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hunters have seen and shot over the last few decades are actually varying shapes and sizes of the "coywolf." Dr. Roland Keys of North Carolina State University put the typical coywolf at 55 pounds, with longer legs and jaws than a coyote and an overall heavier musculature. Recent DNA analyses of 437 coywolves in the northeastern U.S. and parts of Ontario found the typical mix to be roughly 65 percent coyote, 25 percent wolf, and 10 percent dog. Organizations like the Quality Deer Management Association and the National Wild Turkey Federation have long analyzed the relationships between fawn/poult mortality and coyote predation. Many deer hunters have speculated that coyotes could even be killing adult deer, but researchers were skeptical of the possibility. A single coyote has no problem killing a fawn; a pack may even succeed in bringing down a weak or old deer. But a single coyote could not take on a healthy buck or doe in its prime and wrestle it to the ground. But for the coywolves, deer are easy pickings. One account from early 2015, albeit a disputed one by Michigan's DNR, had an unknown number of "big coyotes" injuring a full-grown horse so badly that it had to be put down on the spot—all while its owner heard coyotes howling in the nearby trees. Like the much larger gray wolf, red wolves have also interbred with coyotes. Labeled in 1980 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as extinct in the wild, red wolves have been the focus of several reintroduction projects. One of the most notable of these efforts was the introduction of captive-bred red wolves into North Carolina's Alligator National Wildlife Refuge in 1987. Four pairs were released into the coastal peninsula above Lake Mattamuskeet. Hunting there was strictly prohibited for fear the animals would be mistaken for coyotes and shot. In reality, the wolves weren't mistaken for coyotes but were taken for mates by coyotes. The first hybrids were noted in 1993, with many questioning if there is even a truly purebred red wolf left on the peninsula. USFWS has deemed interbreeding with coyotes as the greatest threat to the 50 to 75 red wolves in the area. What makes the coywolf so intriguing and vague is its ability to breed with wolves, dogs, or other coyotes to produce fertile pups. To be considered a unique species, a coywolf's offspring would have to be sterile unless both parents were coywolves. In either its original or hybridized form, the coyote has established itself as arguably the most successful predator in North America. Despite man's attempts to reintroduce wolves, cultivate bear populations, and generally foster the return of large predators to wild ecosystems, the coyote has become firmly entrenched in the North American landscape. With their clever ways of adapting to the ever- changing environments around them, their position at the top of many food chains isn't likely to change in the foreseeable future. n T he coyote is certainly one of the smartest wild animals, especially when its trying to avoid danger. I remember back in my teenage years in South Dakota when the men in our church would organize jackrabbit drives. Rabbit pelts brought a buck apiece at the local tannery back then and we'd give the proceeds to the poor and needy. Forty or 50 of us, all carrying shotguns, would surround an entire section of farmland and slowly walk toward the middle. There was no escape for the jackrabbits and we'd kill dozens in a single drive. Coyotes were also plentiful at the time, but I can't remember ever seeing one taken. The moment we'd start walking they'd slip out through gaps between the shooters or duck into burrows dug by badgers. Long regarded as shy and secretive, the coyote of today is a different breed. Not only is it more prone to living and hunting in close proximity to man, in some cases its behavior has become outright brazen. A recent case in point was a coyote that ventured into the Myrtle Beach International Airport in South Carolina. The animal was finally cornered in a TSA checkpoint where it was captured and later euthanized. Reports of even more daring and aggressive coyotes are numerous, particularly in the eastern half of the country where the predators are slipping into suburban back yards and making off with house cats and small dogs. Urban areas are seeing coyotes as well. A single coyote was caught in New York City in 1999; there are now dozens of confirmed coyotes within city limits, including a pack that made Central Park its territory. Ditto for Chicago and Los Angeles, which have both seen the canids move into town. Researchers have even found that coyotes will look both ways before crossing a road, something their equally prevalent neighbor, the white-tailed deer, has not been able to accomplish. Like beauty, the difference is in the eye of the beholder: A coyote's binocular vision allows it to reconcile an object's growing larger with its growing closer. Conversely, deer do not understand that a headlight's beam growing larger means the car is approaching. This difference has allowed coyotes to survive even better than the ubiquitous whitetail. H ybridization has been a key factor in the coyote's recent surge in numbers and range. The shy dogs of the western plains began breeding with timber wolves at some point in the 20th century, with their progeny showing a larger build and bite. Researchers believe that many of the "coyotes" S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 1 1 5 lynn bystrom /thinkstockphotos.com