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Coyotes are very curious! They will come to investigate almost any distress call or coyote vocalization. If they hear, smell or see anything unfamiliar it will make very suspicious. Success means trick alltheir senses!   However, you won't see them if : 1. There are no coyotes in the area! Scout first, unless you don't mind doing lots of empty stands. 2. They hear you! Sloppy approach often ruins the hunt before you begin to call. Any unfamiliar noise will spook them. Stealth mode is a must at all time. 3. They smell you! You know if somebody farts in your room. Coyotes know when something smells abnormal in there territory. 4. They see you! Can you see movement at 500 yards with binoculars? Coyotes wear binoculars permanently and they find anything out of place in a glance. Add movement and they vanish before you knew they were there. 5. They circle downwind! They'll do anything to smell their prey. They're willing to walk in the rough to get behind. Make it impossible or get somebody to cover the back door. I know I had many coyotes coming a few yards behind me before they spooked (heard them). 6. You call too early after getting to the stand! Impossible to be 100% stealth. However, little noise might spook coyotes, unless it's obvious it's a human. Once on your stand, wait at least 10 minutes completely silent before calling to let everything settle down. 7. You leave too early just after you last call ! Shy or suspicious coyotes will often come to investigate a sound more than 10 minutes after everything gets quiet. After you last call, don't move, open you eyes and ears and sit tight. 8. You call too long! If you use a hand call, coyotes will pinpoint your position pretty fast. As the time passes on the stand, shorter should be the sequence (like 15 seconds call and 2 minutes listening). If you want to play hide and seek with a coyote, the yote should be the one looking for you, not the opposite or you will loose. If you use an electronic caller away from you, you can let it run longer, especially if you add a decoy. 9. You try to call them in an open area in daylight! Most hunters try to call the coyotes in open areas. They don't like to expose themselves. They prefer to stay in cover, even when they circle downwind. They will be on the move more often after sunset and before sunrise. Hunting in woodlots is challenging and the coyotes feel safer when coming to the call. Tree stands are great is this situation. 10. You look at the wrong place! Coyotes often come where you least expect them. Most of the time, you see the coyote when it's out in the field. Coyotes will see you when still in the wood. They will often follow to the tree lines, fences, ditches, etc. Look for the white spot on their front. HUNTING COYOTE IS AN ART! IT TAKES PATIENCE AND EXPERIENCE! MOST OF THE TIME, YOU COME BACK WITH ONLY MEMORIES.. HOWEVER, THE ONES YOU'LL REMEMBER FOREVER WILL COME IF YOU FOLLOW THESE TIPS... GOOD LUCK!

140 pound mountain lion captured in LA-area neighborhood 4/11/2013   A large mountain lion found wandering through backyards in the Glendale area has been tranquilized and captured.   GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) — A large mountain lion found wandering through backyards in the Glendale area has been tranquilized and captured. Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz tells the Los Angeles Times that the big cat was spotted in a La Crescenta neighborhood. KABC-TV news cameras showed it scaling up and over roofs and backyard fences. Nearly two hours after it was first spotted, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers tranquilized the mountain lion, and planned to release it back in its habitat. KABC showed about a half-dozen officers carrying the animal estimated to weigh between 120 and 140 pounds into a truck.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted to allow hunters to kill up to 52 wolves in the state this fall.   CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission voted Wednesday to allow hunters to kill up to 52 wolves in the state this fall even as Gov. Matt Mead said he remains hopeful that Congress will act to exempt the state's wolf management plan from legal challenges he expects from environmental groups.   Game commission approval is the latest in a predictable series of state actions since Mead reached a deal last summer with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to end federal protections for wolves in the state. Mead said he hopes final federal approval of wolf delisting in the state by early fall.   The agreement would require Wyoming to maintain at least 10 breeding pairs of wolves and at least 100 individual animals outside of Yellowstone National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation. Wildlife managers say there are currently about 270 wolves in Wyoming outside of Yellowstone.   