https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/...s-what-causes-them-and-how-rare-are-they


I catch a few and some guys always talk about them being crossed with dogs. According to this article they are actually from Red Wolf crossing way back.

Coyotes east of the Mississippi are mutts. They've got a bit of everything in em..

I've caught a few with a white tipped tail also....like the one in Okiecntry's pic.

Its bizzarre what is passed off as a “scientific study” these days.

We don't have them out here, but many of the pictures of them I see posted online I wouldn't post. Because half of them don't look like coyotes, they look like somebody trapped or shot someone's dog. Between their looks and the fact that the researchers who claim they got the trait from "red wolves" that they replaced AFTer they were mostly eradicated and the trait was rare in the red wolf population anyways (so rare in fact that they have no examples of it in the surviving red wolf population) makes me think that the trait primarily comes from crossbreeding with dogs.

One might also point out that there is considerable debate over whether red wolves were ever a distinct species and DNA of all existing red wolves in captivity is primarily coyote with some dog and wolf thrown in.

I caught 2 one In SC and one In MS.

Got a pic of this one just the other day. Hard South wind and he passed South of my set by about 10ft.



Yes, date/time/temp are all correct.

https://earlyfloridalit.net/william-bartram-travels-2/

Observing a company of wolves (lupus niger) under a few trees, about a quarter of a mile from shore, we rode up towards them, they observing our approach, sitting on their hinder parts until we came nearly within shot of them, when they trotted off towards the forests, but stopped again and looked at us, at about two hundred yards distance; we then whooped, and made a feint to pursue them, when they seperated from each other, some stretching off into the plains and others seeking covert in the groves on shore; when we got to the trees we observed they had been feeding on the carcase of a horse. The wolves of Florida are larger than a dog, and are perfectly black, except the females, which have a white spot on the breast, but they are not so large as the wolves of Canada and Pennsylvania, which are of a yellowish brown colour.

College students have to get their masters degrees somehow. A scientific theses does the trick. If they convince the prof the study becomes fact.

Exactly where my thoughts on this are. Along with several silenced experts in the field years ago.

They show up here from time to time

Crossed with domestic dog?
Maybe

Lots of critters have a melanistic gene that shows up occasionally

Squirrels here and whitetail deer in the state
Neither of those crossed with anything to get the black coloration

Agree 100% with the part in bold. Where is the "Red Wolf" DNA? Hint.....if it exists, it has never been found or documented. The mutts that were selected to be used to re-establish a population of so called Red Wolves in the wild in NC were selected by their appearance. And they were bred in zoos to have stock to release into the wild. These selected breeders immediately produced offspring that did not meet the same appearance criteria that was used in the selection process and hundreds of them were removed from the reintroduction program because they did not look right. This was before DNA testing was used as widely as it is today.

Everything I have read says the mutts that are still being bred in the zoos as "Red Wolves" have a DNA mix of around 70% coyote and 30% grey wolf. Just a hybrid mutt and not a separate specie. Yet the Feds continue to spend millions of taxpayer money to trying to reintroduce a specie that there is no DNA evidence that it ever existed in the first place. Lots of folks, government employees and non profit wolf huggers, making a good living by keeping the program alive.

IMO, this is a classic follow the money program that is continuing even though science and the Endangered Specie Act do not support it. Hybrids are not protected by the ESA and the DNA clearly shows that the critters being pimped are hybrids.

Good excerpt from WB's travels. I've read that, but had forgot about it.

He described these black coyotes perfectly and in the late 1700s.

I have never seen a black coyote in this part of the country, but did catch a coyote with the white tipped tail last year.

Not being argumentative, this is documentary evidence of a black canine in existence long before current civilization came to the area. And by a naturalist, not some random Joe Blow. I am unfamiliar with William Bartram, but I'm assuming there is quite a bit more of his writings available since he is a naturalist and his general reliability can be verified. But the description of them as being "larger than a dog" is not how I would describe a coyote. Granted there are many sizes of dogs, but if I was going to describe something as being "dog sized" I would mean around 50 pounds, which is bigger than your average coyote, although considerably smaller than your average grey wolf (which he specifies these Florida wolves are smaller than Canadian or Pennsylvania grey wolves).

Bartram was a contemporary of Benjamin Franklin and was a resident of Philadelphia when he was commissioned to undertake a cataloging of the flora and fauna of the southern states.

His most notable accomplishment was the discovery of and scientific description of Franklinia altamaha which apparently only existed in that locale on Georgia's Altamaha river as it seems to have slipped into extinction as it has yet to be found again growing in the wild. Fortunately he collected specimens and it has survived in cultivation. To date all attempts at reintroduction into the wild have failed.

His writings also describe the native Americans and the old fields and mounds.

Both silver and cross fox are color phases of reds. Common in the far north but very rare here. Arn’t black coyotes normally a color phase in a litter of normal colored coyotes?

Yes