Archive for the ‘Education and Outreach’ Category
Coywolves
Maine has no coyotes (Canis latrans). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_coyote
The wolflike canid that ranges from Ohio to the Carolinas and northeast to Newfoundland and Labrador is not a coyote, but a hybrid of the coyote, wolf and domestic dog. The animal that we call coyote is more aptly named “coywolf”. Coywolves were first documented in Canada in the early 20th century and by the 1930’s they had reached Maine. The L.C. Bates Museum in Hinckley contains a strange looking specimen purported to be a wolf killed in Calais, Maine around 1910. It looks nothing like the coy wolves of today. Read the rest of this entry »
New Facebook Page About Maine Wildlife
I have started a new Facebook page titled John Glowa’s Maine Fish and Wildlife News. The purpose of the new page is to educate the people of Maine about what really is going on when it comes to the public’s fish and wildlife resources. There are many issues that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, radical “sportsmen”, and their allies in the press don’t want the public to know about. For example, they don’t want the public to know the truth about Maine’s misnamed Coyote Control Program and the tens of thousands of dollars that are being wasted annually with no scientifically documented benefit to Maine’s deer herd. Another issue they don’t want the public to know about is the growing number of bald eagle deaths in Maine, the potential health threat to humans resulting from the consumption of lead fragments in wild game, and Maine’s state government run Hunters for the Hungry program program that distributes wild meat to the public without x-raying it for lead fragments and without warning the public regarding the dangers of consuming lead tainted meat. Read the rest of this entry »
New DNA Study Supports the Eastern Wolf as a Distinct Species
In a new article by authors Rutledge et al 2015 eastern wolves genetic simulations, evidence is presented to support the existence of three distinct large canids in eastern North America, the gray wolf, the eastern wolf and the eastern coyote. Whereas some researchers conclude that the eastern wolf (canis lycaon) is a hybrid of the gray wolf and the western coyote, this article provides evidence that the eastern wolf is a distinct species. Furthermore, the article provides evidence that the great lakes wolf is a hybrid of the gray wolf and the eastern wolf and that the eastern coyote is a hybrid of the eastern wolf and the western coyote. It cites a prior study in which Great Lakes wolves were considered to be eastern wolves, thereby producing incorrect conclusions regarding the origins and identities of eastern North American canids. The authors of this study considered only wolves from Algonquin Park to be eastern wolves for purposes of DNA comparison.
The article states, “The recognition of the eastern wolf as a separate species does not exclude the possibility that a grey wolf x eastern wolf hybrid animal (similar to the Great Lakes wolves)…historically inhabited the northeastern United States alongside eastern wolves, and there is some evidence to support the historical presence of both Canis types. The recognition of C. lycaon should not, therefore, influence grey wolf delisting decisions in the USA.”
We at MWC again call for further DNA analyses of wolves killed south of the St. Lawrence River to determine their origins, their relation (if any) one another, and the possible existence of a breeding wolf population in the northeast U.S. and maritime Canada.