Coyote, Dog, Coywolf, Wolf?

 

There have been a lot of sightings and identification emails, comments and subsequent posts lately. I have been posting a number of them when there are accompanying photos or video as a kind of identification quiz for readers.

Frank emailed me a link to his photos and a video of where these tracks were found a bit outside NJ in Willows Park, Radnor Twp, Delaware County, PA.

He notes that there is a very narrow toepad print that seems to have digits pointing outward. That makes him think gray wolf. There were no other tracks at all on the trail or area nearby. He said that he has seen similar tracks in Bass River State Forest. 

Although gray wolves once were in this area, they were cleared out by trappers and hunters and the last known gray in Pennsylvania died in 1892. To see wolves outdoors in Pennsylvania, I think you would need to go to the Wolf Sanctuary of Pennsylvania in Lititz.

But might this be a coywolf or coyote? Do you think it is just someone's dog wandering on its own?

Tracking a Coywolf

Eastern coyotes (coywolf) differ from their western counterparts
with a larger average size and various color phases,
 including blonde and black. Photo via state.nj.us/dep/fgw/

I have received more sightings and meals about wildlife identification by tracks this summer. (Maybe because people have been eager to get outside after the at-home kind of year that 2020 was due to the pandemic.) Though I have studied tracking for many years, I claim no expertise and still turn to references at times.

Recently, Frank sent me two photos and asked about identifying a coywolf. This hybrid of a coyote and wolf is also known as the Eastern coyote. 

I was running on the Yellow Poppy Allen Trail at Bass River State Forest and came across the tracks in the attached pictures. My finger is about 4' from the tip the the knuckle on my hand, and my sunglasses in another photo (placed on ground in between front and back paw tracks) are about 6" across.

I showed the photos to a ranger after completing my hike, and he seemed to think it was Coyote because of the fat toe pad as compared to a wolf track with more narrow toe pad.

Ironically, after seeing a photo of a Coywolf I realized I saw one crossing Magnolia Rd in Pemberton where it approaches the circle at Route 72 within the past 2 years. I remember being totally puzzled by the black and dark orange animal crossing, looking sort of like a dog but with significant hackles on its shoulders.

Distinguishing a coywolf from a coyote, wolf or even a domestic dog by tracks is difficult. An actual sighting helps (see below). Size isn't always helpful as there is a wide variety of canine track sizes, both domestic and wild. Confirmation is usually based on DNA (from scat or blood)

The wild canid family in the continental US consists of (from smallest to largest) grey foxes, red foxes, Western coyotes, Eastern coyotes (coywolves), and the rarer (and not found in NJ) red wolves, Mexican wolves and gray wolves. 

Wild canine tracks can range in size from 1.5 inches in length up to 5.5 inches (not including toenails/claws). Of course, domestic canines overlap those sizes too.

When I took a tracking class, I learned that the surface (substrate) an animal is walking on (mud, snow, packed dirt, sand etc.) changes the look of an animal’s tracks. Tracks also change as time passes, often getting larger as well as degrading. 

When an animal is walking on a softer or more slippery substrate (like mud or snow) it will spread its toes to help it balance. So tracks on a solid, harder ground will (usually) appear more accurately compact.  

Since it is almost impossible to distinguish a large dog from a wolf from a single track, it is recommended that you look at the pattern of the trail. Dogs tend to have rather erratic walks (perhaps not if leashed, but then you'd also see human tracks). They are not stalking. Their hind foot tracks seldom register within their forefoot tracks.  

A wild canine typically has a direct registration walk. Wolves tend to walk more directly when traveling, so their trails show that the hindfoot is placed within or directly in front of the forefoot. Wolves will also approach strangers and strange objects cautiously and tracks may show them circling widely to investigate rather than approaching directly.

coywolf (Eastern coyote) 4 inches

The photo above is a coywolf track that was confirmed (by DNA). It is about 4 inches long.

