Coyote
Species of canine native to North America / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The coyote (Canis latrans) is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Eurasia. The coyote is larger and was once referred to as the American jackal by a behavioral ecologist. Other historical names for the species include the prairie wolf and the brush wolf.
Coyote | |
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Mountain coyote (C. l. lestes) at Yosemite National Park, California | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Carnivora |
Family: | Canidae |
Genus: | Canis |
Species: | C. latrans |
Binomial name | |
Canis latrans | |
Modern range of Canis latrans | |
Synonyms[4] | |
List
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The coyote is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due to its wide distribution and abundance throughout North America. The species is versatile, able to adapt to and expand into environments modified by humans; urban coyotes are common in many cities. The coyote was sighted in eastern Panama (across the Panama Canal from their home range) for the first time in 2013.
The coyote has 19 recognized subspecies. The average male weighs 8 to 20 kg (18 to 44 lb) and the average female 7 to 18 kg (15 to 40 lb). Their fur color is predominantly light gray and red or fulvous interspersed with black and white, though it varies somewhat with geography. It is highly flexible in social organization, living either in a family unit or in loosely knit packs of unrelated individuals. Primarily carnivorous, its diet consists mainly of deer, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, though it may also eat fruits and vegetables on occasion. Its characteristic vocalization is a howl made by solitary individuals. Humans are the coyote's greatest threat, followed by cougars and gray wolves. Despite predation by gray wolves, coyotes sometimes mate with them, and with eastern, or red wolves, producing "coywolf" hybrids. In the northeastern regions of North America, the eastern coyote (a larger subspecies, though still smaller than wolves) is the result of various historical and recent matings with various types of wolves. Genetic studies show that most North American wolves contain some level of coyote DNA.
The coyote is a prominent character in Native American folklore, mainly in Aridoamerica, usually depicted as a trickster that alternately assumes the form of an actual coyote or a man. As with other trickster figures, the coyote uses deception and humor to rebel against social conventions. The animal was especially respected in Mesoamerican cosmology as a symbol of military might. After the European colonization of the Americas, it was seen in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike wolves, which have seen their public image improve, attitudes towards the coyote remain largely negative.[5]
Coyote males average 8 to 20 kg (18 to 44 lb) in weight, while females average 7 to 18 kg (15 to 40 lb), though size varies geographically. Northern subspecies, which average 18 kg (40 lb), tend to grow larger than the southern subspecies of Mexico, which average 11.5 kg (25 lb). Total length ranges on average from 1.0 to 1.35 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 5 in); comprising a tail length of 40 cm (16 in), with females being shorter in both body length and height.[6] The largest coyote on record was a male killed near Afton, Wyoming, on November 19, 1937, which measured 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) from nose to tail, and weighed 34 kg (75 lb).[7] Scent glands are located at the upper side of the base of the tail and are a bluish-black color.[8]
The color and texture of the coyote's fur vary somewhat geographically.[6] The hair's predominant color is light gray and red or fulvous, interspersed around the body with black and white. Coyotes living at high elevations tend to have more black and gray shades than their desert-dwelling counterparts, which are more fulvous or whitish-gray.[9] The coyote's fur consists of short, soft underfur and long, coarse guard hairs. The fur of northern subspecies is longer and denser than in southern forms, with the fur of some Mexican and Central American forms being almost hispid (bristly).[10] Generally, adult coyotes (including coywolf hybrids) have a sable coat color, dark neonatal coat color, bushy tail with an active supracaudal gland, and a white facial mask.[11] Albinism is extremely rare in coyotes. Out of a total of 750,000 coyotes killed by federal and cooperative hunters between March 1938, and June 1945, only two were albinos.[9]
