Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions.
This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization.
Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. -
Blogger Rick
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What is MIRACULOUS about this story is the tolerance of the people involved--usually wolf-hybrids are VILIFIED by just about everybody, and most free-roaming animals like this soon get shot. I'm REALLY surprised the Animal Control people haven't been more aggressive towards this animal(which I agree is a hybrid, but a "high percent" wolf!)--but great that they have been so tolerant! Having given homes to 5 wolf dogs over the years, I've heard it all regarding the negative ignorance towards this combination. And just like with wolves, those most vehement towards the animals tend to be the most ignorant about them! Though it has not yet become a popular viewpoint with the scientists studying "Coy-wolves", I think a certain amount of those wolf genetics have come from free roaming pet wolves, of which I personally have known of several over the years just in areas where I have lived--these are full wolves, too, NOT hybrids, allowed to run loose(or having escaped). Although it is mentioned that a certain percentage of domestic dog DNA exists in the mix, researchers seem to be reluctant to acknowledge the possibility of escaped/released tame wolves contributing to the mix of our "Eastern Coyotes"--probably because they simply have no experience or knowledge of just how common such free-roaming pet wolves and wolf hybrids are. And afraid, perhaps, they will be viewed more negatively because of such "artificial" origins. Scientists studying the eastern Coyotes also seem to think coyotes spread east all on their own naturally, and although that is PART of the answer, certainly, it is only PART. Only people knowledgeble about fox hunting with hounds seem to know that HUNDREDS of coyotes were shipped from the West and released in the East, over a period of several decades(I still remember advertisements in the back of hunting magazines in the 1960's for coyote pups! it wasn't yet illegal back then!) ESPECIALLY the South, for hounds to hunt, and as a hopeful(but unrealized!) strike against the rising population of deer and hound-intolerant deer hunters. It is so ironic that it has become a favorite myth of deer hunters that local Wildife Agencies are responsible for purposefully releasing coyotes in the East, when in truth, it was largely from the efforts of other HUNTERS that a lot of releases occurred! ALL fox hunters know this, and just wink and remain quiet when the deer hunters start ranting! And the scientists seem to have NO IDEA the extant of the fox hunting communities' influence on the establishment of our "Eastern Coyotes"!.....L.B.
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