North Central Florida Black Coy Dog

SkyPup

SkyPup

New member
This Black Coy-Dog showed up early one morning in the backyard and I just happened to be taking my dogs out of the house for a walk when I spied it off near my game cam. Got all five of the dogs in the house without any of them noticing the 'yote.

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Grabbed my SIG 556 loaded with 75 grain Hornady BTHP over 25.0 grains of Hodgdon BLC-2 in LC '09 brass with Wolf SRM primers and headed out the door.

Laying prone, I put the Leopold VX-R 1-4 Fire Dot Pig Plex scope on his heart and slowing pulled the trigger. A loud WHUMP occured 175 yards away and the Black Coy-Dog collapsed in his tracks.

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I also called a nice female in using my FoxPro SpitFire with a rabbit in distress call.

Got off work early one Friday afternoon and put some fresh batteries in my SpitFire and grabbed my Jack-In-Box decoy in the barn and headed out in the backyard to do some calling.

Setup the SpitFire and Decoy about 30 yards in front of my blind and walked back to my stand. Turned on the caller using Rabbit In Distress and within ten seconds had this female running directly at me across a pond prairie clearing of 250 yards. She was on the decoy-caller in an instant and I carefully put a 75 grain Hornady BTHP between her eyes at a distance of 60-70 feet.

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I had been after her and her male for a couple of months now:

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Got 'em!

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Yes sir, nice job. I do have a question, why specifically do you refer to the black phase as a "Coy-Dog?"
 
I thought that it most likely had a measurable amount of domestic dog DNA in it's bloodline as I have never seen one of these coyotes before? All the coyotes I normally see are either tan or have some grey-white on them, but nothing as almost total black as this particular kill is?

I am a human molecular geneticist, not a domestic canine expert, but I had always thought that this black coat variation was indicative of Domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) DNA in Coyote (Canis latrans), seeing as the coyote evolved here in North America and not overseas in Europe like the wolves and dogs did?

Perhaps someone can clue me in a little more on this?
 
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in taxonomy or a genetic specialist. From what I can determine in research done by such experts there are black phase coyotes that are just plain old coyotes – only black. The same as the red phase ones and the blond ones. Unless it has some distinguishing characteristic that would look very “domestic” only DNA testing would tell if it was a cross of some sort. I don’t think that could be determined by coloration alone. The southeastern portion of the U.S. seems to have that gene and while black phase coyotes aren’t behind every tree they aren’t terribly uncommon. Posters on this forum in the southeastern states will post a black phase coyote occasionally. I have never seen one here in the mid-west however I do have a friend that has a black coyote on his farm and he sees it often. The local Wal-Mart has one mounted by a local taxidermist that was killed around here somewhere. It is a beautiful animal with a white star on the chest.
 
A black yote in the southeast is pretty good evidence (used to be considered 100%) of red wolf DNA in the genetic woodpile.
 
Thanks for the information about the black coat gene.

This was a fairly large male comparatively speaking to the other normal coat color ones I have shot. I have 10 or 12 coyote skulls that I've saved from previous kills and I will have to go examine this ones skull a little closer to see if I notice any difference in the skull conformation or teeth pattern.

I will have to state that this "blackie" was in outstanding health and had an absolutely magnificent set of chompers on him as I made of mental note of how perfectly clean and white and unchipped his canines and molars all were. A perfect healthy animal with no external signs of any health deficiency.
 
Nice shootin, ive seen black ones here in Pa that had grey under bellys on them and every black one ive seen here seem to be small, healthy but smaller than average
 
Hey SkyPup, neat colored canine. Looks to be coyote to me.

I've seen a handfull of what I would call coydogs over many yrs hunting. All of those canines were on the large size compared to the typical coyotes I've seen.

Not only on the large size. But also had other differing body features vs a typical coyote. Such as, different shaped & sized ears, different shaped skull/muzzle & a different shaped tail. Compared to the typical coyote. Also one of those hybrids I seen had long flowing body hair.

Which in visual comparison it was obvious those canines were NOT all coyote. But some degree of dog/coyote hybrid.

As for coloration coyotes can be varied quite abit. I've never personally seen a live white coyote. But I have seen most any other varied colored coyotes.

Including 1-all red coyote, red as in apple red. Et 1-all yellow coyote, yellow as in bannana yellow. Both of those two odd colored coyotes. Looked all coyote to me. They also had the noted white crest/star on their chest & a white underside.

Yrs ago in Iowa there were quite a few breeders of wolf/dog & coyote/dog hybrids. They sold those hybrid off-spring on the open market. Those breeders done this for many yrs. Most have since quit cross-breeding & selling. I suspect that may be where some hybrids have decended from?

It is rare in nature, but sometimes a domestic dog/[feral or otherwise] & coyote will inter mingle & mate/breed in the wild. Producing hybrids.
 
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Thanks guys.
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When I first saw this black coyote I scoped him out real carefully for diagnostic signs that he was indeed a coyote and not someone's dog that had gotten loose, as he was almost two hundred yards out from my blind.

He did show the characteristic walk and movements typical of a coytote but he was rather large compared to other ones I've seen and killed. He had a real nice thick furry coat and tail, and a perfect set of teeth when I got up close to him.

I just walked out to the barn earlier this evening and closely examined his skull compared to another dozen coyote skulls I have and I could not notice any difference in the nuccal crest on top of his skull, the eye sockets, the symmetry of his skull, or any difference in his teeth from the other coyotes.

Of course, this was just a subjective examination of the phenotypical external appearance of his skull, but it appears to me for certain, that he is a coyote.
 
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