The coyote is typically smaller than the gray wolf, but has longer ears and a relatively larger braincase,[6] as well as a thinner frame, face, and muzzle. The scent glands are smaller than the gray wolf's, but are the same color.[8] Its fur color variation is much less varied than that of a wolf.[12] The coyote also carries its tail downwards when running or walking, rather than horizontally as the wolf does.[13]
Coyote tracks can be distinguished from those of dogs by their more elongated, less rounded shape.[14][15] Unlike dogs, the upper canines of coyotes extend past the mental foramina.[6]
History
At the time of the European colonization of the Americas, coyotes were largely confined to open plains and arid regions of the western half of the continent.[16] In early post-Columbian historical records, determining whether the writer is describing coyotes or wolves is often difficult. One record from 1750 in Kaskaskia, Illinois, written by a local priest, noted that the "wolves" encountered there were smaller and less daring than European wolves. Another account from the early 1800s in Edwards County mentioned wolves howling at night, though these were likely coyotes.[17] This species was encountered several times during the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), though it was already well known to European traders on the upper Missouri. Meriwether Lewis, writing on 5 May 1805, in northeastern Montana, described the coyote in these terms:
The small wolf or burrowing dog of the prairies are the inhabitants almost invariably of the open plains; they usually associate in bands of ten or twelve sometimes more and burrow near some pass or place much frequented by game; not being able alone to take deer or goat they are rarely ever found alone but hunt in bands; they frequently watch and seize their prey near their burrows; in these burrows, they raise their young and to them they also resort when pursued; when a person approaches them they frequently bark, their note being precisely that of the small dog. They are of an intermediate size between that of the fox and dog, very active fleet and delicately formed; the ears large erect and pointed the head long and pointed more like that of the fox; tale long ... the hair and fur also resembles the fox, tho' is much coarser and inferior. They are of a pale reddish-brown colour. The eye of a deep sea green colour small and piercing. Their [claws] are rather longer than those of the ordinary wolf or that common to the Atlantic states, none of which are to be found in this quarter, nor I believe above the river Plat.[18]
The coyote was first scientifically described by naturalist Thomas Say in September 1819, on the site of Lewis and Clark's Council Bluffs, 24 km (15 mi) up the Missouri River from the mouth of the Platte during a government-sponsored expedition with Major Stephen Long. He had the first edition of the Lewis and Clark journals in hand, which contained Biddle's edited version of Lewis's observations dated 5 May 1805. His account was published in 1823. Say was the first person to document the difference between a "prairie wolf" (coyote) and on the next page of his journal a wolf which he named Canis nubilus (Great Plains wolf).[3][19] Say described the coyote as:
Canis latrans. Cinereous or gray, varied with black above, and dull fulvous, or cinnamon; hair at base dusky plumbeous, in the middle of its length dull cinnamon, and at tip gray or black, longer on the vertebral line; ears erect, rounded at tip, cinnamon behind, the hair dark plumbeous at base, inside lined with gray hair; eyelids edged with black, superior eyelashes black beneath, and at tip above; supplemental lid margined with black-brown before, and edged with black brown behind; iris yellow; pupil black-blue; spot upon the lachrymal sac black-brown; rostrum cinnamon, tinctured with grayish on the nose; lips white, edged with black, three series of black seta; head between the ears intermixed with gray, and dull cinnamon, hairs dusky plumbeous at base; sides paler than the back, obsoletely fasciate with black above the legs; legs cinnamon on the outer side, more distinct on the posterior hair: a dilated black abbreviated line on the anterior ones near the wrist; tail bushy, fusiform, straight, varied with gray and cinnamon, a spot near the base above, and tip black; the tip of the trunk of the tail, attains the tip of the os calcis, when the leg is extended; beneath white, immaculate, tail cinnamon towards the tip, tip black; posterior feet four toed, anterior five toed.[3]
Naming and etymology
