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Kixeliz t1_iuize9h wrote

Reply to comment by Jmacaroni25 in Something killed and devoured a deer in my yard last night. Thought it was coyotes, but they don't decapitate... coywolves, actual wolves? What could have done this..... (Northern Vermont) by WheezeThaJuice

The thinking is the numbers are so much smaller for wolves in this part of the world that the wolves end up with coyotes more often. The numbers change with every animal, cause that's how breeding works, but the DNA shows what we see around here is a hybrid of the two (and even some domesticated dog mixed in). Apparently their common ancestor was only 50,000 years ago so they can breed together easily. For some reason this doesn't sit well with people who want the two animals separated. idk if it's because killing coyotes is more acceptable than shooting something part wolf or the associations we have with both animals or what.

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flambeaway t1_iuj4etb wrote

I would assume it's that people want both species preserved, rather than a love for one and a hatred for the other.

Also the only reason we don't have wolves is because killing them is EXTREMELY acceptable, at least historically. It's also why almost every island nation hunted them to extinction centuries ago.

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Kixeliz t1_iuj4sdy wrote

Nah, the ones who seem to be the most against it are hunters or wolf lovers who refuse to think they'd lower themselves to breeding with coyotes. Just my observation. It is weird how the reason the eastern coyote/coywolf exists is specifically because we hunted wolves to extinction, making breeding with coyotes about survival. We both hunted them to extinction and domesticated them and now argue over their percentage of DNA.

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