Thanks Robb,
I noticed that, and must've picked up the misspelling there too. I am dyslexic, and type pretty slow, so I use cut and paste for a lot of words. (imagine how long it must take me to write one of these? lol)
But I originally picked the theory up from Gerry Blair's book, and just went and re-read that part...
He calls it Bergstrom's rule!?! LOL
So who knows what the spelling is? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
So I suppose you noticed at "that other place", where someone said they have identified something like 16 subspecies of coyotes?
Didn't the coyote in the east make an "end around" run through northern Canada or something like that? I mean yes a coyote did hop a train here once, but it's not like they got on I-90 and headed to Pennsilvania or anything...
So it would seem to me that ________'s rule (which almost all hunters and high school biology students know) is even more likely to be the actual deal.
And that the more aggressive behavior might be due to familiarity with humans due to more crowded conditions from urban sprawl, much like in southern Califonia, where attacks on pet's and children in broad daylight are becoming more and more common.
They also discussed at "that other place" (which is a nice place) something to the effect of... the skinned out carcasses without the longer thicker hair a fatted hides were weighing much closer to the same.
And then there is, as Gerry himself pointed out so well, honesty, intended and not... "an acurate scale can cause a 20 pound fox to reduce by half"
I saw the same thing happen to some of the best, at the NW Rendezvous... some guesses were tossed around, and those dogs all weighed a lot less then the numbers tossed out, they must've dried out like bass on a sunny day! lol The grizzled old vet's like Curt and Jerry, and a couple others were close, but all the rest of em....
So until they start doing a "creel count" type of data gathering with a sampling of genetic material (like the way the fishchecker here will take some fishscales and weight and size measurements of all the fish cuaght in some sports fisheries) from hides or carcasses we will never know for sure if they are wolves or beagles...
As for the question of media hype I would say yes... and the media is the internet! HAHAhaha
Look up there a couple posts Bopeye (not to pick on you, this is just in fun) wants everybody to know there is an invisible line across the continent that magically make coyotes smaller, dumber, more prolific breeders, and that they don't require "nearly the skills needed back East" to kill... heck the guys in Pa want y'all to know we have suicidal yotes, linin' up at the ends of our barrels! LOL
So maybe this comes down to egos as much as genetics... a little friendly east west rivalry?
Because even you, Robb, gotta admit eastern dudes are just a bunch of sissies, especially the southeast! The west would chew 'em up... that's why they stayed back there! Hahaha
ANY of you guys is welcome to come stay at my house, take me out here in MY part of the west and show me how good you are! I'll pack lunch! I could surely use some schoolin'!
Jeff /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
P.S. I didn't know you frequented "that other place"... Lots of other guys from this site do... That is a great discussion about this very subject isn't it?