Under Wyoming's plan, the state would allow trophy hunting for wolves in a flexible zone around Yellowstone National Park, beginning in October. The hunting would last until 52 were killed or until the end of the year. Wolves in the rest of the state would be classified as predators that could be shot on sight year-round.   Mead said 90 percent of Wyoming's wolves live in the trophy hunting area. Although he said he's heard criticism that the limit of 52 wolves this year is too low, he said he believes it's appropriate.   “This was a complex deal that we reached and we don't want to break the deal,'' Mead said. “And we don't want to get down to that bare minimum, where disease, or an accident out on the freeway where five wolves are wiped out, and we go below those minimums.'' Mead said he's hopeful Congress will act to exempt the state's wolf management plan from any legal challenges from environmental groups. Congress earlier extended such protection to earlier wolf delisting actions in Idaho and Montana.   Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, had pushed to exempt Wyoming's wolf plan from legal challenges last year but the provision was removed from an Interior Department spending bill. Christine S. D'Amico, spokeswoman for Lummis in Washington, said Wednesday that Lummis continues to explore all options for how to protect the state's wolf plan. Many ranchers and hunters in Wyoming believe the state's wolf population has grown unacceptably high since wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone in the mid-1990s. The state has fought for years to try to get state control of the animals, repeatedly and unsuccessfully suing the federal government. The federal government accepted a similar delisting agreement from Wyoming in 2007 only to repudiate it as soon as a federal judge criticized it in response to a legal challenge from environmental groups.   Mead said he's heard environmental groups are intent on suing to try to block Wyoming's new wolf plan.—“Anything we have done on wolves, or that other states have done on wolves, is just a hot-button for litigation,'' Mead said. “But I would ask all those groups, number one, recognize that we're approaching this very conservatively, that we worked hard over a year on this plan, that I think it is scientifically sound. “It has been signed off on by the Secretary of Interior,'' Mead said of the plan. “It has been repeatedly signed off on by the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. So it's not just something that we came up with as just good for Wyoming. It's an agreement by a lot of parties that worked on this.''   Jenny Harbine is a lawyer with Earthjustice in Bozeman, Mont. The group has mounted legal challenges to wolf delisting efforts before. Harbine said Wednesday it's too early to say whether her group or its clients will challenge Wyoming's wolf plan until the plan receives final federal approval this fall. “I'll just say that the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service should only delist wolves in Wyoming if the agency feels like doing so would comply with the Endangered Species Act and has a sound scientific basis at this time,'' Harbine said. “If delisting rule in Wyoming is legal, then there's no reason to seek indemnification from Congress for such a rule.''

The Little Gal becomes a trapper Mia Anstine blogs about her daughter's journey to becoming an outdoorswoman in the mountains of Colorado. In this installment, the Little Gal traps her first raccoon   Read about it at the WON. www.womensoutdoornews.com

Wyoming ranchers and hunters fed up with wolves attacking livestock and other wildlife would be able to shoot the predators on sight in most of the state under a tentative agreement state and federal officials announced Wednesday. CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming ranchers and hunters fed up with wolves attacking livestock and other wildlife would be able to shoot the predators on sight in most of the state under a tentative agreement state and federal officials announced Wednesday. Gov. Matt Mead and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said they've come to terms over how to end federal protections for gray wolves in Wyoming — the last state in the Northern Rockies where the animals remain under federal management. Hours later, a judge rejected a legal challenge to a federal budget bill rider that removed protections for the gray wolf in the other Northern Rockies states. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, Mont., said precedent by a federal appeals court required him to uphold the provision passed earlier this year that stripped wolves of their endangered status in Montana and Idaho, and in parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether conservation groups planned to appeal. While some neighboring states plan to let licensed hunters kill wolves at certain times of the year, Wyoming would be the only one to allow people to shoot wolves in most of the state year-round without a license. Environmentalists swiftly blasted the agreement, saying it offers wolves too little protection and would fail judicial review unless Congress approves pending language to insulate it from legal challenges. Mead said state management of wolves is overdue in Wyoming, where many say the animals have taken a heavy toll since they were reintroduced in the 1990s. "For years, ranchers and sheep producers have been asked to sacrifice, and they have. We have lost significant numbers of elk and moose, and we have not had a say in the management of an animal inside Wyoming,'' Mead said. "It's time for that to change. ...'' Salazar has traveled to Wyoming repeatedly in recent months to work on the agreement. He said the gray wolf's recovery serves as a "great example'' of how the Endangered Species Act can work to keep imperiled animals from becoming extinct. "The agreement we've reached with Wyoming recognizes the success of this iconic species and will ensure the long-term conservation of gray wolves,'' Salazar said Wednesday. Environmental groups, however, said the deal doesn't afford wolves adequate protection. "We do think that it's important that wolf management decisions be based on science, and not on these kind of closed-door political negotiations,'' said Collette Adkins Giese, a lawyer with the Center for Biological Diversity in Minnesota. Under the agreement, Wyoming would commit to maintaining at least 10 breeding pairs and 100 wolves outside Yellowstone National Park. There are now about 340 wolves in the state, of which 230 are outside the park. Wolves immediately outside Yellowstone would be subject to regulated hunting in a zone that would expand slightly in the winter months to give wolves more protection in an area south of Jackson. Those in the rest of the state would be classified as predators that could be shot on sight. Wyoming's commitment to classifying wolves as predators in most of the state has been a stumbling block to ending federal wolf management for years even as neighboring states have taken over their own wolf management. Idaho and Montana are planning licensed hunts this fall in which hundreds of wolves could be killed. Wyoming has filed several lawsuits over the issue, trying without success for years to force federal officials to accept its plan. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went as far as helping Wyoming revise its wolf management plan in 2007 and approving it the next year. But the agency repudiated the plan just months later after Judge Molloy criticized it in response to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups. Wyoming's shoot-on-sight policy continues to generate controversy. Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey announced Wednesday he had written to Salazar questioning his decision to reach a deal with the state. "Science, not politics, should ensure the conservation and management of the gray wolves in Wyoming, should they be delisted,'' wrote Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., has inserted language into a pending Interior appropriations bill that specifies any delisting of wolves in Wyoming would be exempt from court challenges. Congress approved similar language earlier this year for delisting wolves in Montana, Idaho and other Western states except Wyoming. Some environmental groups had mounted a legal challenge in Molloy's court, but his ruling Wednesday said Congress had authority to shield the delisting actions from legal review. Steve Ferrell, Mead's policy adviser on endangered species, said Wyoming hopes Congress will act to stipulate that any final delisting plan for the state will be exempt from legal challenges. Ferrell said the federal government plans to propose a draft delisting rule by Oct. 1. He said it could take a year for the final rule to be approved to allow Wyoming to take over wolf management. The Wyoming Legislature will consider changes to the state's current wolf management plan when it meets early next year. Chris Colligan, Wyoming wildlife advocate for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, says the push to exempt the agreement from legal review shows the deal is politically motivated and not supported by sound science. "It says that Wyoming and certainly our congressional representatives, they know that this plan is not legally or biologically sufficient,'' he said.

