If you have ever been camping at night, you have probably heard strange sounds from the darkness. The darkness tends to make sounds a bit spookier and also makes it more difficult to identify and get a sense of the distance of the animal making the sounds.
A reader named Joe emailed that he has been researching predators in New Jersey. He has recorded some night sounds while camping at Brendan Byrne State Forest (formerly the Lebanon State Forest).
Listen to a short clip of what he heard
His guess is that it is either a pack of wild dogs or coyotes. Readers of this blog know that we frequently get reports of wolves and even mountain lions in New Jersey. Neither wolves nor mountain lions have ever been confirmed in our state. But we do have lots of coyotes.
Wolves bark, but in a very different way from dogs. Their barking sound is described as “short and low-pitched” or “guttural and coarse”.
So, what did Joe hear? I asked two wildlife biologists. They agreed that a pack of wild dogs or coyotes is a good guess. Dog packs are not common in NJ, particularly in any State Forests. I asked whether it might be the sound of coywolves.
coywolf hybrid
In New Jersey, "coywolf" is a term often used to describe eastern coyotes, which are coyotes with some wolf ancestry. These animals are not a distinct species but rather a hybrid form of the coyote that is evolving in the northeastern United States. While sometimes called coywolves, they are more accurately referred to as eastern coyotes.
Both biologists said that the coywolf does exist here, but it would take a DNA test to determine that identification.
Coywolf studies at Pepperdine University concluded that coyote DNA dominates, but the animal is also 10 percent dog and 25 percent wolf.
What do you think Joe heard and recorded? Considering that Brendan T. Byrne State Forest is in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, does anyone think it might have been the Jersey Devil?
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