Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 84 lb coyote

Hope the DNR does some dna testing.
It doesn’t look like the typical coy dog, the head looks a little “wolfie” and that body is pretty blocky for a coyote.

Big and damn well should have kept his mouth shut.. mb

Afternoon, I'm not any kind of a professional but the nose on it looks wolf like. May just be frozen in that shape??? Embarasing story for Canada, Ontario specificly. An older couple near Algonquin park were watching some coyote pack for some time, claimed it was a new breed. Got on the internet & posted pics of the pack, said the ministry should protect them. They got all kinds of Bambi kissing tree hungers to back them up So the ministry who should have investigated them with a bioligest DIDNT !!! But they went ahead & protected theme as a new breed of large coyotes with reddish hair. Wow a new species??? Well they got requests from Sweden, Germany, Holland, & other countries to see the research they had put into this. Well the ministry had not put ANY research into it, SURPRISE. Well with egg on there face they hired a biologist (A real one not one with coaching) he told them before starting it was just another brush wolf,but!! After he was done, that's what he found. I bet you think they retracted the protection, NO went right on saying they were a special species!!! Amazing what pressure from the pet me pet me crowd can do. Now there also saying there are no timber wolves south of the severn river only coyotes, I think they should have told the wolves & coyotes. Now we need a special licence to hunt the timbers. Why is everything the government does is just an embarrassment & a big chit show??? Have you heard about the spring bear hunt BULL CHIT. GWPGUY. 🐾👣🇨🇦

Yep thats 100% all wolf, feet, legs, head, muzzle all wolf.

Mich, wisc. not the big of a state and the wolves live in northern have not that hard for one to travel south. Minn. has wolves as well and we get one from time to time that comes to southern part of state along with moose and Blackbears and yes cougars. Still have a pair of cougars hanging around and the bears as well, leave them alone they leave everyone else alone no big whoop.

Hell, I live in Missouri and there have been three wolves killed here that were traced by DNA, and in the case of one that had a radio collar, back to the Great Lakes wolf populations. We have even had a couple of moose wander down here from up north. That critter in the picture isn't a coyote.

84# Coyote is a little hard for me to believe, I kill Coyotes almost every day this time of year 35-38# Coyote is big here in S. Texas, I think Wolf or someones dog maybe?? Rio7

405wcf;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope you're keeping well, warm and dry in this latest blast and you're all well.

Thanks for an interesting thread, wolves and coyotes are something that I've been trying to learn for much of my life and have been attempting to shoot them for more than 40 years of it. I've been successful often enough with coyotes, finally got an Okanagan wolf to howl back to me this year and shot over top of one in Saskatchewan many years back.

Forgive me for repeating this story if you've read it from me previously, but it's instructive of how some wolves will go wherever it is they might have a mind to go.

Years back before the wolves had moved into our area, there was not season for them unless the hunter was First Nations.

So it was that a local FN chap brought a decent sized wolf into the taxidermy shop that was just down the road from us, owned by a father and son team that our family was very close friends with.

The taxidermists related to us that this wolf had both an ear tag and a collar, both of which they removed of course before peeling it.

They suggested to the FN hunter that he take them into the local Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources or whatever the Wildlife folks were going by back then, which he did.

When he took it in, the helpful bios tracked both the collar and ear tag and found that this wolf had been caught and ear tagged on the other side of the several mountain ranges in Alberta, then was one of the wolves transplanted into Yellowstone where it was collared.

We're about 700 miles from Yellowstone more or less, perhaps a wee bit less as the crow flies or the wolf trots, not sure.

Obligatory wolf track photo from this past fall, just a bit northeast of where I sit today.



That folder is a snitch over 8½".

In a couple other conversations with bios from the Ministry over the years, they've said wolves will commonly travel huge circuits quite often or at least our BC ones to.

While I'm far from an expert on anything, the biggest coyote I've ever shot here I tried to weigh on a fish scale that went to 25lb and it surpassed that easily. If I was to guess, I'd think it would've been high 30's, but that's guessing for sure.

Again still guessing, that photo looks more wolf than coyote to me.

I'd be curious to learn what it actually is, so if anyone finds out and posts it, thanks in advance.

All the best.

Dwayne

Agreed. The photos look like a mix at best, not pure coyote. I hope DNA proves me wrong for the sake of the hunter.

Osky

Osky;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the weekend behaved and you're all warm, well and dry tonight.