The first published usage of the word "coyote" (which is a Spanish borrowing of its Nahuatl name coyōtl pronunciationⓘ) comes from the historian Francisco Javier Clavijero's Historia de México in 1780.[20] The first time it was used in English occurred in William Bullock's Six months' residence and travels in Mexico (1824), where it is variously transcribed as cayjotte and cocyotie. The word's spelling was standardized as "coyote" by the 1880s.[18][21]
The English pronunciation is heard both as a two-syllable word (with the final "e" silent) and as three-syllables (with the final "e" pronounced),[22] with a tendency for the three-syllable pronunciation in eastern states, near the Mexican border, and outside the United States, with two syllables in western and central states.[23][24]
Alternative English names for the coyote include "prairie wolf", "brush wolf", "cased wolf",[25][lower-alpha 1] "little wolf"[26] and "American jackal".[27] Its binomial name Canis latrans translates to "barking dog", a reference to the many vocalizations they produce.[28]
Linguistic group or area | Indigenous name |
---|---|
Arikara | Stshirits pukatsh[29] |
Canadian French | Coyote[25] |
Chinook | Italipas[29] |
Chipewyan | Nu-ní-yĕ=̑ts!ế-lĕ[30] |
Cocopah | Ṭxpa[31] Xṭpa[31] |
Northern Cree Plains Cree |
ᒣᐢᒐᒑᑲᓂᐢ (Mîscacâkanis)[32] ᒣᐢᒐᒑᑲᓂᐢ (Mescacâkanis)[32] |
Creek | Yv•hu•ce (archaic)[33] Yv•hv•la•nu•ce (modern)[33] |
Dakota | Mica[29] Micaksica[29] |
Flathead | Sinchlep[29] |
Hidatsa | Motsa[29] |
Hopi | 𐐀𐑅𐐰𐐶𐐳 Iisawu[34] 𐐀𐑅𐐰𐐶 Isaw[34] |
Karuk | Pihnêefich[35] |
Klamath | Ko-ha-a[29] |
Mandan | Scheke[29] |
Mayan | Pek'i'cash[36] |
Nez Perce | ʔiceyé•ye[37] |
Nahuatl | Coyōtl[20] |
Navajo | Ma'ii[38] |
Ogallala Sioux | Mee-yah-slay'-cha-lah[25] |
Ojibwe (Southwestern) | Wiisagi-ma’iingan[39] |
Omaha | Mikasi[29] |
Osage | 𐓇ó𐓨𐓣͘𐓡𐓤𐓘𐓮𐓣 Šómįhkasi[40] |
Pawnee | Ckirihki[41] |
Piute | Eja-ah[29] |
Spanish | Coyote[36] Perro de monte[36] |
Yakama | Telipa[29] |
Timbisha | Isa(ppü)[42] |
Wintu | Ćarawa[43] Sedet[43] |
Yankton Sioux | Song-toke-cha[25] |
Yurok | Segep[44] |
Evolution
Phylogenetic tree of the wolf-like canids with timing in millions of years[lower-alpha 2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fossil record
Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford, one of the foremost authorities on carnivore evolution,[45] proposed that the genus Canis was the descendant of the coyote-like Eucyon davisi and its remains first appeared in the Miocene 6 million years ago (Mya) in the southwestern US and Mexico. By the Pliocene (5 Mya), the larger Canis lepophagus[46] appeared in the same region and by the early Pleistocene (1 Mya) C. latrans (the coyote) was in existence. They proposed that the progression from Eucyon davisi to C. lepophagus to the coyote was linear evolution.[47]
C. latrans and C. aureus are closely related to C. edwardii, a species that appeared earliest spanning the mid-Blancan (late Pliocene) to the close of the Irvingtonian (late Pleistocene), and coyote remains indistinguishable from C. latrans were contemporaneous with C. edwardii in North America.[48] Johnston describes C. lepophagus as having a more slender skull and skeleton than the modern coyote.[49] Ronald Nowak found that the early populations had small, delicate, narrowly proportioned skulls that resemble small coyotes and appear to be ancestral to C. latrans.[50]
C. lepophagus was similar in weight to modern coyotes, but had shorter limb bones that indicate a less cursorial lifestyle. The coyote represents a more primitive form of Canis than the gray wolf, as shown by its relatively small size and its comparatively narrow skull and jaws, which lack the grasping power necessary to hold the large prey in which wolves specialize. This is further corroborated by the coyote's sagittal crest, which is low or totally flattened, thus indicating a weaker bite than the wolves. The coyote is not a specialized carnivore as the wolf is, as shown by the larger chewing surfaces on the molars, reflecting the species' relative dependence on vegetable matter. In these respects, the coyote resembles the fox-like progenitors of the genus more so than the wolf.[51]
The oldest fossils that fall within the range of the modern coyote date to 0.74–0.85 Ma (million years) in Hamilton Cave, West Virginia; 0.73 Ma in Irvington, California; 0.35–0.48 Ma in Porcupine Cave, Colorado, and in Cumberland Cave, Pennsylvania.[52] Modern coyotes arose 1,000 years after the Quaternary extinction event.[53] Compared to their modern Holocene counterparts, Pleistocene coyotes (C. l. orcutti) were larger and more robust, likely in response to larger competitors and prey.[53] Pleistocene coyotes were likely more specialized carnivores than their descendants, as their teeth were more adapted to shearing meat, showing fewer grinding surfaces suited for processing vegetation.[54] Their reduction in size occurred within 1,000 years of the Quaternary extinction event, when their large prey died out.[53] Furthermore, Pleistocene coyotes were unable to exploit the big-game hunting niche left vacant after the extinction of the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus), as it was rapidly filled by gray wolves, which likely actively killed off the large coyotes, with natural selection favoring the modern gracile morph.[54]
