Just by Scientific and Geographical Analysis, Cased Closed Labrador Wolf?

[Brandon Pickett]

This is a follow-up to my last blog post: "Just by the looks, cased closed Labrador wolf?"

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Many people here in the province have different opinions of what that 82 pound animal shot two months ago really was. Was it a wolf; coyote; coywolf; wolf-dog or maybe even a woolly mammoth? I have the most probable answer below.

Wolf-dog?

Hybrids are illegal here in the province, so I doubt that's what it was. Doubt there are any "illegal" high-content Labrador wolf-dog breeders in Labrador either based on the population size and the resources that would be necessary to successively breed these beasts over successive generations.

You would need to keep it pretty darn secretive.

The comparisons do not lie. It has to be at least 99% wolf just by looking at it. If it did interbreed with coyotes it had to be at least 10 generations back. Which would mean multiple wolves were involved. 

Wolf; Coyote or Coywolf?

The fact Labrador wolves are perhaps the most isolated of all North American wolves (besides Arctic wolves) separated by the Torngat Mountains and given the abundance of wolves in Labrador, a wolf partner can definitely be found. The hybrid would therefore have been more than likely bred in Newfoundland. Which would bring us back to the idea that multiple generations of wolf breeding would need to occur just by looking at the comparisons I made in the last blog post, this would conclude more wolves are indeed on the island. 

Eastern wolves are the wolf species more than likely to breed with coyotes on a regular basis due to their location and smaller size in comparison to Gray wolves. Most Eastern wolves breed with coyotes in New York state because they venture where no other wolf populations are situated, which would mean they would have no other choice then to make a coyote its partner in order to spread it genes. That's why you get lots of huge coyotes and wolf-dog hybrids in New England. Wolf-dogs are not as common in Canada because they can find wolf partners. 

Here is how it goes:

Gray wolves bred with Eastern wolves, Eastern wolves then bred with coyotes venturing up the eastern seaboard south of St. Lawrence, thus a new subspecies of coyote called the Eastern coywolf was born. Much of the hybridization occurred in the United States where no Eastern wolves could find a wolf mate. The hybrid offspring of these animals then spread North to colonize much of North America, and then eventually Newfoundland .  

This is how intermixing between --Gray wolf -- Eastern wolf -- and coyote-- occurs.

Answer?

More than likely the animal was a Labrador wolf based on conclusions made above.

Transplantation or through Natural Migration?

There will be much speculation if the animal was transplanted or if it spread to the island through natural migration like the coyote did, although that is also up for debate.

[Brandon Pickett]

@ J, O'Leary

Do you have the photo from Facebook. It could be just some Malamute or Husky?

[Brandon Pickett]

Thanks guys! I spent a long time researching about this topic!

[J, O'Leary]

Good post by the way ,the more info given the better understood they will be ......both yotes,and wolfs....

[J, O'Leary]

Was shown a photo of what was thought tobe a wolf crossing a backyard in MT.Pearl .The pic was taken on sunday and was posted on facebook.Looked to me like a wolf ...its features of the face and body and stature ,dark smokey grey,almost black in colour.The first thing i noticed about its body stature was the black tiped razor that started from behind its head and ran down its back ...very intimadating looking .....

 

[Francis Ogden]

Very interesting......Thanks for the info, you certainly have done alot of research about this animal,

2 Thumbs up. Good Job!