A Southern California woman walking her leashed dog has been knocked to the ground by a coyote that snatched her pooch and ran away. California City Authorizes Firm To Shoot Coyotes LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California woman walking her leashed dog has been knocked to the ground by a coyote that snatched her pooch and ran away. Karen Sherif was on her usual Tuesday morning walk in Laguna Woods when she suddenly felt a tug on the leash and was knocked down. Her 12-year-old Yorkshire Terrier named Pooh was in the mouth of a coyote. The coyote took off, dragging the 64-year-old woman into the road by Pooh's leash. Sherif let go of the leash and neighbors rushed out of their homes to help. The woman's injuries aren't serious. Pooh's body was found about 100 feet away, her neck broken. Laguna Beach police Lt. Jason Kravetz tells the Los Angeles Times that authorities are looking for the coyote involved in Tuesday's attack. California City Authorizes Firm To Shoot Coyotes On the shady paths of this sprawling Southern California retirement community, neighbors have been told to carry sticks. TUSTIN, Calif. (AP) — On the shady paths of this sprawling Southern California retirement community, neighbors have been told to carry sticks. The menace is a group of emboldened coyotes who have attacked leashed pets, killing two dogs in the last week and dragging down pet owners who rushed to their rescue. On Thursday, the city of Laguna Woods voted to take matters into its own hands by authorizing professional exterminators or animal control experts who obtain permits to shoot the wild animals. Officials promptly issued a permit to one such firm, which is required to notify law enforcement within 10 minutes if any shots are fired, said Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Doan. The city — a network of gated retirement communities shrouded in trees — already has tried other tactics to round up the pack of roughly seven animals who, unlike most coyotes, don't scatter at the sight of humans. Officials used pepper spray to disrupt trails and dens. Tranquilizer guns and traps were also utilized. But most of the coyotes have eluded capture. "We just have not been able to catch the other four and the incidents just seem to be escalating,'' City Manager Leslie Keane said. Coyotes are often a problem in the vast suburbs in Southern California where homes are built right up to creeks and foothills where the animals roam. But coyotes are perfectly content to live in urban environments where the food supply outstrips that of the wild _ garbage, tree fruit, pet food and pets offer ample grub, said Kevin Brennan, a wildlife biologist with California's Department of Fish and Game. Laguna Woods is unique because the city made up of retirees has a median age of 77 — which has local officials concerned that such a tussle could take a bigger toll. But confrontations between coyotes and suburbanites aren't new. Jurisdictions including Riverside and the county of San Bernardino also have hired private firms to trap or shoot the animals when preventative measures to keep them out have failed, Brennan said. "What happens is familiarity breeds contempt,'' he said, "The longer coyotes hang around people, they lose their fear and they start becoming more bold.'' "Basically you should never allow a coyote to feel comfortable around your home. You should always scare it off.'' In Laguna Woods, two women were injured in the last week when they were knocked over after coyotes pulled on leashes to maul their small pet dogs. City officials said they don't want to wait until someone gets attacked by a coyote to take action and state authorities only get involved when there an imminent threat to public safety. One of the challenges is many retirees have smaller pets who keep them company. In the absence of their now-grown children, the dogs and cats often become family and are attractive to coyotes. Lorraine Barr, 92, said she took her 7-pound Yorkshire Terrier named Pumpkin on a late-night walk last week and was watching out for coyotes, but was still stunned when one of them went for her dog and ran off with it. "My wrist was yanked so hard that I fell forward on my stomach, and I'm a heavy woman,'' Barr said. One of her neighbors later found the collar, bloody. The dog was not found. Barr called the loss of Pumpkin "exceptionally difficult emotionally.'' "We understood each other. She followed me around my small apartment, and after her naps the first thing she would do was get up and make sure how I was,'' Barr said. "It's the hardest thing I've ever experienced since the first person I loved ended the relationship 65 years ago.'' Another woman, Karen Sharif, suffered a black eye, a swollen cheek and a cut lip when a coyote snatched her dog Pooh in the middle of a midmorning walk. Sharif refused to let go of the leash, and she fell on her face before eventually having to let go. The coyote soon dropped the dead dog, and she got it back. "Dog owners know that when they buy a dog, they're going to face their pet dying in 10 years, 15 years, but they don't expect to see the vision of it in the mouth of a wild animal,'' Sharif said. "That's what's causing me sleepless nights.'' But some in the community don't want to see the animals shot. Organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and some Laguna Woods residents have said the city could review other options before reaching for a gun. That includes Barr, who despite losing her dog to coyotes said she doesn't want them dead. "Everyone I know is aghast, and I'm aghast, at the thought of killing the coyotes,'' she said. "They serve a purpose too. I would hope that they could be captured and re-released.'' Sharif agreed, saying "I am not blaming this coyote. It did a natural thing.'' But Sharif said she learned from city officials that the coyotes can be trapped but there is nowhere to take them. "In the short run you've got to kill them, I'm afraid,'' she said. Officials say the problem likely starts in communities where residents didn't take measures to keep coyotes away before they got aggressive. Local officials have found leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes left outside, leading them to believe residents were feeding the wild animals, Keane said. That would lure coyotes to retirees' homes instead of shooing them away. Mayor Bert Hack said most coyotes run off when they see people. He said he recently spotted one take off down the street with a cat in its mouth. "We have dealt with this — it waxes and it wanes,'' Hack said. "But when people get hurt, you tend to want to do something about it.''