DNA evidence
In 1993, a study proposed that the wolves of North America display skull traits more similar to the coyote than wolves from Eurasia.[55] In 2010, a study found that the coyote was a basal member of the clade that included the Tibetan wolf, the domestic dog, the Mongolian wolf and the Eurasian wolf, with the Tibetan wolf diverging early from wolves and domestic dogs.[56]
In 2016, a whole-genome DNA study proposed, based on the assumptions made, that all of the North American wolves and coyotes diverged from a common ancestor about 51,000 years ago.[57][58] However, the proposed timing of the wolf / coyote divergence conflicts with the discovery of a coyote-like specimen in strata dated to 1 Mya.[59] The study also indicated that all North American wolves have a significant amount of coyote ancestry and all coyotes some degree of wolf ancestry, and that the red wolf and eastern wolf are highly admixed with different proportions of gray wolf and coyote ancestry.[57][58]
Genetic studies relating to wolves or dogs have inferred phylogenetic relationships based on the only reference genome available, that of the Boxer dog. In 2017, the first reference genome of the wolf Canis lupus lupus was mapped to aid future research.[60] In 2018, a study looked at the genomic structure and admixture of North American wolves, wolf-like canids, and coyotes using specimens from across their entire range that mapped the largest dataset of nuclear genome sequences against the wolf reference genome.
The study supports the findings of previous studies that North American gray wolves and wolf-like canids were the result of complex gray wolf and coyote mixing. A polar wolf from Greenland and a coyote from Mexico represented the purest specimens. The coyotes from Alaska, California, Alabama, and Quebec show almost no wolf ancestry. Coyotes from Missouri, Illinois, and Florida exhibit 5–10% wolf ancestry. There was 40% wolf to 60% coyote ancestry in red wolves, 60% wolf to 40% coyote in Eastern timber wolves, and 75% wolf to 25% coyote in the Great Lakes wolves. There was 10% coyote ancestry in Mexican wolves and the Atlantic Coast wolves, 5% in Pacific Coast and Yellowstone wolves, and less than 3% in Canadian archipelago wolves. If a third canid had been involved in the admixture of the North American wolf-like canids, then its genetic signature would have been found in coyotes and wolves, which it has not.[61]
In 2018, whole genome sequencing was used to compare members of the genus Canis. The study indicates that the common ancestor of the coyote and gray wolf has genetically admixed with a ghost population of an extinct, unidentified canid. The "ghost" canid was genetically close to the dhole, and had evolved after the divergence of the African wild dog from the other canid species. The basal position of the coyote compared to the wolf is proposed to be due to the coyote retaining more of the mitochondrial genome from the unknown extinct canid.[62]
Subspecies
As of 2005[update], 19 subspecies are recognized.[27][63] Geographic variation in coyotes is not great, though taken as a whole, the eastern subspecies (C. l. thamnos and C. l. frustor) are large, dark-colored animals, with a gradual paling in color and reduction in size westward and northward (C. l. texensis, C. l. latrans, C. l. lestes, and C. l. incolatus), a brightening of 'ochraceous' tones – deep orange or brown – towards the Pacific coast (C. l. ochropus, C. l. umpquensis), a reduction in size in Aridoamerica (C. l. microdon, C. l. mearnsi) and a general trend towards dark reddish colors and short muzzles in Mexican and Central American populations.[64]
Subspecies | Trinomial authority | Trinomial authority (year) | Description & Image | Range | Synonyms |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plains coyote C. l. latrans nominate subspecies | Say | 1823 | The largest subspecies; it has rather pale fur and bears large molars and carnassials.[65] | The Great Plains from Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan south to New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle[66] | [syn: C. l. nebracensis (Merriam, 1898) C. l. pallidus (Merriam, 1897)] |
