Found this interesting. It was in the January Fur Fish and Game.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...3eKUqg/viewform?fbzx=3874275943925865439

Click next at the bottom of the page to start.

It has 20 images to ID as either wolf or coyote. I do not live in wolf country but I got them all correct.

Good little drill . 100 %

100 % also. Easiest test I think Ive ever done .

100%. What do I win😀

I got 100% 8 year old son got 85% and non hunting wife got 70%. Son errored on the side of caution and said he wouldn't shoot three of the coyotes they looked like wolves lol.

Easier to post pics than I thought.

They are actually all trick questions. All the animals shown have wolf, coyote and domestic dog DNA. It's more of a primary characteristics test, since all the animals pictures are of hybrid genetics. There are no pure wolves in North America and probably very, very few pure coyotes. Our federal government spends millions protecting mutts, rather than allowing local biologists to make sensible, beneficial hunting and trapping regulations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_wolf

Keith

I live in wolf country and only got 95 %. Missed on the young skinny yearling wolf.

I'm inclined to agree with part of your post, if you limit your implications to the northeast part of the USA and the southeastern part of Canada. I don't believe the assertion that there are "no pure wolves in North America", and I do't think the Wikipedia article you linked to supports that either.
Regarding coyotes, I believe that coyotes in the western USA represent a pure strain, for some reason coyotes in the west seem to show no inclination to crossbreed with domestic dogs.

I agree Waggler.

I missed the 3rd one I think its the one looking away with brown pointy ears

All should be shot in my book

Not mine. I'm glad to have some around

So....., That was an easy test but...., Without doing a DNA test, how do the biologist know??
If that makes sense.
Most of those pics are clear with good lighting.
Having poorer lighting, in cover, moving fast and adrenaline, positive i.d. can be tricky at times.
Heck, I've seen pics of men dressed up in drag that made me go

If they were actually native to the lower 48 and had a pray base then it would be a different issue.

They are native to the lower 48. The prey base is a different issue all together. The bison are gone. That is what supported them in the numbers that were present historically

They all look like yotes on the ground

Gray wolves are not the same as the native timber wolves that were introduced

With all due respect. That's nonsense !! That is just BS contrived by those who want to see all the wolves eliminated.

I'm no expert but we DO have experts on this forum and they will tell you the same thing. A Gray wolf is a gray wolf. is a gray wolf.