(440) 286-9516Does Geauga County have Hybrid Coyote or Wolf/Coyote cross? I have seen (twice) a medium sized dark colored Canine running across the road in the SAME exact area at two different times towards dusk.
Does Geauga County have Hybrid Coyote or Wolf/Coyote cross? I have seen (twice) a medium sized dark colored Canine running across the road in the SAME exact area at two different times towards dusk.
The canine you have seen is most likely a dog, or possibly a coyote, since wolves do not live in Ohio. Coyotes gradually moved into our state, and all of North America, from the southwestern plains, as wolves were eliminated from Ohio in the middle of the 1800s and most of the lower 48 states by 1900.
Research and genetic analysis of the Eastern Coyote seems to conclude that the canine now found in all 88 Ohio counties is slightly larger than the southwestern coyote and likely has a small amount of DNA of both wolf and dog. Coyote expert Stan Gehrt, a professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University, rejects the term “coywolf.” He doesn’t even like referring to them as hybrids, which implies a 50-50 mix of wolf and coyote, and just isn’t the case.
If you see the canine again, you will know it is a coyote if it has a drooping bushy tail, pointed ears, a slender muzzle and long legs, but a dog if the tail curls upward. Coyotes are variable in color, so a dark-colored canine could still be a coyote, especially if the rest of the description seems to fit.
-Naturalist Dottie Drockton
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