Are eastern coyotes true coyotes? Or a hybrid?

Question

I've been wondering this for a long time because coyotes in the east are as much as 2 times larger than the coyotes in the west. I have heard that eastern coyotes are not true coyotes but a coyote/wolf hybrid. Is this true? In the east some coyotes have grown as large as a german shepard. And coyotes in the east have been know to kill large prey like deer, and even cattle!

Answer 1

Coyotes are highly adaptable, in places where wolves have been extirpated the coyote increases in size and starts hunting larger prey in packs. In Yellowstone before the reintroduction of the wolf coyotes were hunting in packs and killing larger prey, essentially filling the ecological niche left by the wolves and because of this the coyotes of Yellowstone are now the largest coyotes in the world. Also in many cases what people think are coyotes are actually Eastern Canadian Wolves, a newly recognized subspecies of red wolf, there is still ongoing debate whether or not they are coyote/wolf hybrids but genetic studies seem to point to them being a different subspecies of red wolf. They also look like big coyotes and are often mistaken as such. The main distinction between the two is that when coyotes live in the same area as wolves they do not live in packs they are alone or in small groups, only where wolves are absent do coyotes live in large packs and become larger. In some cases a few wolves remaining after being extirpated have been thought to interbreed with coyotes and formed coyote/wolf hybrids increasing the size of the coyotes in that area, Eastern coyotes are an example of this.

Excerpt...
The eastern coyote (Canis latrans var.), weighing 30-50 pounds and sometimes even heavier, is the biggest variety of coyote. It is actually believed to be a hybrid between the western coyote and either the red/eastern timber wolf [Canis rufus (red), or C. lycaon (eastern timber) as currently is proposed] or the gray (Canis lupus) wolf. Historically the coyote was a resident of the western United States. It is believed that two factors played a key to coyotes colonizing the eastern states beginning in the late 1800s/early 1900s: 1) habitat fragmentation into agricultural and suburban areas, which provides plentiful prey opportunities mostly in the form of rodents and rabbits, and 2) an absence of competition from wolves, which kill coyotes when given the opportunity. Through natural range expansion, the coyote is thought to have reached northern New England by the 1930’s and 1940’s; it has moved steadily southward, now occupying virtually all-suitable habitat in the Northeast. It is thought that coyotes colonized eastern Massachusetts around the late 1970’s. http://www2.bc.edu/~wayjo/intro.html

Answer 2

Yes, they considered wolf/coyote hybrids and it is true about their size.
They are also consumers of berries, small animals,rodents and carrion.
I obtained this info. from the New Hampshire Game Comission.

Answer 3

Well, they're actually packs of werewolf people.