I was really surprised at the size of their territory in an urban area...
I was reading a study that was apparently released in January of this year where a guy was studying Ontario coyote populations and states that pretty much EVERY coyote in Ontario is a coywolf although that doesn't mean 50/50...it just means there is some proportion of eastern wolf in every coyote in Ontario and that the gene pool here (and PQ and out east) are distinct from western and southern populations where the gene pool is "pure" coyote.
You know...for all of the chatter on the internet about the dangerous big bad coywolf....considering that they have apparently been here for about 100 years...and that there is only the one fatality attributed to them (out east..the poor young woman attacked in National park)....and given that deer populations are always high....they are not living up to their reputation....the combo of bigger size, stronger jaws....the boldness of the coyote and smarts of coyote....are supposed to make them far more fearsome than the wolves or coyotes....
A few years ago, a local farmer friend took me coyote hunting -- they hunt in the winter. They get together in teams of 4 pairs....each pair will park their pick up on one side of the concession lot and then they send the radio collared hounds....typically they will have two teams of hounds so that they can give them a break....when the GPS indicates the dogs are no longer moving, they know the dogs have the coyote cornered and the team closest to the dogs hikes in and shoots the coyote...often they have to shoo the dogs off it bc they are in the process of mangling it....while they wait for the dogs to corner the coyote, they chat on radio...have a good old time...and the coyotes carry a bounty which pays for gas and beer....in my area there are several teams of guys and they take out anywhere from 200 to 500 coyotes in a winter...
I think it's time to end the bounty on coyotes...and the hunting of them. They don't EAT the coyotes...and I'm not aware of the fur going to any use.....
A few years back, I sat in on a meeting with a biologist from the MNR and local farmers -- we have apparently a coyote problem up here....so the biologist talked about selective pressures and how coyote populations react to hunting etc....and proposed that they go in and neuter all the males they can capture in our area....and a farmer raised his hand and said "I don't think you understand our problem...we didn't say they're f*#$ing our sheep...we said they're EATING them."
