Leaderboard

@NatFoot "The wolflike canid that ranges from Ohio to the Carolinas and northeast to Newfoundland and Labrador is not a coyote, but a hybrid of the coyote, wolf and domestic dog. The animal that we call coyote is more aptly named “coywolf”. Coywolves were first documented in Canada in the early 20th century and by the 1930’s they had reached Maine. The L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley contains a strange looking specimen purported to be a wolf killed in Calais, Maine around 1910. It looks nothing like the coy wolves of today. The fact that Maine’s coywolves are hybrids of coyotes and wolves is not new news. The recent article by Deirdre Fleming (Maine coyotes getting bigger, more wolflike PPH 5/7/2017) unfortunately sensationalizes and unfairly demonizes an animal that scientists have known about and studied for decades. These hybrids are more wolf-like than coyotes and more coyote-like than wolves. They can and do take down deer, but they are also opportunists and scavengers. A study of deer carcasses conducted by researchers at the State University of New York showed that just eight percent of adult deer on which coywolves were feeding in winter “…had been killed conclusively…” by coywolves. Coywolves are native to Maine. They are not an invasive species. Their existence in Maine is the result of a natural immigration to fill a void in the ecosystem created by humans when we exterminated wolves. No one brought them here and over the last century or so, they have become an integral part of the ecosystem." from: http://mainewolfcoalition.org/education-and-outreach/coywolves/ http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2010/01/07/in-new-england-coywolves/ https://www.timberwolfinformation.org/ma-coyote-or-wolf-animals-in-massachusetts-may-be-both-coywolf/

Here in Alberta they are everywhere. They adapt very well to living around people and, considering their population density, don't cause a lot of problems. Every few years there will be a panic about devil worshipers and animal sacrifices when a few cats get found eviscerated in the suburbs before it's determined to be the yodel-dogs, but that's about it. A couple quick ice-fishing related coyote stories: I was out in December, early ice, only one there at a quiet spot. I was set up in about 6-7 feet of water about 75 yards out. Around dusk I packed up and was dragging my sled of gear to shore. About half way back, I looked behind me as I always do to see if I've left anything or if anything fell off the sled, and there was already a coyote nosing around my fishing holes for old bait. I just carried on. One March a few friends and I were doing our annual campout on the ice. I got up early Sunday morning, got the tea on and a line down the hole when a pack of coyotes started going crazy fairly near by. You can tell when they are just singing, but this time they were very excited about something. I looked out the tent flap and three or four hundred yards away someone's medium-small fuzzy house dog was out in the middle of the lake, with a coyote staring him down. I didn't look for long, as I had fishing to do and I already knew how the story would end. The dog was never going to reach the shore.

No it's cross of a yote and wolf Saw a dead one up close in the back of a pickup . It wasn't a coyote and it was shot in CT I've seen and shot coyotes ,it wasn't a coyote . It was huge

Just be sure to take the basics for entering any forest. If you are asking questions about the area you probably aren't familiar with the people who have gone missing in the forests immediately north of Carson. I can think of three mushroom pickers that disappeared in the last four years between Carson and Trout Lake. One was found deceased but no sign of the others. Several hikers have gone missing in the last three years just east of the FS 60/65 intersection, absolutely no sign of them ever found. Have the right gear and know how to use a map.

The general thought is they moved eastern from points further west, I've also heard of a wolf release somewhere in Quebec The province, not the city and it's possible that they have just branched out over time. Think what you want but they are throughout New England, the appearance is subtly different and the tracks are as well.

Here's my Grandpa in Italy, but he's wearing his 1911. He preferred it to the revolver.

Some more pics of the camper.