A New Species Is Evolving Right Before Our Eyes--An Ultra-Successful Mix of
Wolves, Coyotes and Dogs
By Travis Gettys [1]
Raw Story [2], October 30, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/print/culture/new-species-evolving-right-our-eyes-ultra-successful-mix-wolves-coyotes-and-dogs-0
A new species combining wolves, coyotes and dogs is evolving before
scientists’ eyes in the eastern United States.
Wolves faced with a diminishing number of potential mates are lowering their
standards and mating with other, similar species, reported The Economist
[3].
The interbreeding began up to 200 years ago, as European settlers pushed
into southern Ontario and cleared the animal’s habitat for farming and
killed a large number of the wolves that lived there.
That also allowed coyotes to spread from the prairies, and the white farmers
brought dogs into the region.
Over time, wolves began mating with their new, genetically similar
neighbors.
The resulting offspring--which has been called the eastern coyote or, to
some, the "coywolf"--now number in the millions, according to researchers at
North Carolina State University.
Interspecies-bred animals are typically less vigorous than their parents,
The Economist reported--if the offspring survive at all.
That’s not the case at all with the wolf-coyote-dog hybrid, which has
developed into a sum greater than the whole of its parts.
At about 55 pounds, the hybrid animal is about twice as heavy as a standard
coyote, and its large jaws, faster legs and muscular body allows it to take
down small deer and even hunt moose in packs, and the animal is skilled at
hunting in both open terrain and dense woodland.
An analysis of 437 hybrid animals found that coyote DNA dominates its
genetic makeup, with about one-tenth of its DNA from dogs, usually larger
dogs such as Doberman pinschers and German shepherds, and a quarter from
wolves.
The animal’s cry starts out as a deep-pitched wolf howl that morphs into
higher-pitched yipping--like a coyote.
Its dog DNA may carry an additional advantage.
Some scientists think the hybrid animal is able to adapt to city life--which
neither coyotes or wolves have managed to do on their own--because its dog
ancestry allows it to tolerate people and noise.
The coywolves has spread into some of the nation’s largest cities--including
New York, Boston and Washington--using railway corridors.
The interbreeding allows the animal to diversify its diet and eat discarded
food, along with rodents and smaller mammals--including cats, which
coywolves eat skull and all--and they have evolved to become nocturnal to
avoid humans.
The animals are also smart enough to learn to look both ways before crossing
roads.
Not all researchers agree the animal is a distinct species, arguing that one
species does not interbreed with another--although the hybrid’s existence
raises the question of whether wolves and coyotes are distinct species in
the first place.
But scientists who have studied the animal say the mixing of genes has been
much faster, extensive and transformational than anyone had noticed until
fairly recently.
"(This) amazing contemporary evolution story (is) happening right underneath
our nose," said Roland Kays, a researcher at North Carolina State.
Watch this report on coywolves posted online by THIRTEEN [4]:
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mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on A New Species Is Evolving
Right Before Our Eyes--An Ultra-Successful Mix of Wolves, Coyotes and Dogs
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/culture/new-species-evolving-right-our-eyes-ultra-successful-mix-wolves-coyotes-and-dogs-0
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/travis-gettys
[2] http://rawstory.com/
[3]
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21677188-it-rare-new-animal-species-emerge-front-scientists-eyes?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/20151029n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/NA/n
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd18fLEf_Cw
[5] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on A New Species Is
Evolving Right Before Our Eyes--An Ultra-Successful Mix of Wolves, Coyotes
and Dogs
[6] http://www.alternet.org/
[7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