After a mountain lion was found dead near Greenwich last week, residents of the wealthy New York City suburb have been seeing cougars everywhere: perched on a wall at a golf course, traipsing down a scenic parkway, being chased by a pair of dogs. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — After a mountain lion was found dead near Greenwich last week, residents of the wealthy New York City suburb have been seeing cougars everywhere: perched on a wall at a golf course, traipsing down a scenic parkway, being chased by a pair of dogs. Officials say the dead mountain lion likely escaped from captivity and found no evidence of other lions stalking Connecticut. That hasn't stopped the buzz from permeating the essence of an idyllic suburb normally accustomed to worrying about geese droppings, the future of a makeshift Wiffle ball stadium and a proposed ban on leaf blowers. "Just five minutes ago somebody from Old Bedford Road said they saw it,'' said William Strain, who owns a store in the backcountry of Greenwich, where the lion was spotted. But experts say such sightings are notoriously unreliable, with people often confusing bobcats, coyotes, dogs and other animals for lions, especially amid the recent hullabaloo. "It's a big exotic wild animal that's capable of killing a human being,'' said Mark Dowling, a director with the Cougar Network. "I just think people are excited about something big, dangerous and exotic. I think people want to be able to say they've seen something exciting, extraordinary.'' He acknowledged, though, that it's possible more than one cougar got loose. State officials believe a mountain lion killed June 11 on a highway in Milford was the same one spotted earlier more than 30 miles away in Greenwich. But reports of more sightings persist. A woman walking her dog Wednesday reported seeing two ``hounds'' chase a big cat, and a golf course employee said he saw a mountain lion on a stone wall. Police in nearby Fairfield received two sightings of a mountain lion. A big cat was spotted in northwest Greenwich a day after the lion was killed in Milford and another motorist reported seeing one on the Merritt Parkway. The sightings prompted the closing of trails at the Audubon Center in Greenwich. Rashe Campbell, manager of the Pet Pantry store in Greenwich, said a few customers with large Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs have come in to buy brightly colored collars in hopes of sparing them from anyone taking up arms against a mountain lion. Dick Hoyt, who owns an outdoor trading shop in Greenwich, welcomed the animal. "It's pretty exciting to see something you would think you would have to go to a national park to see,'' he said. "It's just seems so out of place. It's great that there are a lot of natural woods that critters like that can survive.'' Some experts see a deeper reason for the phenomenon: A desire to believe in a comeback by nature. "There is something in us that needs this sense of wild, especially in the most drab suburban places,'' said Christopher Spatz, president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation. "The cougar represents that. It reanimates things for people in these places that are as sterile as could be.'' State officials say they believe the mountain lion found dead was kept illegally and either escaped or was released. They are conducting tests to determine its origins. Alan Rabinowitz, a zoologist who is president and CEO of New York-based Panthera and whose research in Belize in the 1980s led to the creation of the world's first jaguar preserve, said he agrees with wildlife officials that lions found in the Northeast have captive origins. But he said it's possible a small population of lions has learned to exist in the wild. "There's a possibility that they are surviving in small numbers in the wooded areas of the Northeast,'' Rabinowitz said. "Some of these could be multi-generational. Having once been captive, they are now wild animals. They are not just being set free as pets.'' Rabinowitz said there have been credible sightings of mountain lions around the Northeast along with tracks and hair. He said there is plenty of prey such as deer, and mountain lions are highly adaptable and secretive. But other private and government experts disagree. They say even a small population of mountain lions would be detectable through tracks, cameras set up by hunters and accidents with vehicles, but extensive surveys and investigations have failed to turn up signs of a population living in the wild or breeding. "The evidence is not there,'' said Mark McCollough, endangered species biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who wrote the report concluding the eastern cougar was extinct. "Even if there were captive animals released in the Northeast, we have no evidence that if there were they have survived for very long and left much if any trail of evidence that can point to a cougar persisting in this area.'' The closest possibility was in Delaware, where numerous cougar sightings were reported for a few years nearly a decade ago and then stopped, McCollough said. He said one or two cougars likely survived in the wild for a short period. McCollough's report acknowledges credible sightings of cougars in the Northeast. "Based on the best available scientific evidence, we believe these are released or escaped captive animals. Breeding, if it occurs, seems to be extremely rare, and there is no evidence of a persisting population established from released captive animals,'' the report concludes. Cougars remain out west and some have extended their range into Midwestern states. Some experts believe they will eventually make it back east.

