For Wolf Awareness week Oct 19 to 25

Last edited Wed Oct 22, 2025, 04:18 PM - Edit history (1)

I saw a webinar recently hosted by Project Coyote and there were interesting discussions about Eastern Wolves, Gray Wolves and Eastern Coyotes interbreeding and that they could converge into one species in the future of a Eastern wolf and an Eastern coyote. Wolves are protected in some states, but not others. And in the states they are protected, they can be killed when they prey on livestock, however coyotes are not protected and there are even coyote killing contests.

The webinar had the following participants

Colorado – Mark Surls will share how the state’s historic reintroduction program came to life, what progress has been made in growing wolf populations, and how Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working with ranchers and communities to build coexistence tools, from depredation compensation to range rider programs. He’ll also discuss challenges ahead as wolves make their return permanent.

The Northeast – Chris Schadler will shed light on the remarkable story of the eastern coyote—an animal shaped by evolutionary forces and wolf ancestry—and what its presence tells us about wolves’ ability to return. She’ll explore documented cases of wolves in the region and the path forward to safeguard both species.

Moderated by Nadia Steinzor – Nadia will frame the conversation by reflecting on the long struggle to protect wolves and the encouraging signs of progress, weaving together the perspectives of our presenters.
(Nadia is the Carnivore Conservation Director for Project Coyote)

Eastern Wolves, sometimes known in Ontario as Algonquin Wolves, have a shaky taxonomical standing as a species. Sometimes they are considered a subspecies of Gray Wolves (Canis lupus), sometimes a subspecies of Red Wolves (Canis rufus) or sometimes a species on their own, Canis lycaon. There are also two different ecotypes (same species, but two forms which have evolved to have specific characteristics informed by their local environments), a larger Great Lakes Region form and a smaller Algonquin form. Both forms of the Eastern Wolf can hybridize with Grey Wolves and Eastern Coyotes

Study area with resident individuals plotted (approximately) at home range centroids with pie charts showing genotypes based on individual assignment to genetic clusters using Structure and PCA. >1 colour in pie charts indicates admixture. Pie charts are simplified to show 100% ancestry for highly assigned individuals, and 50–50% or 33–33–33% for individuals admixed between 2 or 3 parental clusters, respectively. Also shown are major roads (black lines), APP boundary (red line) and harvest ban buffer area boundary (blue line).

The global structure revealed the spatial genetic patterns extending from APP to the west, south and northwest (Fig. 6). Genetic differentiation to the west between APP and WMU49 was great and the cline was very steep; however, the differentiation was much more gradual to the south (into KH) and northwest (into WMU47)

(In biology, a cline is a measurable gradient in a single characteristic (or biological trait) of a species across its geographical range),




Eastern Wolves


Similarity of Appearance. This has to do with protecting coyotes that are wolf hybrids