Quote:
Originally Posted by Laneco
I've been playing in the woods on the west coast all of my life. Something I've noticed is that the coyotes in the urban and near to urban areas are bigger than they used to be. No scientific data on this, but I'd say they've picked up close to 15 pounds and 3 or 4 inches of height. Their carriage is also different, heads up, no slinking/slouching. They cruise like they own the area.
I suspect they've crossbred with dogs and/or wolves/wolf hybrids, out here as well. Probably wolves up in the north and more likely dogs in the south.
angela
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I've been bumming around the northwest woods all of my life as well, and I kinda thought I was noticing the same thing, starting oh, maybe 15-20 years ago. I'm glad someone else has noticed this too.
I've shot a fairly decent pile of coyotes in my day, well into the several hundreds. We used to get real money for them... I would say the average adult male went less than thirty pounds. These were all out of the dryer parts of eastern Washington, where we could set up and call in open, rolling sagebrush covered hills. I quit doing this actively probably 25 years ago, but I'll still wander on over to my favorite spots on the odd occasion and have a peek.
Both numbers and average size appear to be up. If there were still any money in it, it might be fun to go over and pop a few, just to see if there is anything to this. I wonder, though, what fate may await anyone unlucky enough to shoot a hybrid...