Since a coywolf is somewhere between a coyote and wolf, they are identified by characteristics between the two. For example, a coyote has a narrower face and a smaller nose pad than a wolf. The coyote has taller and pointed ears compared to a wolf's more rounded ones.

As with tracks, their physical size varies. Adult coyotes top out at around 50 pounds, while wolves are 70-150 pounds. We could expect an adult coywolf to be between the two ranges.

On clear tracks (like the one above), all the claws of a wolf are seen. For coyotes, the outer ones may not show.

Some studies define the “coywolf” population in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada that originated through hybridization between Canis lycaon (Eastern Wolf) and Canis latrans (Coyote), but maintain that it is now genetically uniform and only minimally influenced by either parental species. An alternative interpretation of available data is that this northeastern Coyote population is genetically diverse, substantially more Coyote than Eastern Wolf in its genetic composition, and part of a larger population of Coyotes that interbreeds with a hybrid Coyote/Eastern Wolf population in southern Ontario and western Coyotes in western New York and Pennsylvania.

So did Frank see coywolf tracks? As stated, hard to tell. At 4 inches, that is a good-sized canid. The track appears to be direct registration. Might it be a bog dog? Possibly. And because owners often let dogs run free in the woods, you might not see human tracks nearby. (see this side by side comparison of a dog and coyote - hard to tell)

Frank also asked about reporting a sighting. There is a way to do that at state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/rprtform.htm but it is more for endangered and threatened species and since a coywolf identification just from tracks is so difficult, I doubt that it would be investigated or recorded.

See Also

wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf/Identification
Coyotes in NJ  state.nj.us/dep/fgw/coyote_info.htm

Seeing Wolves in New Jersey

Wolf Woods habitat at Turtle back Zoo in Essex County - via state.nj.us/gspt/photo_gallery.htm

Wolves can be found in North America, Europe, and Asia. Expanding development, farming, and ranching activity has drastically reduced the wolf’s range and population. Suitable habitat now restricts wolves to remote areas of their traditional range.

But conservation and education efforts will hopefully protect and preserve wolves throughout the world. There are no wolves in the wild in NJ, but you can visit them in captivity.

Reintroduction programs are being implemented and captive wolves in zoos, and wolf research centers are being maintained to insure that the genetic purity of wolf species is preserved. Turtle Back Zoo’s wolves come from Wolf Park Research Center in Battle Ground, Indiana.

In the urban wilderness of Essex County, you can visit wolves at the Turtleback Zoo which has a Wolf Woods habitat. You can see timber wolves close up but safely through glass panels that let you feel like a member of the pack. Several viewing stations let you see the wolves from different angles. You will wolves see crossing a stream, resting on logs and rocky outcroppings and nose-close right at the window. The Zoo is located at 560 Northfield Avenue, West Orange, New Jersey.

If you want to hear the howling of wolves in NJ, you can also head to the mountains of the Delaware Water Gap in Warren County, NJ. At the Lakota Wolf Preserve, there are great photo opportunities with packs of Tundra, Timber, and Arctic wolves in a natural surrounding. There are also bobcats and foxes at the reserve. The preserve is at at 89 Mt. Pleasant Road, Columbia, NJ - see http://www.lakotawolf.com/ for information.

Have You Seen a Coywolf in New Jersey?

A "coywolf"                                  Photo: forestwander.com via nj,com

If you have heard that New Jersey has coywolves living here, it's true.  But the name coywolf is a new one tagged onto the hybrid animal that is the eastern coyote. The species is not a "coy" (as in shy) wolf, but a hybrid that is mostly coyote. Researchers say they exist in the millions throughout the Northeast, including in NJ.

This cross between a coyote and a wolf used to be considered an eastern coyote, but recent research shows the hybrid name is a more accurate descriptor. Eastern wolves interbred with western coyotes when deforestation and hunting threatened their population. Though coyotes in any form were once unknown in our state, they have spread statewide in the past decade. Their DNA is 65% coyote, 10% dog and 25% wolf, the Economist reported.

