Nature & Environment

North America home to millions of 'coywolves'

By T.K. Randall
November 2, 2015 ·  42 comments

Coywolves are becoming a lot more common. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 L. David Mech et al. There's something unusual roaming the wilds of Canada and the United States - a four-legged canine that is similar but in many ways superior to native wolf and coyote populations.

A cross-breed between wolves and either coyotes or domestic dogs, the aptly named 'coywolf' has come about due to the increasing lack of suitable mates for wolves in the wild.

Unlike their parents however these hybrid animals are more muscular, have bigger jaws and are generally larger - meaning that packs of them can take down much larger prey.In recent years researchers believe that the number of coywolves in North America has increased substantially and that there could now be several million of them across the continent.

The northeast has seen the largest gowth in population of these animals and it is no longer unusual to find them wandering in to urban areas such as Boston, New York City, and Washington DC.

What will ultimately become of the native wolf and coyote populations however remains to be seen.


Source: Slashgear | Comments (42)

Tags: Coywolf, Coyote