tennesse Coyotes larger and darker like the Eastern Coyotes of New England rather than like the smaller Western Coyotes of the Prairie States?....Roger Claiborne's letter to me for your review below

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rick Meril <rick.meril@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 9:38 PM
Subject: Re: Kontactr : Real redwolf
To: Roger Claiborne

Roger.................No question that little by little we are finding a real "canid soup" mix of wolf-like coyotes across the Eastern half of the USA.................

While most biolgists do not think red wolves persisted in the Southeastern USA into the early 20th Century(being swamped by coyote intermating with remnant red wolves)...................there is no question that at least in New England, New York, Penn and NJ.............the Eastern Coyote often has as much as 20 percent Eastern(Red Wolf) genes as part of it's makeup.

..........Captive bred Red Wolves(as you know) are now restocked on the Carolina Barrier Islands and there had also been some release into the Smoky Mtn Park(although those Wolves are believed to have been again swamped with coyote interbreeding ).................

.Perhaps as you say, the Tennessee Coyotes also have come to be Eastern Coyotes in geneology...........

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 9:03 PM, Roger Claiborne; wrote:

Sender's name : Roger Claiborne



Hi Rick, my name is Roger. I have found two black phase coyotes, male and female a year ago in Sevier Co. TN.

I gave them to a fish and game officer in Jefferson Co. Tn who had one in a freezer that he shot. I have high content wolfdogs and know wolves from coyotes.

These looked just like 100% black phase wolves but the darker phase like one or two year adolecents. They weren't solid black, they had lighter wolf coyote colored hairs just like pure wolves. Their ears were a little longer but not as long as a coyotes. To me they looked like wolf coyote crosses, no dog at all.

The original red wolf was black most of the time here abouts from what I studied online. I bet they are the real deal and aren't coyotes at all. I read where some scientist believe eastern coyotes are larger and darker, I bet the ones around here are redwolves that are making a come back from small hidden pockets around the east.

We have a lot of black phase coyotes around here that are larger and much more wolf like than western coyotes.

    Roger