The coywolf is about twice the size of a coyote, with larger jaws and bigger muscles that allow it to kill larger prey, such as deer. But coywolves eat pumpkins, watermelons and other garden produce, as well as discarded food, rodents and other small mammals including squirrels and pets.

As with other coyotes, the coywolf has adapted very well to suburban and urban environments. (It is estimated that at least 20 live in New York City.) Urban/suburban habitats offer easy access to trash and easy hunting in areas without underbrush and cover (such as parks, trails and lawns) so that the coywolf needs only half the territory it would require in the countryside. Railway corridors make travel fast and easy. They tend to be more nocturnal in populated areas.

There is some debate in the science community as to whether the coywolf actually has evolved into a distinct species, but the name has traction.  NJ.com has called them "New Jersey's apex predator" and  they were tagged as the new "superpredators" by Field and Stream magazine.

New Jersey Furbearers

American mink

Despite the title of an online article, "The American Mink, one of N.J.’s most common semi-aquatic carnivore," I myself (and I suspect many readers) have never seen a mink in my Jersey travels. The mink (Mustela vison) is native to the state, although it is thought that escapees from mink farms have interbred with wild mink.

The mink is not threatened in the state and has a stable population. Not threatened, unless you consider that The New Jersey Hunting and Trapping Digest lists raccoon, skunk, opossum, weasel, mink, muskrat, red and gray fox, coyote, beaver, otter and nutria as species that have open seasons for trapping in the State of New Jersey. (In New Jersey, a Trapper Education course must be passed and a trapping license obtained to trap in the state - see http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/trapping_info.htm)

Several of these species were not here historically or disappeared and have only returned through re-introductions.

Native to NJ are the river otter (Lontra canadensis), long-tailed (Mustela frenata) and short-tailed ermine (Mustela ermine). Also native are the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), raccoon (Procyon lotor) or gray fox (Urocyon cinereorgenteus).

Coyotes, which are now being reported with more frequency in the state, were never present in New Jersey until the past fifty or so years. Their appearance is due to many factors including habitat loss in their previous area of habitation. The current theory is that overall movement (based on DNA sampling) in the last century by the western coyote to the midwest, Great Lake states and through Lower Canada led to some western coyotes mating with gray wolves. Their offspring moved further eastward through Lower Canada and down through the New England states and into the Mid-Atlantic States.

NJ had gray wolves in the state until about the mid-1850s. Today, there are no wolves in New Jersey outside of zoos and preserves. But the eastern coyote appears to be here to stay.

Some of our other furbearing creatures past and present include:

• Marten (Martes americana) historically present but extirpated since the mid-1800s
• The fisher (Martes pennanti) also extirpated but again present in Sussex and Warren counties although few in number. Probably due to re-introduction by New York and Pennsylvania in the last decade
• Beaver (Castor canadensis) had almost disappeared from here by the early 1800s. It is believed that some escapees from the Rutherford-Stuyvesant game preserve in Allamuchy, Warren County established a breeding population. Restocking enabled the beaver to re-establish itself by the mid-20th century. 
• Most common to us is the raccoon which is, was and has always been a native of New Jersey and was a species that the British explorers to this new land reported, since they did not exist in Britain.
• Opossum (Didelphis virginiana) was thought to be numerous in the central and southern part of the state in the late 1860s, but in the last hundred years the range of both opossum and raccoons has extended much further north including into Canada where they historically never existed.

opossum

Federal Protection of Endangered Species

The NJ threatened Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus)

Federal protection of endangered species dates back to the Lacey Act of 1900, when Congress passed the first wildlife law in response to growing public concern over the decline of the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius). The Lacey Act prohibited interstate commerce of animals killed illegally and required the secretary of agriculture to preserve, introduce, distribute, and restore wild bird and game bird.

As public awareness of environmental problems initiated political activism in the 1960s, the Department of Interior formed a Committee on Rare and Endangered Wildlife Species to identify species in immediate danger of extinction.

