Newfoundland Coyote
To perhaps be a little more precise, maybe I should have titled it Eastern Coyote. But the strain that we have here in Newfoundland is claimed to be different from the Eastern Coyote ... larger and with perhaps some wolf DNA thrown in for good measure ... in other words, a hybrid. Who knows? The only thing I know is, I've been looking for a shot of these critters for some time now and I've finally got a half decent one. It was taken at 8:43 PM, though, and the light was failing, so there's still room for improvement. :-) I've seen them a number of times before ... some even quite close, but never had time to get a shot. I've even 'hunted' them with a call ... without much success.
The coyote is not native to Newfoundland and theories abound as to how they got here. Some even claim our Newfoundland government, in their inestimable widsom, surreptiously introduced this species to keep down the moose population. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if that were true ... after all, they did introduce the moose back in 1904 and we all know what a problem that turned out to be. Also, in 1958,they introduced the Masked Shrew hoping that it would prove to be a check on the larch sawfly, a forest pest. If they did introduce the coyote to keep down the moose population, it certainly backfired on them, though. Because it's not the moose that's suffering as a result of their presence, but rather our native Woodland Caribou. These pests are responsible for killing large numbers of them.
Most likely though they introduced themselves to this island province ... crossing over from Labrador on the pack ice which fills the Strait of Belle Isle in the wintertime. That body of water is only twelve miles wide at its shortest point, so it's not much of a stretch to see that happening.
We also have the wolf here now, too. So, it's anybody's guess how that got here. The wolf, after all, is said to be a significant predator of the coyote where their ranges overlap.
Newfoundland Coyote
To perhaps be a little more precise, maybe I should have titled it Eastern Coyote. But the strain that we have here in Newfoundland is claimed to be different from the Eastern Coyote ... larger and with perhaps some wolf DNA thrown in for good measure ... in other words, a hybrid. Who knows? The only thing I know is, I've been looking for a shot of these critters for some time now and I've finally got a half decent one. It was taken at 8:43 PM, though, and the light was failing, so there's still room for improvement. :-) I've seen them a number of times before ... some even quite close, but never had time to get a shot. I've even 'hunted' them with a call ... without much success.
The coyote is not native to Newfoundland and theories abound as to how they got here. Some even claim our Newfoundland government, in their inestimable widsom, surreptiously introduced this species to keep down the moose population. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if that were true ... after all, they did introduce the moose back in 1904 and we all know what a problem that turned out to be. Also, in 1958,they introduced the Masked Shrew hoping that it would prove to be a check on the larch sawfly, a forest pest. If they did introduce the coyote to keep down the moose population, it certainly backfired on them, though. Because it's not the moose that's suffering as a result of their presence, but rather our native Woodland Caribou. These pests are responsible for killing large numbers of them.
Most likely though they introduced themselves to this island province ... crossing over from Labrador on the pack ice which fills the Strait of Belle Isle in the wintertime. That body of water is only twelve miles wide at its shortest point, so it's not much of a stretch to see that happening.
We also have the wolf here now, too. So, it's anybody's guess how that got here. The wolf, after all, is said to be a significant predator of the coyote where their ranges overlap.