As a Canuck, I'm not exactly sure what would happen if someone shot a cross up here and it was out of the wolf season, which we do have, but is actually 15 days shorter than the coyote season I see...

We can shoot 3 wolves a year and NBL on coyotes, season for them is Sept 01st to June 30th and wolves stop on June 15th for whatever reason.

Is it likely if it's a hybrid he'll be charged?

If the state DNR say they don't exist and a hunter takes one as an honest mistake, am I correct in guessing it'll be up to the individual CO and then prosecutor to decide?

There was a bit of a dance up here in Manitoba years back when a US hunter shot the first recorded Grizzly and Polar bear cross, but as far as I know neither he nor the Inuit guide got any grief over it.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you care to share. Just curious is all.

All the best.

Dwayne

Dwayne,
I hope you had a fine weekend!

I agree with your assessment of the photo, it sure looks like a wolf to me (note that I have no experience with wolves). The location is the puzzling part. This is closer to Chicago than Michigan's UP!

The idea of a coyote/wolf cross is particular interesting for SW Michigan due to geography. There has been no documented evidence of wolves in the lower peninsula in modern times. Since Michigan's lower peninsula is surrounded by the Great Lakes, to come in by land, they would have to come in through Indiana or Ohio (where there are no wolves).

In the rare year when the lakes completely freeze over, it could be possible for one to make it if from the UP or Ontario. If it did, it then have to make it's way to an area that is densely
populated with people (by wolf standards) and breed with a coyote.

The question some posters brought up regarding the legality of shooting a wolf is also interesting. This was supposedly taken within a couple of hours of where I live. If I saw a big coyote in my field, I would shoot him and not worry because there are no wolves in the LP of Michigan....but what if? Would I be charged for not being able to tell the difference between a wolf and coyote when there are no wolves in the LP?

Interesting questions.

405wcf

There were no charges filed on the shooters of the wolves killed here in Missouri.

I live in SW Michigan, and there are no wolves here.

Not anymore

I’m no great slayer of coyotes, but I’ve seen a couple pretty monster coyotes. One was solid black and huge up at Catoosa. I knew the nipple was wore out on my Knight, and the cap fell off. Click. Coyote got gone.

I let a big red one mouse around about 60 yards from me one morning. It was muzzleloader opener and I was on a pretty big deer, so I let him walk (never saw the deer, of course).

Those were the two biggest I had ever seen, and they were nowhere near 80 lbs. I’ve shot a few that (GUESSING) broke 40, the two mentioned above might have been 60, but 80lbs is a BIG dog, much less a coyote.

There’s a reason F&G agencies tell you it’s illegal to shoot something that they just told you doesn’t exist……..

Looking at a map of the Great Lakes, there looks like a pretty wide swath of land between Lake Huron and Lake Erie from the southern part of Canada into SE MI.

Its real simple if DNR says they don't exist is for reason. they want to keep people away from harassing them so no one gets hurt or animal has to be put down cause some dumb ass wanted to get pictures or see how close he could get. just check out the stories on Yellowstone park, just more dumb asses running around.

Its pretty well established at this point that as coyotes expanded range eastward they bred (or probably more accurately REbred) with "eastern" Timber wolves.

All of the canids diverged from a common ancestor at some point. That fact that they are still mixing it up shouldnt come as a surprise.

A 40 lb coyote is considered pretty big in TX or OK , but it is commonplace in NJ PA NY.

Some a function of Bergman's rule, some from more recent wolf hybridization.

Kinda like the wolverine, that was living in northern Michigan for 3-4 years. Coyote hunters running dogs treed it. Took photos of it! ,I can't rember where it was but a couple of guys kept tabs on it for several years. Wood and Waters mag had a big spread about.

Kilt a few yotes. No official weights recorded but the big ones in the 40 lb range tops. Even kilt a yote once with a white/silver tipped tail instead of the typical dark brown blackish color.

Around here, wolves hate yotes and will run them down and kill'em.... But that's not to say some 'k-9 intercourse' could also go on.

With the precious grizzly recovery area thats claiming more of the west and neighborhoods within, now there has been a jet black grizzlly getting caught in bear trap after killing livestock... one even got itself shot mistaken for a black bear too. Of course, its a federal deal so everything is top secret. And when we get news or updates its already year or more past and not fully told... Like DNA and such.

But anyhow, 80 some pound yote' makes me wonder if something elts is going on like wolf or coydog stuffs....