The Redbook on Rare and Endangered Fish and Wildlife of the United States, published in 1964, served as the first official document listing species the federal government considered to be in danger of extinction. Two years after the Redbook list was published, Congress passed the Endangered Species Protection Act of 1966—the first piece of comprehensive endangered species legislation.

The goal, as stated in the 1966 Act, was to "conserve, protect, restore, and propagate certain species of native fish and wildlife." It was under the 1966 Endangered Species Preservation Act that the very first list of threatened and endangered species was created,

There are more than a thousand listed - see http://ecos.fws.gov/tess_public/pub/listedAnimals.jsp

Some are well known to the public and others are largely unknown. Here are some mammal examples

Indiana Bat - Myotis sodalis
Delmarva Peninsula Fox Squirrel - Sciurus niger cinereus
Timber Wolf - Canis lupus lycaon
Red Wolf - Canis niger
San Joaquin Kit Fox - Vulpes macrotis mutica
Grizzly Bear - Ursus horribilis
Black-footed Ferret - Mustela nigripes
Florida Panther - Felis concolor coryi
Caribbean Monk Seal - Monachus tropicalis
Guadalupe Fur Seal - Arctocephalus philippi townsendi
Florida Manatee or Florida Sea Cow - Trichechus manatus latirostris
Key Deer - Odocoileus virginianus clavium
Columbian White-tailed Deer - Odocoileus virginianus leucurus
Sonoran Pronghorn - Antilocapra americana sonoriensis

The Gray Wolf, (Canis lupus), is a good example of a species that is both loved and mythologized by the general public, but also seen as a nuisance predator by some farmers and ranchers.

It is a "keystone predator," and is an integral component of the ecosystems to which it typically belongs. The wide range of habitats in which wolves can thrive reflects their adaptability as a species, and includes temperate forests, mountains, tundra, taiga, and grasslands.

Gray wolves were originally listed as subspecies or as regional populations of subspecies in the contiguous United States and Mexico. In 1978, they were reclassifed as an endangered population at the species level (C. lupus) throughout the contiguous United States and Mexico, except for the Minnesota gray wolf population, which was classified as threatened. (Gray wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Western Great Lakes were delisted due to recovery in 2011 and 2012)

Each state has its own unique list of species that are federally protect and exist in that state, and also species that are listed as threatened or endangered in that state but not across the country. (See the NJ list at state.nj.us/dep/fgw/tandespp.htm)

The general public often doesn't realize that listings include not only mammals but also birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects and plants.

An example of the plants is the NJ Swamp pink (Helonias bullata.

Swamp pink was federally listed as a threatened species in 1988.

A perennial member of the lily family, swamp pink has smooth, oblong, dark green leaves that form an evergreen rosette. In spring, some rosettes produce a flowering stalk that can grow over 3 feet tall. The stalk is topped by a 1 to 3-inch-long cluster of 30 to 50 small, fragrant, pink flowers dotted with pale blue anthers. The evergreen leaves of swamp pink can be seen year round, and flowering occurs between March and May.

Supporting over half of the known populations, New Jersey is the stronghold for swamp pink.  Swamp pink occurs in Morris, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Salem, Cumberland, and Cape May Counties.

Coyote Concerns

 There are no wolves in the wild in NJ (only in captivity) but coyotes are more common every year. And this is the time of the year you are more likely to see them.

I sometimes receive emails from residents of NJ who ask questions about wildlife. Occessionally, I can answer them, but sometimes I can only refer them to other sources at the NJDEP or private organizations.

I got an email this past week from Chris who was concerned that he might have spotted a wolf in his Mahwah, NJ backyard. It's a bit hard to see in his photos but they are most likely of a coyote. (Although he lives close to NY state and so...  see http://www.catskillmountaineer.com/animals-coyotes.html )

http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/gray_wolf/wolf-coyote_compare.pdf

I have written here before about our state's coyotes and certainly someone with small children and pets outdoors has some legitimate concerns with coyotes being near their home.

Although attacks on humans are extremely rare in eastern states, as with any predatory animal they can occur and in suburban and urban areas, and coyotes have occasionally attacked small pets.

