The City of Gloucester Animal Advisory Committee hosted an informative presentation on the Coywolf last night at The Cultural Center at Rocky Neck. Dr. Jonathan Way who is an expert on the habits of the Coywolf spoke for 90 minutes with a lively question and answer period which had to be cut off so we could go to work today.
As a real review, I’ll do that later since there is a lot to unpack. Jon said up front to hold your questions to the end but I knew I was not the only one busting a gut holding back my questions on such a fascinating topic. For now, I will just list a few take-home bullet points of things that were news to me.
• The coywolf is relatively new to the area but it is not an invader, not an invasive species. No one parachuted these coywolves into the east. They migrated naturally from the west to fill the niche vacated by the exterminated wolves. (Blame that on the pilgrims.) If coywolves are an invasive species then virtually every mammal on the planet including man is an invasive species.
• The coywolf wants to have nothing to do with humans. They also want nothing to do with dogs. They fear both. If you think they are stalking you and your dog it is likely because they perceive you as a threat to their puppies and are tracking you to make sure you are heading away from their puppies. Once you have moved far enough away, they will double back to protect the den.
• This bullet point was a shock: Given the size of Cape Ann it is likely that there is one pack on the island. WTF? How can that be? Coywolves cover a lot of territory each night. More on this later.
• Evidence shows that killing an adult in a pack can easily make the pack split and double in size. So shooting one might not be the wisest policy unless you want more coywolves.
•This last bullet point is the biggest. Do not feed the coywolves. There are plenty of mice, rabbits, voles, bugs, to eat. If you think you are helping them you are dead wrong. You are habituating the coywolf to humans and they will likely become a nuisance and have to be shot. Just don’t do it. Do not leave dog food outside. Make sure your bird feeders are not feeding them, don’t leave garbage out.
•• If you know a neighbor who is feeding them. Report them to the police, to the animal control officer, shame them on “Because Gloucester” Facebook page. Make sure they stop.
•• If you see a photographer who wants a photo of a coywolf putting food out to attract them, report them. Bang pots, make them stop. Shaming on “Because Gloucester” as a last resort.
A science observation: Jon described mitochondrial sequencing, Y chromosome sequencing, using SNP panels, all to figure out what is going on with this animal. From these data it is shown that our local coywolf is 30% wolf, 10% domestic dog, and 60% coyote. The cool thing is that whole-genome sequencing of these animals is right around the corner. That is what I do in my day job. Just five years ago I spent $15,000 to sequence one human genome. I can do it today for $1,200. Still a little pricey but that number will continue to drop and we will know a lot more as to how these animals are evolving. Because they are evolving. Each year, traits are selected for. If this new animal can avoid cars, mate successfully, know how to opportunistically hunt new types of food (coywolves are very good at eating what is available, rabbits, voles, cats), they give birth to smarter animals who fill the niche better. A coywolf who is hit by a car, cannot find a mate, or cannot find food, will not be passing on their genes. We are witnessing Darwinian evolution in real time. These animals are no longer coyotes. They have different behavioral patterns and phenotypes. They are not wolves either and they sure are not domestic dogs. They are a new species, canis oriens, which has stabilized. It is not comingling with actual coyotes, wolves or dogs, they treat all three as threats.
Shoot, I was going to keep this one short. So here is a picture of some coywolves that will be giving birth on Cape Ann around the beginning of April.
[Additional edit 2/28] I have received a bunch of email and messages about the number of packs on Cape Ann. My response and likely Jon’s response: No idea. Anecdotal evidence is dicey. The same three coywolves could walk the perimeter of their terrain every evening and every morning through the same 23 backyards. Would that be reported as 23 packs? An exaggeration for sure but they do lay out tracks that are many miles long. They are looking for something to eat, avoiding people and dogs, but also marking their pack domain to ward off other coywolves. Since Cape Ann is an island with only three leaks (coywolves love to walk the tracks) the pack size might be peculiar. The only way to find out is putting a radio collar on a couple of them. Except Mass Wildlife will not allow that. (long story.)
Is there one pack? Two? Has one coywolf been killed so the pack breaks into two and multiples? No way of knowing without data. From Jon’s experience of pack size on Cape Cod, there may be only one pack. But Cape Ann is known to be the more awesome Cape so Cape Cod data might be irrelevant here. 🙂
Go to this website here to find out why Jon has suggested a new name, canis oriens, for the animal that is living with us on Cape Ann.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Very informative! Thanks for sharing.
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Paul,
“Great post and very informative thank you!” 🙂 Dave & Kim 🙂
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Fascinating. Thank you!
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Thank you for this thorough coverage of an excellent and timely presentation. Thank you too to all who made this event happen. Hope we see more of these educational programs on the fascinating animals, domestic and wild, who make Cape Ann their home.
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I just know this Cape Ann coywolf confirmation has made you so very happy. I can envision you sitting on your hands during the presentation to prevent them from shooting up and waving for acknowledgement of your questions.
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I did have to sit on my hands. I go to three seminars each week that are informal where questions are asked constantly throughout the talk. Half the time the reply is, “Good question! I answer that on the next slide!” Jon’s talk is so loaded with good info if he did not tell people to hold until the end we would be there all night before he got to the fourth slide.
