Interesting observation.

[foxman]

I am in eastern kansas and have been trapping coyotes. I have noticed east of town along the river the coyotes are a dark reddish ugly coyote. Consistent with a southeastern coyote (canis latrans frustor) then just slightly west of town the coyotes look much better. Like a plains coyote (canis latrans latrans) so i looked it up and found a territory map and the town im living in appears to be the dividor of the two subspecies. I thought this was interesting.
-matt

[trappnman]

do you have a link to that map?

[trappincoyotes39]

A town as a divider for coyote sub species? Wonder why they don't ever cross?

In South Dakota I had good coyotes and bad coyotes and in Missouri more bad than good color wise any how, but a much larger coyote down this way than north on avg.

I am more along the thought lines of family genetics playing into color and coat contour than sub species especially when thinking inside of the same state and general geographic region.

[foxman]

[foxman]

TC im not saying they dont ever cross, or that simple genetics arent the answer. After having coyotes from both areas in my hands and noticing subtle differences beyond simple colorations i began to wonder. So i did some research. I also decided to weigh a few coyotes. Some from each area, and not enough to make any sort of real average. But did find the coyotes from the east of town river line were larger than there west of town counterparts. Not by a large margin but they were no doubt bigger and "wolfy" looking. The west of town coyotes were smaller, sleeker and have a much nicer coat of fur. They look like the same coyotes i was catching in central nebraska.

[arrow1]

Foxman the link is very interesting. Similar to how there are different subspecies of whitetail deer throughout the country. I have trapped/killed coyotes in New York, Texas, Iowa, Montana and Missouri and looking at the map and looking at the coyotes taken in the different regions undoubtedly they all look different. There is a "Whitetail Slam" that can be achieved by harvesting one of each subspecies of whitetail maybe the "Coyote Slam" is next? Great observation and good information.

[trappnman]

I'm kinda with Jarhead on the labeling of multiple subspecies.

I do believe we have regional differences, that are determined by genetics, and that most likely those "groups" are determined by the physical properties where they live.

there is overlap of course, but where they live determines their characteristics.

color is determined by gene pool- meaning the larger the pool, the more similarities in color, fur, etc. When you have a small (meaning closely line or inbred) population, the chances of recessive genes pairing up and giving us things like red coyotes, increase.

the reason regional differences occur over large time frames, is in large part based on the needs to survive in those regions-

if it would be possible to move a group of coyotes from one region to another, and let them breed undiluted from other coyotes (which of course is what happens, and the new coyotes are absorbed into the regional gene pool but lets imagine-) over time, those coyotes would , with the subspecies genetics, slowly turn into typical regional coyotes- IMHO of course.

[Jarhead620]

I agree Steve. In my opinion, splitting the coyote (or virtually any species) into 20 subspecies is nothing more than busy work for budding taxonomists with too much time on their hands. This kind of nonsense, though popular with late 19th and early 20th century biologists, has little or no biological or management significance.

Jarhead

[trappincoyotes39]

Don't know who made this map but NE SD is full of coyotes so the lines are too defined I feel. Ypur going to get a constant mix of genes specially in states that have predator control like ND and SD. breeding pairs come under a lot of pressure come denning time and genetics will be mixed about. I have never seen much of a difference from east to west in SD as far as coyotes go overall.

Not saying there isn't a difference in a larger range geographically , I have seen a BIG difference between SD coyotes and Mizzou coyotes for sure. But nothing I could ever define by side s of a county from one type to another is all.

Also Mizzou coyotes seem to be real close to years ago when I trapped in NE Iowa as far as size and color goes as far as I can remember?

[TRay]

I'm not shure that the subspecies map explains fur quality in coyotes 100%. In my area of NE SD, our coyotes are lower quality then the western half of SD, but much higher quality then Minnesota coyotes 100 miles east of me. Even moving 50 miles south of me there is a big drop off in color and quality of the coyotes. I know there is a lot of movement in our coyotes and would think that genetic lines would "wash out" a little over time.