Coyotes play an important role in the ecosystem, helping to keep rodent populations under control.

Coyote sightings in NJ usually increase in the spring as they bear their  litters during April and May, and this is when encounters with humans is more likely to occur.

Females deliver between three and nine pups, and they are most likely to cross paths with humans (and their pets) as the adults forage for food for the pups in the spring and summer. They are far more interested in rabbits, mice, birds and other small animals. Of course, if we humans make garbage, pet food and our pets unattended, coyotes may be tempted to come closer to our homes. Like our Jersey black bears, they are very adaptable to and learning to be quite tolerant of human activities.

The coyote is a wild member of the dog family and is not threatened in New Jersey and has been spreading throughout the Northeast and across New Jersey.


Eastern coyotes differ from their western counterparts with a larger average size and various color phases, including blonde, red and black.

coyote photo via http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection recommends that residents

• put garbage in tightly closed containers that cannot be tipped over to prevent bear and coyote foraging. 
• reduce the protective cover for coyotes by clearing brush and dense weeds from around homes.
• be more cautious about children and pets being on their own even in their backyards. 
• in response to a coyote encounter, do not  run, because that initiates the "prey instinct" in the animal and the coyote will go into pursuit mode. Rather, act aggressively - "yelling, waving your arms, stamping your feet, or throwing stones” until it leaves.

Lawmakers want gray wolf off endangered list

More than 70 lawmakers are asking the Obama administration to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list.

Sixty-six Republicans and six Democrats in the House and Senate signed a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that argues the gray wolf is no longer in need of federal protection. They said the endangered species designation is making it harder for ranchers and farmers to protect livestock.

“Unmanaged wolves are devastating to livestock and indigenous wildlife. Currently, state wildlife officials have their hands tied any time wolves are involved,” the lawmakers, led by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) in the Senate and Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) in the House.

“They need to be able to respond to the needs of their native wildlife without being burdened by the impediments of the federal bureaucracy created by the [Endangered Species Act].”

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/energyenvironment/290125-lawmakers-want-gray-wolf-off-endangered-list

Grey Wolf Endangered Status May Change Again

USFWS photo

The grey wolf, Canis lupus, is a study of how complicated the listing of endangered species has become. This is a species that has been on and off lists both federally and in certain states to the point of confusing most people about whether they are endangered or not.

Last week, a federal judge said the grey wolf should go back on the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho. That decision does not sit well with hunters, ranchers and states' rights advocates. The ruling overturned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision to keep the grey wolf off the list in 2009.

The U.S. District Court Judge said that the the Endangered Species Act required endangered species like the Northern Rockies gray wolf to be treated as a whole population, rather than on a state-by-state basis. If it's listed as endangered in Wyoming, it should be listed that way in Montana and Idaho too.


Wolf supporters and many environmental groups say that the current Rocky Mountain population (1,700+ wolves) is not enough to ensure the long-term genetic health of the population.

Right now the reinstated protection means the states once again have to follow federal guidelines for managing wolves.

Wolves were eradicated from the region in the 1930's as part of an overall campaign to eliminate many of the native predators.

The Endangered Species Act in 1973 started efforts to restore the Northern Rockies wolf population.

Wolves that had moved into the Canadian/Montana border region starting in the 1970s began to return to their historic habitat in the region. By 1995, that population had grown to about 70 wolves.

Though this blog is clearly on the side of endangered species, I always tread carefully in the area of politics and law because it often has little to do with protecting wildlife and more to do with money and power.

Ranchers and landowners will say that wolves present the greatest threat to their livestock. Environmental groups will quote statistics from the National Agriculture Statistics Service, that show that only 1% of lost livestock, including unconfirmed losses, is due to wolves. They say the true threats are still disease, birthing issues, extreme weather, and other predators, including wild dogs.


By 2009, the Northern Rockies wolf population had grown to around 2,000 animals. That was the number that biologists had estimated was necessary for population recovery.

