Island Nature


	The Island’s Natural Side


	The Island is home to a large range of plants and animals indigenous to the seacoast, to the forest and to the island’s latitude.


	The Coyote:

A relatively new addition to the Island is the coyote. Since the 1930’s the coyote has been seen in Maine, but it has only been in the more recent past that they have made their presence known on Hupper Island.

Stealthy and generally shy, coyotes run in packs. So if you see one, you can be fairly certain that there are others around.


	Traditionally the Eastern coyote is larger than it’s western counterpart, averaging 30 lb (for female) and 35 lb (for male) compared with about 20 lb and 24 lb respectively for Western coyotes. Although a hy-bred weighing 72 pounds was found in Vermont in 1998.

The larger size of these animals was once attributed to interbreeding with dogs, producing a so-called Coydog.

Paul J. Wilson of Trent University in Ontario, and Walter J. Jakubas, a biologist with the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife have both researched this over some years.

Mark Twain disparaged the coyote (which he called a cayote), saying of it;

“The cayote is a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry. He is always poor, out of luck and friendless. The meanest creatures despise him and even the flea would desert him for a velocipede.”
- Roughing It


	Their conclusion is that although crossbreeding with dogs has been done the resulting pups generally do not live to adulthood. However, there is substantial DNA evidence to show that crossbreeding between coyotes and wolves is much more successful.


	The Wilson/Jakubas study shows that of 100 coyotes caught in Maine for the study, 22% had half or more wolf ancestry, one was 89% wolf. Only 4% of the sample had Western coyote ancestry.

DNA profiles indicate that coyotes can be grouped into three categories. Most appear to be similar to Eastern coyotes found from New Brunswick to New York (and beyond). These animals frequently carry some genes that are found in wolves from eastern Canada.

The second group has a genetic make-up similar to Western coyotes and makes up small percentage of the total of East Coast coyotes.

The third group are hy-breds which have more wolf-like characteristics than the usual coyote.

The diet of Eastern Coyotes includes deer, while Western coyotes hunt mainly rabbits and small game. Hy-bred coyotes tend to be more aggressive and more comfortable in populated areas. Incidents of attacks on cats and small dogs are common, and there have been a few reports of attacks on small children. These critters are far less docile than their western cousins.


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