'Coywolves,' Coyote-Wolf Hybrids, Living In Roxborough

When Schuylkill Center Executive Director Mike Weilbacher began hearing more and more reports of coyote sightings in the Roxborough area, crews from the center went out to investigate. What they found turned out to be something a bit different.

"Coywolves" are what the center is calling the coyotes spotted in the area.

"Our staff has come across large tracks and droppings that may be coyote as well—we’re not certain," Weilbacher wrote for the Roxborough Review.

Weilbacher said residents in the area are experiencing an "evolutionary shift, in plain sight, right before our very eyes."

Weilbacher says as the state's wolf population waned over year and years, coyotes carved their way into the ecosystem.

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"There seems to be an emerging agreement that the new northeaster coyote is a new kind of dog, bigger than the western coyote but smaller than the wolf," Weilbacher writes. "It’s a coyote-wolf-dog hybrid, mostly coyote, yes, but with others mixed in. Some biologists have even suggested it’s a new species, Canis oriens, the 'eastern dog,' Canis being the genus name that dog, wolf, and coyote already share."

Weilbacher says Roxborough residents who have been seeing these coyotes, or "coywolves," are witnessing evolution happen in front of them, as the "coywolves" enter the area.

"So there are coyotes, or, better, coywolves, living in Roxborough," Weilbacher writes. "Let’s be smart, let’s be safe, and let me know what you see and where you see it. Perhaps the Schuylkill Center can serve as a central clearinghouse for new information about coyotes, and together we’ll learn to adapt to this new species."

Image via stokes rx, Flickr Commons