As near as anybody can tell so far, Wyoming coyotes are just that: coyotes.
Even though there are plenty of coyotes all around the Cowboy State, and they share territory with Wyoming wolves, as far as anyone knows they haven’t mated with wolves to produce hybrid offspring.
But in the Eastern United States and Canada, the coyotes people encounter are likely to be coywolves, or coyote-wolf crossbreeds, frequently also with some dog DNA tossed in.
Different canine species can, and in some places have, successfully crossbred and had fertile offspring, some experts told Cowboy State Daily. But in Wyoming, wolves and coyotes tend to avoid each other, and coyotes risk getting killed by wolves.
A Bigger Dog
Coywolves, or Eastern coyotes, are burlier than coyotes out West.
“They’re larger than your Western coyotes. They average about 35 pounds, and the largest ones can get up over 50 pounds,” David Sausville, wildlife management program lead with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, told Cowboy State Daily.
Even on the larger end, Western coyotes rarely tip the scales past 30 pounds.
Sausville is a Vermont native, but has experience with both Eastern and Western coyotes, as well as purebred wolves having spent some time in the Dakotas and Alaska.
Eastern wolves, which might, or might not, have been smaller than wolves out West, were wiped out, probably by the early 1900s, he said. Coywolves moved in to take their place.
“They’ve taken over the niche of what our Eastern wolf used to do,” he said.
The coywolves’ prey consists largely of rabbits and small mammals, but they will also take down deer from time to time.
“They’re opportunistic. And if they get the opportunity to take a deer, especially a fawn, they’ll take it,” Sausville said.
Wyoming’s coyotes are also known to occasionally take deer fawns or elk calves, but in some places they must compete with wolves or grizzlies for those tasty prizes.
Coywolves also adjust well to urban living.
“I’ve heard reports of them in New York City,” Sausville said. “They catch them down there at night sometimes.”
No Proof So Far Of Wyoming Coywolves
While coywolves are increasingly common in the East, in Wyoming they’re more likely than not in the same category as jackalopes — mythical creatures.
Particularly since the advent of social media, rumors crop up and get circulated about somebody spotting a coywolf slinking through the mountain forests or bounding across the prairie.
Those are probably rumors and nothing more.
“I'm not aware of any coywolves being documented in Wyoming,” Wyoming Game and Fish Large Carnivore Specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily.
“In an evolutionary sense, species with the same genus (such as canine) can breed and produce offspring, but it is not something that occurs regularly, based on behavioral adaptations and other social hierarchy,” he added.
Researcher Kira Cassidy monitors and studies wolves in Yellowstone National Park, including the tenacious 11-year-old, one-eyed Wolf 907F.
Yellowstone has its share of coyotes too. To survive, they must be crafty about out-competing bears, wolves and mountain lions for big game carcasses and other food.
And one celebrity coyote named Limpy has mastered the art of looking pathetic and suckering tourists for snacks, even though feeding wildlife in Yellowstone is strictly against the rules.
But seducing wolves and producing supersized offspring isn’t a trick that Yellowstone coyotes have learned, Cassidy told Cowboy State Daily.
“I’ve never heard of a coyote/wolf pairing out here. It’s rare to even see a coyote and wolf in the same vicinity without showing a classic dynamic of a wolf trying to chase and catch/kill the coyote, or multiple coyotes chasing away a single wolf, usually near a coyote den,” she said.
Colorado Coywolf Rumors Probably False Too
There’s also been social media chatter and barstool talk of coywolves or other such critters to the south of Wyoming in the Centennial State.
But that’s also likely just unsubstantiated talk, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joey Livingston told Cowboy State Daily.
There’s never been a verified report of any such animal in Colorado, he said.
“Wolves and coyotes have coexisted in the Rockies for many years, and they are still distinct species. That should be good evidence to say they will continue to not breed with each other at any significant rate,” Livingston said.
“The coywolf issue usually comes from the Eastern U.S./Canada,” he said. “There are always rumors about coywolves and wolf-dogs in the northern Rockies, but it has rarely been proven and has never been a problem.”
On the off chance coywolves ever do take hold in Colorado, they wouldn’t be a protected species there, Livingston said.
“They would be managed as any other wildlife species without Federal Endangered Species protections,” he said.
Taking The Long Road To Vermont
It took considerable time and coyotes traveling long distances to produce a permanent population of coywolves in Vermont and across the East.
“The Eastern coyote (Canis latrans) moved eastward from west of the Mississippi and first appeared in Vermont in the late 1940s,” according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife.
“It is generally larger than its Western ancestor because it gained size by breeding with gray wolves occupying the Great Lakes region, Eastern wolves, and even domestic dogs in southern Canada before it moved into our area,” according to the agency.
Coywolves have become more common over recent decades as they’ve moved in and claimed territory, sometimes pushing out foxes, Sausville said.
And there’s some misconceptions built up around them, he added. For example, that they regularly hunt in packs and howl like wolves.
In the springtime, pairs of coywolves, or Eastern coyotes, might hang out and hunt together with some of their offspring, he said. But then they’ll tend to go their separate ways in the fall.
As far as howling goes, Sausville said he’s mostly just heard coywolves yipping, much like the coyotes he heard in the Dakotas.
“I actually think that domestic dogs howl more than Eastern coyotes do,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
