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Ottertooth Forums * Temagami general * Archive through July 31, 2017 * Is the coywolf in Temagami? < Previous Next >

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brian
Moderator

Post Number: 1594
Registered: 02-2004


Posted on Friday, October 25, 2013 - 12:35 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

These hybrids of wolves and coyotes are well known among farmers around Kingston, where they call them bush wolves. The Nature of Things did this special on the eastern coyote. Do we have them in Temagami?

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/meet-the -coywolf
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dan_carpenter
Moderator

Post Number: 88
Registered: 03-2004
Posted on Friday, October 25, 2013 - 9:47 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

There's a little note under the video on the website:
"Episode available within Canada only."

Damn...
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grncnu
Member

Post Number: 322
Registered: 08-2010
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 7:28 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

what they are now calling "coywolves" is the traditional "brush wolf" of not just kingston but all of southern ontario and well into various parts of the u.s.
in north america there are three basic "wolf" races: coyote, eastern (red) and gray (timber, arctic).
Since they are all basically dogs, they have always interbred especially in areas where they overlap. this creates what biologists call a "cline", which means that the morphology (size and shape) of these wild dogs varies according to the necessary adaption to a particular area; in the case of wolves this means availability and size of prey.
"pure" coyotes in mexico are small and skinny, adapted to living in the desert on roadrunners, jackrabbits etc. "pure" timberwolves are adapted to life in the rockies, boreal forest etc. hunting moose, elk, and caribou. "pure" red wolves (almost extinct) are adapted to deer-hunting in the appalachian forests from new brunswick to georgia.
apparently the wolves in alqonquin park are genetically related to the red wolf, but regularly interbreed with other wolves closer (on the "cline") to gray wolves or coyotes.
here is a photo of the southern ontario "brush wolf" taken around 1990 in erin twp.:



it was much bigger than a traditional coyote and had a lot of red in it.

i am very familiar with the sound these make as they howl virtually every night around here at certain times of the year. they sound very much like algonquin wolves which i have also heard many times on the north magnetawan near the park boundary: a sort of mixture of wolf-howling in all different keys accompanied by a lot of coyote-like yipping and yelping.
the one time i heard wolves howling in temagami (alexander lake, 1996), they sounded quite different, more like the long-drawn out moaning familiar to all from horror films...
so i suspect the temagami wolves are far enough up towards the boreal forest that they are more akin to gray wolves... but the concept of a "cline" is useful in that each different area is a sort of transition zone between other areas, and each local race probably is adapted to the particular type of game found there.
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shutter_speed
Member

Post Number: 31
Registered: 10-2010


Posted on Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 1:49 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post


I captured this trailcam image near the north arm in late september. Judging by the shape of the head, I think it is a wolf, but would be interested in other opinions.
The trailcam uses infrared light at night, and isn't as high a quality as day shots.
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shutter_speed
Member

Post Number: 32
Registered: 10-2010


Posted on Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 2:04 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

Here's the photo:

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grncnu
Member

Post Number: 323
Registered: 08-2010
Posted on Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 11:01 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

definitely a wolf with the black tip to the tail. it looks to me like an adolescent, its legs are a bit too long for its body.
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shutter_speed
Member

Post Number: 33
Registered: 10-2010


Posted on Saturday, November 2, 2013 - 5:26 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

Interesting-I didn't realize the black tip on the tail was a marker. Thanks for the info!
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grncnu
Member

Post Number: 324
Registered: 08-2010
Posted on Saturday, November 2, 2013 - 6:04 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post

coyotes and wolves all have black at the tip of the tail, but then again so do some dogs.

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