{"id":12593,"date":"2019-06-27T14:45:20","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T14:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/?p=12593"},"modified":"2025-07-29T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T20:00:15","slug":"coyote-or-coywolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/coyote-or-coywolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Question: Which is the correct species of coyotes I have on my land here in Indiana, coyote or coywolf?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Coyote\"

Coyote (Canis latrans) – Photo by Alfred Viola, Northeastern University, Bugwood.org<\/p><\/div>\n

Question<\/strong>
\nCan you help me identify the canines that live on my farm? Are they “coyote” or “coywolf”? I have taken photos of the pups and have been confused on trying to identify them from articles I have found online. One article I found suggests a “coywolf” is something unusual; but another article I found suggests every canine we refer to in Indiana as “coyote” is actually a “coywolf” hybrid rather than a “true” coyote. \u00a0I would like to know. Thank you.<\/p>\n

Answer<\/strong>
\nThanks for submitting this question. You are correct that many of the online articles we find are confusing and contradicting, and if I might add often just plain wrong.\u00a0 The truth is all coyotes east of the Mississippi River have some level of wolf genes as well as domestic dog genes.\u00a0 What is recent, is that this was discovered regarding wolf genes.\u00a0 Not because of a recent hybridization event, but that new genetic technologies (specifically, next gen sequencing) allowed researchers to detect this.\u00a0 Coyotes we have now are no different than they were 50 years ago.\u00a0 The term coywolf is a poor term at best.\u00a0 It is misleading and its use should be avoided. News outlets use it because it captures viewers attention.<\/p>\n

In terms of variation in size and current hybridization, these things can happen but are very rare. The size of coyotes, as with people or any other animal species, can be extreme for a rare individual. \u00a0However, the vast majority are within a normal range.\u00a0 Published weights of coyotes average 13 to 15 kg.\u00a0 So on average, coyotes in Maine are about 5 lbs heavier than those in Indiana. So, a typical adult coyote is 28 to 33 lbs, you do find one that is 40 lbs or even approaches 50 lbs total. Wolves are capable of breeding with coyotes, but they will most often run them off or kill them as competitors for shared resources. \u00a0Also, we don\u2019t have any wolves around either.<\/p>\n

Stan Gerht is a researcher from Ohio State.\u00a0 His team has studied coyotes in the Chicagoland area for years.\u00a0 They have a lot of good information about them at the Urban Coyote Research website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Resources
\n<\/strong>Coyotes<\/a>, IN DNR
\nCoyotes (PDF)<\/a>, Wildlife Conflicts, Department of Entomology, Purdue University
\nShould I Be Worried About Coyotes in My Yard?<\/a>, Purdue Extension – Forestry & Natural Resources (FNR) Got Nature? Blog
\nCoexisting With Coyotes<\/a>, Wild Bulletin, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife
\nAsk the Expert: Coexisting with Coyotes\u00a0<\/a>, Purdue Extension \u2013 FNR Got Nature? Blog
\nUrban Coyotes \u2013 Should You Be Concerned?<\/a>, Purdue Extension \u2013 FNR Got Nature? Blog
\nPets Disappearing? The Cause May Be Coyotes<\/a>, Purdue Extension \u2013 FNR Got Nature? Blog
\nPermitted Wildlife Rehabilitators<\/a>,\u00a0Indiana Department of Natural Resources
\nHow do you eliminate a nuisance animal on your property?<\/a>, Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IN DNR)-Fish and Wildlife
\nUrban Coyote Research Center<\/a>, Urban Coyote Ecology & Management, Cook County, Illinois<\/p>\n

Brian MacGowan,<\/a> Wildlife Extension Specialist & Extension Coordinator
\nPurdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Extension<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question Can you help me identify the canines that live on my farm? Are they “coyote” or “coywolf”? I have taken photos of the pups and have been confused on trying to identify them from articles I have found online. One article I found suggests a “coywolf” is something unusual; but another article I found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[938,556,936,937,351,264,72],"class_list":["post-12593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wildlife","tag-answer","tag-coyote","tag-coywolf","tag-indiana-species","tag-qa","tag-question","tag-wildlife","audience-for-enthusiasts","audience-for-homeowners","audience-for-landowners","audience-for-professionals"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 17:43:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12593"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33679,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12593\/revisions\/33679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}