coyote subspecies

Hey Rich, I notice in a lot of the videos shot in the southwest, there are a lot of large eared coyotes out there. I take it that is one subspecies trait. Is that correct?

All the coyotes I have seen here have ears more in proportion with the head.In one area the deep barreled chest is common and in others it is not.The deep barreled animals are also more massive in the hip. Are there subspecies with these traits? Jimmie
 
would that not be the other way around jimmy? the coyotes east of the mississippi would be the sub species. the southwestern coyotes are "normal" and the eastern coyotes look different. i know it's apples and oranges but...... i don't believe that a large coyote has to be a cross with a wolf or other large canine. maybe it is just genetic. say i shot a 300 lb. deer, and all the others i had ever laid eyes on were 200 lb.'s. i wouldn't just assume that the deer had bred with a horse because it was the only one i had ever seen that was that large. it's possible that in that remote area that you said you were hunting that is just the way they are. they sure do look good though. i vote for alien abduction and insemination.
 
There are many subspecies, each with slightly diferent traits. These traits give apearance as well as size to them.

I have seen videos done in diferent parts of the southwest where the ears were distinctly diferent from those in another part of the same region. So possibly I am seeing two subspecies in the same video.

In the east I think we have a large mix of several diferent subspecies from many areas. This hybrid vigor is one possibility to the larger size we have.

In breeding livestock we have many breeds. But when we cross breed some we get what we call hybrid vigor. All it is really, is a change of the genetic code for certain traits of the breeds involved.By doing this we get faster growing and larger animals.Jimmie
 
Bergman's Rule is a basic biological principle that says a species in northern climates will be larger than it's counterpart in southern climates. Thus large whitetail in Canada vs Texas etc. The same can be said for coyotes. Also, animals in warmer climates will have proportionally larger appendages (ears, legs etc) to dissipate heat better versas shorter appendages for northern species, which helps them conserve energy. These are what we call "traits" and not necessarily sub-species. I'm not a splitter but a lumper and therefore a coyote is a coyote. Be it Canada or Florida, they just exibit different traits.
 
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