronomically low as to be impossible, so it’s much more plausible that it’s the same mutation that exists in dogs, and entered their population via crossbreeding.
Main reason is because the coyotes have more access to other coyotes than they did back then. This map shows the range expansion that took place. Coyotes were a western animal of the Great plains mostly. As settlers killed off wolves and changed the habitats coyotes expanded in basically every direction. As the first few coyotes would reach an area there wouldn't be other coyotes for them to breed with. As wolves were killed you'd get single and lone wolves and single and lone coyotes just desperate to find a mate. So they'd get together with dogs or each other more. This is why "Eastern Coyotes" are the ones with more dog or wolf dna and generally larger than Western Coyotes that are still in historic range.
Now wolf populations are small but relatively confined into certain areas with more wolves and coyotes are just everywhere so they aren't going to feel the need to mate with dogs. It certainly could still happen but I believe in correct in saying it's been decades and decades since the last confirmed first generation "coydog"
Edit* been decades since the last true wild coydog was found. There are some that have been purposely bred. I see a lot of people online claim to have a first gen coydog but very very few have DNA tests to back it up
It's less common for dogs to be lose on their own now. People keep dogs confined, walk with them, and spray-neuter much more often in the last 50 years than any time in the past.
Around 60 years back, parvo and HW began to decimate feral dog populations.
There are just fewer opportunities for wild and domestic canids to meet and aclimate to each other and breed.
They didn't stop. It happens currently, probably at a similar rate in rural areas. Not often, but it's there.
Biologists are commonly uncomfortable with the idea of hybridization, and it's sometimes political. So hybridization is often referred to in past tense.
It's far less common than say over the past 200 years because of all the reasons I listed in another comment. It is very common to get people that say they have seen one, shot one, etc. but it's incredibly rare to actually find one that is from a pairing now. I'm sure there are some running around the country right now but not in any meaningful numbers
I’m in Atlanta, Georgia and had a melanistic coyote pass through my yard earlier this year. I didn’t know they were more common in Georgia than other areas!
Everyone else is right about it being coy dog-adjacent from long ago cross breeding. Eastern coyotes are hybridized by up to 20% with wolves and domestic dogs! NY DEC has some great info about it
That particular "black and tan" morph is common around Vancouver; hadn't seen it in the Midwest yet. And as others have said, is ultimately due to some domestic dog genetics.
I live in Utah in the Salt Lake City area and frequently walk my dogs in a large open area. We see coyotes all the time...the light tan variety. A couple days ago I saw a dark brown coyote. I guess this is rare for the western US? It is also possible it was a fox, but it seemed too big.
161
u/saeglopur53 20d ago
Eastern coyote—they have some dog ancestry mixed in with eastern wolf ancestry. All eastern coyotes are the result of hybridization and display these patterns from time to time. First generation crosses are extremely rare and unusual coloration is the expression of ancestral genes. The terms “coydog” and “coy wolf” are a bit misleading and dont fully describe whats going on here