Mexican coyote C. l. cagottis | C.E.H. Smith | 1839 | Similar to C. l. peninsulae, but larger and redder in color; it has shorter ears, larger teeth, and a broader muzzle.[65] | States of Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi, Puebla, and Veracruz in Mexico [66] | |
San Pedro Martir coyote C. l. clepticus | Elliot | 1903 | A small subspecies, it has reddish summer fur and a short, broad skull.[67] | Northern Baja California and southwestern California [66] | |
El Salvador coyote C. l. dickeyi | Nelson | 1932 | A large subspecies, it equals C. l. lestes in size, but has smaller teeth and darker fur.[68] | Originally only known from Cerro Mogote, 3.2 km (2 mi) west of the Goascorán River in La Unión, El Salvador;[68] in January 2013, it expanded its range southward into southern Panama.[69] | |
Southeastern coyote C. l. frustor | Woodhouse | 1851 | This subspecies is similar to C. l. peninsulae, but larger and paler, with shorter ears and a longer muzzle.[65] | Southeastern and extreme eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas[66] | |
Belize coyote C. l. goldmani | Merriam | 1904 | The largest of the Mexican coyotes, it approaches C. l. latrans in size, but has a shorter muzzle.[70] | Known only from San Vicente, Chiapas, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border, though it could be the coyote of western Guatemala.[66] | |
Honduras coyote C. l. hondurensis | Goldman | 1936 | A small, rufous-colored subspecies, it has coarse, thin fur and a broad skull.[71] | Known only from the open country northeast of Archaga, north of Tegucigalpa[66] | |
Durango coyote C. l. impavidus | Allen | 1903 | This canid is similar to C. l. cagottis in color, but much larger.[67] | Southern Sonora, extreme southwestern Chihuahua, western Durango, western Zacatecas, and Sinaloa[66] | |
Northern coyote C. l. incolatus | Hall | 1934 | A medium-sized subspecies, it has cinnamon-colored fur and a more concave skull than C. l. latrans.[72] | Boreal forests of Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, northern British Columbia, and northern Alberta[66] | |
Tiburón Island coyote C. l. jamesi | Townsend | 1912 | Much paler than C. l. mearnsi, it has heavier teeth, a large skull, and long ears.[73] | Tiburón Island[73] | |
Mountain coyote C. l. lestes | Merriam | 1897 | Similar in size and color to C. l. latrans, this subspecies has a large tail and ears.[65] | Southern British Columbia and southeastern Alberta, Washington east of the Cascade Range, Oregon, northern California, western Montana, Wyoming, Colorado (except the southeastern corner), north-central Nevada, and north-central Utah[66] | |
Mearns' coyote C. l. mearnsi | Merriam | 1897 | A small subspecies with medium-sized ears, a small skull and small teeth; its fur is richly and brightly colored. The fulvous tints are exceedingly bright, and cover the hindfeet and forefeet.[65] | Southwestern Colorado, extreme southern Utah and Nevada, southeastern California, northeastern Baja California, Arizona, west of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, northern Sonora and Chihuahua [66] | [syn: C. l. estor (Merriam, 1897)] |
Lower Rio Grande coyote C. l. microdon | Merriam | 1897 | A small subspecies, it has small teeth and rather dark fur. The upper surface of the hind foot is whitish, while the belly is sprinkled with black-tipped hairs.[65] | Southern Texas and northern Tamaulipas[66] | |
California Valley coyote C. l. ochropus | von Eschscholtz | 1829 | Similar to C. l. latrans and C. l. lestes, but smaller, darker, more brightly colored; it has larger ears and smaller skull and teeth.[65] | California west of the Sierra Nevada[66] | |
Peninsula coyote C. l. peninsulae | Merriam | 1897 | It is similar to C. l. ochropus in size and features, but has darker, redder fur. The underside of the tail is blacker than that of C. l. ochropus, and the belly has more black-tipped hairs.[65] | Baja California [66] | |
Eastern coyote C. l. var. | Lawrence & Bossert | 1969 | It is a hybrid of C. lupus/C. lycaon and C. latrans; smaller than the eastern wolf and holds smaller territories, but larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western coyote. | New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, and the eastern Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador[66] | [syn: C. l. oriens, C. l. virginiensis] |
Texas plains coyote C. l. texensis | Bailey | 1905 | Smaller than C. l. latrans, it has brighter, more fulvous fur closely approaching the richness found in C. l. ochropus, though C. l. texensis lacks that subspecies' large ears.[74] | Most of Texas, eastern New Mexico, and northeastern Mexico [66] | |