It takes planning, practice, and some good old fashioned woodsman skills to sneak that close to a coyote without his awareness. by Tom Austin   The Wyoming sage peppered the yellow grass valley where a dozen or so head of Black Angus were grazing. White capped mountains in the distance warned me that the heavy snows of winter would fall here soon. I parked the Tacoma out of sight from the valley I planned to call and carefully snuck along the 10-foot deep, red-clay ravine, which split this valley into two equal halves. After gaining some distance from the Tacoma, I ascended out of the ravine and quickly sat down on its edge concealing myself with a sage tall enough to hide my silhouette. I chambered a round of Dead Coyote into the Benelli and began a stint of the bunny blues with a well-used FOXPRO, open-reed hand call known as the Lil’ Skyote. I groaned and wailed quivering tones into the call for less than 30 seconds when I caught motion right in front of me. Coyote! Totally unaware of my presence, the coyote came double time to my cries stopping seven yards from my feet. I decided that was close enough so I put the Benelli to work. I gathered my calling gear along with the coyote and snuck back into the ravine quietly so I could call this stand another day. At 30 seconds into the series, that coyote had to be less than 100 yards away when I started. The stealth approach to my stand location put another hide on the stretcher. It takes planning, practice, and some good old fashioned woodsman skills to sneak that close to a coyote without his awareness. I get a lot of opportunities to mentor newbie predator callers with my guide service, Predator Strikeforce. As a result of this, I’ve developed some rules for approaching a stand with stealth and precision. Rule 1: This Ain’t NASCAR Don’t rev and race your motor while approaching a stand. I realize in NASCAR this type of behavior will draw a crowd, but when predator hunting, you’ll finish last. Rule 2: Bumpin’ And Slammin’ Is For Gangsta’s Coyotes and bobcats could care less if you have 1,000 Watt’s of power crashing through your speakers. Keep the windows rolled up, turn the music down, and don’t slam the doors. Rule 3: Crossing Fences Is An Art—Perfect It Any sound you make while crossing a fence will travel both directions sending a telegraph to critters that you’re in the area. Cross as quietly as possible and if you happen to snag your delicates on barbed wire, scream in silence. Rule 4: Sticks And Stones Might Break Your Stand Stepping on sticks, crashing through leaves or tripping over rocks are all great ways to ruin your stand. Slow down, watch where you’re stepping and tread lightly to avoid making a lot of noise. Rule 5: Monkey See, Monkey Run Away If a predator sees you, that predator will leave. Don’t expose yourself while approaching your stand and expect to consistently call in predators. Plan your approach using the terrain for concealment. Most of us loved to play Army when we were younger, some of us still do. Figuring out the terrain, sneaking in on the enemy and planning the attack are all part of it. Apply these five simple rules, use some discipline, and make a plan of attack on a battlefield near you. About The Author For the past 26 years, Tom’s passion has been calling predators and because of that passion, Predator Strikeforce was born. As owner and operator of Predator Strikeforce, Tom has daily opportunities to hone his skills “hunting the hunter.” Predator Strikeforce allows individuals of all ages, both male and female, the opportunity to get up close and personal with the hunters of the animal kingdom. Individuals who embark on a predator hunting adventure with Predator Strikeforce have an opportunity to “get their 15 minutes of fame” through the film. Tom writes editorials for AR Guns & Hunting and authors a monthly column for Predator Xtreme magazine titled “Caller for Hire.” He literally hunts predators from Canada to Mexico and every hilltop and valley floor in between. For Tom, predator hunting isn’t just an obsession; it’s a way of life.