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Thanks! Could not get to lecture! Very helpful/informative!
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Thank you all for the replies. I am going to try to write an article about the genomic sequencing of this new species canis oriens explaining the difference between mitochondrial sequencing, SNP (pronounced snip) sequencing and the more complete picture one gets from whole genome sequencing.
The hard part is writing it so it does not bore the ears off you. I find the details fascinating but most don’t. Whole genome sequencing of prehistoric toe bones and various bits found in caves and we now know how are close relatives the Neanderthals and Denisovans fooled around with our ancestors. Before we were only guessing. We are removing the guesswork from us and coywolves because of the work that Jonathan Way and others are doing.
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I was also at the presentation.
A few points: Along its principal axis, from Eastern Point to Halibut Point, Cape Ann is about 9 miles. Its secondary axis, from Anisquam to the Eastern shore is about 5 miles. That’s a 45 sq miles. If we take off half of that for the surrounding water, that leaves 22.5 sq miles. According to:
Click to access coyotes_101_information-mass_wildlife.pdf
on slide 11 the Rural home range for a Family Group is stated as 20 sq miles. For a SUBURBAN Family Group it’s an average of 6 sq miles. I would say that Cape Ann is more suburban that rural. That would give you about 3 family groups/packs. This makes sense to me given the number of sightings – including the one last fall that was lying under our bush in the backyard in the middle of the day, 10 feet from our porch.
This doesn’t include anything west of the Anisquam River, where I bet wandering neighbors come in and out as well.
I found the “odds of being bitten” part a bit sensational, and a bit insulting. Humans are not rational about fears, we know that. The odds of being in a terrorist attack have been estimated as 1 in 20 million. For this we take our shoes, belts, and endure humiliation and long waits at the airport, all to get to the other side which has turned into a shopping mall.
http://www.lifeinsurancequotes.org/additional-resources/deadly-statistics/
When I have encountered a coyote on the street, I am nervous; it’s not rational, perhaps,but it may be part of our genes also to be afraid of a wild animal. Coyotes don’t have much to fear from me, but don’t tell them that please.
The debate I hope is not about the polarized positions “kill all the coyotes” and ” live and let live, pink unicorns and rainbows…”. Management of aggressive individuals seems to be what other places have done. I brought up the pertinent question to Dr. Way: “Do you have an opinion of a threshold for what would be considered an aggressive individual that should be taken out”? I meant, and he understood it that way, lethally. He replied that it was a very good question and that it was subjective, however he did state that an attack on a dog on a leash with a human would be a threshold to consider.
Does Gloucester Animal Control have the resources to be able to make a decision like that? I don’t know, but I hope the AAC will consider his answer as a possible threshold for that decision. I would like something even more strict; a coyote following (and not retreating) a human with a dog on a leash. Or attacking/threatening a jogger or bicyclist. Again, subjective, but necessary.
Lastly, I would encourage people to take a look at this symposium from 2014 in Denver Colorado. It was the conclusion of a 4 year study on what to do about the problems they were having in the suburbs of Denver. In Broomfield 3 children were bitten by non rabid coyotes. In 2013, during the study, a 22 year old adult male without a pet was severely attacked by 3 non-rabid coyotes in what was considered a “Predatory Attack” (i.e. a meal). He managed to survive by hitting them with one hand while calling 911 with the other.
If particular interest to me was Dr. Breck’s concluding presentation, if you watch nothing else I would suggest the concluding remarks.
Here’s the link
Rick Frank
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Rick, thank you for that additional info. We need real information and real data like this to even begin to understand what the coywolf is doing on Cape Ann.
I’ll point out two quick things before I get off to work. If we call Cape Ann “rural” a pack uses 20 square miles. If Cape Ann is really “suburban” a pack needs only 6 square miles. With Cape Ann measuring 22 square miles then depending on the metric used the number of packs can vary greatly from one to four packs. Throw in Dogtown, and our undulating shoreline and choosing which metric to use is a coin flip.
Another point. The Denver video is describing the Western Coyote in suburban Denver. While that animal will share many traits with the coywolf on Cape Ann, it is a different species. Different phenotype, genotype, different behavior.
I bring up both of these points not to refute any of your information. It’s all valid and great input. It does underline the fact we do not know that much about canis oriens living amongst us and we should write letters and encourage Mass Wildlife to stop hindering research that Jonathan Way is trying to do.
Without it we only have anecdotal information, how many pups have we seen, how many adults have we noticed in our backyard. This is the worst way to get a real picture of what is actually happening. using anecdotal information and we end up with Jenny McCarthy linking autism to vaccines. Common sense and anecdotal usually can come up with the right answer. But it can also be very misleading.
My bet: pack number on Cape Ann is dynamic. With the death of alpha animals, variable winters, the number can change. My guess is 2.5 with more than a few coywolves traipsing back and forth over the MBTA bridge just to confuse us.
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Hi Rick, I agree with your estimation of 2-3 steady packs with vagrants joining occasionally from off-island. I have located at least two den sites on Cape Ann (locations will NOT be shared!) and suspect there to be at least one more. I think a combination of food availability and the unique topography of our little island makes for smaller and potentially overlapping territories.
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You people are nuts, not a fan in any way.
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