Northeastern coyote C. l. thamnos | Jackson | 1949 | About the same size as C. l. latrans, or larger, but darker in color, it has a broader skull.[75] | North-central Saskatchewan, Manitoba (except the extreme southwestern corner), east to southern Quebec, south to eastern North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri (north of the Missouri River), Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois (except the extreme southern portion), and northern Indiana[66] | |
Northwest Coast coyote C. l. umpquensis | Jackson | 1949 | A small subspecies, it has dark, rufous-tinged fur, a comparatively small skull, and weak dentition.[75] | Coasts of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon[66] | |
Colima coyote C. l. vigilis | Merriam | 1897 | Similar to C. l. peninsulae, but darker and more extensively colored; it has more black on the forearms, and no black on the underside of the tail (excepting the tip).[65] | Pacific coast of Mexico from Jalisco south to Guerrero[66] |
Hybridization
Coyotes occasionally mate with domestic dogs, sometimes producing crosses colloquially known as "coydogs".[77] Such matings are rare in the wild, as the mating cycles of dogs and coyotes do not coincide, and coyotes are usually antagonistic towards dogs. Hybridization usually only occurs when coyotes are expanding into areas where conspecifics are few, and dogs are the only alternatives. Even then, pup survival rates are lower than normal, as dogs do not form pair bonds with coyotes, thus making the rearing of pups more difficult.[78] In captivity, F1 hybrids (first generation) tend to be more mischievous and less manageable as pups than dogs, and are less trustworthy on maturity than wolf-dog hybrids.[77]
Hybrids vary in appearance, but generally retain the coyote's usual characteristics. F1 hybrids tend to be intermediate in form between dogs and coyotes, while F2 hybrids (second generation) are more varied. Both F1 and F2 hybrids resemble their coyote parents in terms of shyness and intrasexual aggression.[11][79] Hybrids are fertile and can be successfully bred through four generations.[77] Melanistic coyotes owe their black pelts to a mutation that first arose in domestic dogs.[76] A population of non-albino white coyotes in Newfoundland owe their coloration to a melanocortin 1 receptor mutation inherited from Golden Retrievers.[80]
Coyotes have hybridized with wolves to varying degrees, particularly in eastern North America. The so-called "eastern coyote" of northeastern North America probably originated in the aftermath of the extermination of gray and eastern wolves in the northeast, thus allowing coyotes to colonize former wolf ranges and mix with the remnant wolf populations. This hybrid is smaller than either the gray or eastern wolf, and holds smaller territories, but is in turn larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western coyote. As of 2010[update], the eastern coyote's genetic makeup is fairly uniform, with minimal influence from eastern wolves or western coyotes.[81]
Adult eastern coyotes are larger than western coyotes, with female eastern coyotes weighing 21% more than male western coyotes.[81][82] Physical differences become more apparent by the age of 35 days, with eastern coyote pups having longer legs than their western counterparts. Differences in dental development also occurs, with tooth eruption being later, and in a different order in the eastern coyote.[83] Aside from its size, the eastern coyote is physically similar to the western coyote. The four color phases range from dark brown to blond or reddish blond, though the most common phase is gray-brown, with reddish legs, ears, and flanks.[84]
No significant differences exist between eastern and western coyotes in aggression and fighting, though eastern coyotes tend to fight less, and are more playful. Unlike western coyote pups, in which fighting precedes play behavior, fighting among eastern coyote pups occurs after the onset of play.[83] Eastern coyotes tend to reach sexual maturity at two years of age, much later than in western coyotes.[81]
Eastern and red wolves are also products of varying degrees of wolf-coyote hybridization. The eastern wolf probably was a result of a wolf-coyote admixture, combined with extensive backcrossing with parent gray wolf populations. The red wolf may have originated during a time of declining wolf populations in the Southeastern Woodlands, forcing a wolf-coyote hybridization, as well as backcrossing with local parent coyote populations to the extent that about 75–80% of the modern red wolf's genome is of coyote derivation.[57][85]