Wolves in the eastern United States are hybrids of gray wolves and coyotes, while the region's coyotes actually are wolf-coyote-dog hybrids.   ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Wolves in the eastern United States are hybrids of gray wolves and coyotes, while the region's coyotes actually are wolf-coyote-dog hybrids, according to a new genetic study that is adding fuel to a longstanding debate over the origins of two endangered species. The study is unlikely to impact the management of the endangered red wolf in North Carolina and the eastern Canadian wolf in Ontario, but it offers fresh insight into their genetic makeup and concludes that those wolves are hybrids that developed over the last few hundred years. Some scientists have argued that the red wolf, Canis rufus, and the eastern Canadian wolf, Canis lycaon, evolved from an ancient eastern wolf species distinct from the larger gray wolf, Canis lupus, that is found in western North America. Wolf experts who adhere to that theory say the new study is interesting but falls short of proving anything. They say it doesn't explain why hybrids appear only in some places and note that western wolves don't hybridize with coyotes but often kill them. In the study, published online earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Genome Research, 16 researchers from around the globe led by Robert Wayne of the University of California-Los Angeles, used information from the dog genome — the animal's entire genetic code — to survey the genetic diversity in dogs, wolves and coyotes. It was the most detailed genetic study of any wild vertebrate species to date, using molecular genetic techniques to look at over 48,000 markers throughout the full genome, said Roland Kays, curator of mammals at the New York State Museum and a co-author. In a previous study of the dog genome published last year in the journal Nature, a Wayne-led international team of scientists reported that domestic dogs likely originated in the Middle East and shared more genetic similarity with Middle Eastern gray wolves than any other wolf population. The recent study showed a gradient of hybridization in wolves. In the West, wolves were pure wolf, while in the western Great Lakes, they averaged 85 percent wolf and 15 percent coyote. Wolves in Algonquin Park in eastern Ontario averaged 58 percent wolf. The red wolf in North Carolina, which has been the subject of extensive preservation and restoration efforts, was found to be 24 percent wolf and 76 percent coyote. Northeastern coyotes, which only colonized the region in the past 60 years, were found to be 82 percent coyote, 9 percent dog and 9 percent wolf. In a study co-authored by Kays last year in the journal Biology Letters, museum specimens and genetic samples were used to show that coyotes migrating eastward bred with wolves to evolve into a larger form that has become the top predator in the Northeast, filling a niche left when native eastern wolves were hunted out of existence. The hybridization allowed coyotes to evolve from the scrawny mouse-eaters of western grasslands to robust deer-hunters in eastern forests. The genetic techniques used in the recent study allowed researchers to estimate that hybridization, in most cases, happened when humans were hunting eastern wolves to extinction, Kays said. "The few remaining animals could find no proper mates so took the best option they could get,'' Kays said. L. David Mech, senior research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Prairie Research Center in St. Paul, Minn., and founder of the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minn., is skeptical of the theory that eastern wolves are hybrids. "How do you reconcile this with the fact that gray wolves typically don't breed with coyotes, but kill them?'' Mech said. "We have no records in the West of wolves hybridizing with coyotes, even in areas where single wolves looking for mates have dispersed into the middle of coyote country.'' Mech also questioned whether the study tested enough Canadian and North Carolina wolves and whether those specimens were true representatives of those populations. Although 48,000 genetic markers sounds like a lot, it's actually a relatively small part of the entire genetic code, Mech said. So the evidence of a unique eastern wolf ancestor could simply be in another part of the code that wasn't analyzed, he said. Several researchers who consider the eastern wolf species separate from the gray wolf weighed in recently in an online discussion of the new study. Brent Patterson, a genetics researcher at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, called the study "an important step forward.'' But until more samples are analyzed, the hypothesis that a North American wolf evolved independently from the gray wolf was still viable, he said. "It's an academic issue,'' Mech said. "It's nice to know what the origins are from the standpoint of curiosity, but from a conservation standpoint, it shouldn't make any difference.'' David Rabon, coordinator of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Wolf Recovery Program in North Carolina, said the federal agency has taken the position that the red wolf is a unique species that warrants protection. The new study, while interesting, won't likely change management decisions, he said.