With deer season a distant memory, many Maine hunters have hung up their guns and moved on to winter activities like ice fishing, snowmobiling and skiing. Others have simply shifted their attention to an equally challenging game species, the eastern coyote. Motivations vary from simply spending more time outdoors to alleviating predation on their prized whitetails.

Regardless of the motivation to pursue them, eastern coyotes are truly remarkable animals in terms of both how and what they came to be.

Results from recent DNA research indicate that both wolves and coyotes evolved from a common ancestor in eastern North America. Some of this original stock migrated to Europe and Asia over the Beringean land bridge where they further evolved into the gray wolf. The remainder eventually evolved into the smaller eastern North American timber wolf. Subsequently, an offshoot of the timber wolf expanded southward, evolving into the much smaller western coyote in the west and the red wolf in the southeast. As glacial ice sheets retreated, the gray wolf returned to North America over the ice bridge and expanded across Canada.

Jumping ahead to roughly 500 years ago, gray wolves occupied most of Canada while the eastern timber wolf predominated in areas south of the Great Lakes, and coyotes occurred over much of the western United States. As Ontario was systematically deforested, gray wolves retreated northward and timber wolves moved in to fill the void, following expanding deer herds.

More recently, western coyotes began expanding north and east, arriving in western Ontario in the early 1900s and in New York in the 1920s. But before they did, a transformation took place. Western coyotes hybridized with eastern timber wolves, creating a new race, the eastern coyote.

Geneticists now lump eastern coyotes into three groups. The largest contains individuals with the presence of some timber wolf genes. A second group has a genetic makeup closer to that of western coyotes, indicating a normal mixing of coyotes from western and eastern states. The third are sometimes referred to as tweed or brush wolves in Canada. Though technically considered eastern coyotes, they have more wolf-like characteristics than the average coyote. Taxonomists also now consider the red wolf and the eastern timber wolf to be essentially one and the same species.

Eastern coyotes arrived in Maine sometime around the late 1960s and early 1970s, subsequently expanding into Atlantic Canada. By the late 1970s they had made their way into southern New England, and from there continued expanding southward into Pennsylvania and beyond.

In addition to carrying the genetic markers of their larger cousins, eastern coyotes – or what are now increasingly being referred to as coywolves – also exhibit some noticeable physical differences from their western cousins. One is body size, with easterns in some cases being twice the size of westerns.

Eastern coyotes also have larger skulls, teeth and jaw musculature, an adaptation for taking larger prey, like deer.

Eastern coyotes also exhibit more of what biologists call behavioral plasticity. Some form strong pair bonds and established packs consisting of an alpha male and female, and extended family members, much like wolves do. Others may mate, raise a litter, and then drive their grown offspring away each year before raising another litter the following spring. Still others, usually males, are nomadic, settling down perhaps just long enough to raise a litter before moving on to a new mate and territory.

They’ve also adapted quite well to living around human habitation, are an increasingly common sight in the suburbs and can even be seen roaming city streets, mostly at night.

They’re also a challenging quarry. Some hunters place bait to attract them but may spend countless hours sitting in the darkness and enduring the cold, waiting for the coyote that never comes.

Others use calls, but stealth, concealment and scent suppression are crucial because these animals will often circle downwind and watch from concealment before venturing into the open. Enough are taken that the more dedicated hunters continue their pursuit and while it may not turn the tide on Maine’s diminishing deer herd, it could help a few more deer make it through another tough winter.

 

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