Coywolf: New Wolf Species That Can Live In The City

In the advent of global warming and climate change, the evolution of new species is unexpected and startling, but it is happening in eastern North America - and the reason behind it is a little funny.

If you're dating right now, or just looking for Mr. Right, surely you have your standards. Perhaps you want someone handsome, brave, strong, and sultry? But what if, Mr. Right does not exist? Or what if there's a shortage of buff guys, and you have to compete?

Well that's exactly happening to wolves right now: scarcity of potential partners, The Economist reported. Hunting and deforestation have decreased the wolf population in the area. However, as forests were turned into farms, dogs and coyotes started coming around to mingle and mate with wolves.

Usually, interbreeding across animal species bears offspring less vigorous than either parent - if they survive at all. For instance, ligers, born from tigers and lions, are very fragile animals, and can be infertile.

The combination of wolf, dog, and coyote DNA generated an exception. Coywolves are extraordinarily fit, and as a consequence, are booming in numbers and spreading through the Eastern part of North America. Some call these mammals the Eastern coyote.

According to Roland Kays, of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, coywolves now number in millions.

Javier Monzon, who until recently, worked at Stony Brook University in N.Y., studied the genes of 437 animals, in ten northeastern states plus Ontario. He concluded that coywolves are dominantly coyote, one-fourth wolf, and one-tenth dog.

Coywolves evolved from Shepherds, the large dogs that help in farming and herding flocks. When Dobermans, Pinschers, and German Shepherds mate with wolves, the offspring gets many genetic privileges.

Weighing more than 25 kilograms, many coywolves have twice the heft of purebred coyotes. They also have larger jaws. Bulk and agile, these beasts can individually take down small deer. In packs, they can kill a moose.

Coyotes hunt in the open terrain, and wolves catch preys in the forest. Coywolves are comfortable in both environments. Even the cries of these new animals blend those of their ancestors. The first part of a howl resembles a wolf's deep-pitched sound, but this then turns into a higher-pitched, coyote-like yipping.

The animal's range has encompasses America's entire Northeast. This is astonishing because coyotes never populated in the east of prairies and wolves stay away from hunters in the eastern forests. And because coywolves are also dogs, they can live in cities and tolerate people and noise.

Finally, coywolves are super predators. They can eat almost everything their parents eat - which includes rodents, small mammals, pumpkins, watermelons, and other garden produce. They also eat cats and squirrels.

Tags

Wolf, Dog, Canine, Animals, Hybrid