That same year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service de-listed the wolves and opened a hunting season in Idaho and Montana. The population went down to 1,650 wolves which made it again endangered.

This back and forth way of determining status seem doomed to cause only controversy and offer limited protection to a species. It seems to me that decisions under the Endangered Species Act should be based on science, not politics. But that is definitely more esily said than done.




Yes, we don't worry much about wolves in New Jersey. But you can see wolves in our state. Check out wolves at the Lakota Wolf Preserve located near the Delaware Water Gap and the Turtle Back Zoo in Essex County.

• http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/
• http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/wildlife_conservation/imperiled_species/wolves/wolf_recovery_efforts/northern_rockies_wolves/
• Gray Wolves (Eye to Eye With Endangered Species) 
• The World of Wolves: New Perspectives on Ecology, Behaviour, and Management 
• Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States: An Endangered Species Success Story

Gray Wolf May Return to Endangered Species List

Wikimedia Commons image

Some species who are endangered may seem far away for those of us living in NJ. I reported earlier on grizzly bears in Yellowstone being returned to the endangered list, and now we can also consider that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that Endangered Species Act protections are being reinstated for the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region.

There are reportedly around 4,000 wolves in the western Great Lakes region.

Due to a settlement agreement reached in a lawsuit challenging the Service’s removal of ESA protections for the western Great Lakes gray wolf, the species will remain on the endangered species list during the public comment period. The reinstatement may not be permanent and the court could decide to de-list the wolves once again.

According to a USFWS spokesperson, the court determined that an appropriate public comment period had not been provided prior to removing the wolves’ protections.

The reinstatement takes wolf management authority away from state wildlife regulators in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for now, and allows Federal authorities to determine whether or not to de-list the wolves again after considering additional information.

What about wolves?

People sometimes ask me when I give talks on endangered species in NJ about deer, bears, coyotes and even wolves. Well, NJ does have all of them (but wolves only in captivity, not in the wild as with the others) but the Endangered and Nongame Species Program is concerned with just that - endangered, threatened and nongame species. Species that have legal hunting and fishing seasons are not part of the program.

However, all of them are of interest on this site, because issues with other species are frequently connected to the species protected by the ENSP.

For example, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently took the final step prior to the official delisting of northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves from the federal Endangered Species Act. The agency's delisting rule for the region's wolves was published in the Federal Register and that puts in motion a 30-day countdown to delisting wolves in the northern Rockies.

"The wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountains (NRM) has exceeded its numerical, distributional, and temporal recovery goals every year since 2002. The States of Montana and Idaho have made strong commitments to maintain wolf populations well above minimum recovery levels. In combination with continued U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) management in Wyoming, the NRM population will contain over 1,200 wolves at its low point in mid-winter. Therefore, the Service is designating a northern Rocky Mountain wolf Distinct Population Segment (DPS) that will include all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and a small corner of north-central Utah. This wolf population will be removed from the protection of the Endangered Species Act [Act], except in Wyoming."

http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/wolf/Q&AWolfDelisting03282009.pdf

Whenever there is a delisting, it has both good and bad aspects. On the good side, federal officials are saying that "...threats to the wolf population in the northern Rocky Mountain DPS, have been resolved, as evidenced by the wolf population’s healthy annual growth, high genetic diversity, and wide-spread distribution."

On the other side, conservation groups are likely to challenge the delisting of wolves in federal courts (as they did previously to stop a wolf delisting rule released during the Bush administration that covered all of the northern Rockies, including Wyoming). They believe that the protection is being done prematurely. As an example, officials with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game are already preparing for a statewide wolf hunt that will begin in September should the federal delisting stand.

Celebrate A Wolf Birthday

Come have a howling good time as you help celebrate the birthdays of Methos and Atticus, Turtle Back Zoo's wolves. There are wolf activities and educational programs throughout the day.

The Wolf Birthday celebration is tomorrow, Saturday, April 11, 2009 from 11am to 4pm.

See http://www.turtlebackzoo.org for information and directions.