|
I've seen some unusually large individuals around Aquidneck Island as well.
Maybe not as big as what you saw but clearly bigger then your traditional, original mid-West mouse stalking coyote.
The coyotes here have had DNA testing. Wolf, domestic dog, and coyote blend. Pretty much standard at this point, a "pure" coyote is rare both on Aquidneck Island and most of the Eastern part of the country.
I've never read that they couldn't reproduce, in fact just the opposite. They've been hybridized for some time, in some regions more then others and are reproducing just fine. Some populations are considered hybrids of hybrids.
It helps explain the deer carcasses around here people occasionally find, blood and bones everywhere. Bigger animals behaving more like wolves, hunting in a pack for example. Coyotes are generally considered more solitary.
I've also read it's considered to be a very fast display of evolution. "Coywolves" filling the niche of wolves we eradicated over time. Something might as well be hunting bigger animals (deer) since they really have no natural predator in many areas.
|