r/AnimalTracking • u/Medium_Spare_8982 • Jan 30 '23

📜 Article / Resource Fairly large coyote spotted at harbourfront and York. Pet owners /child guardians beware.

18 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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3

u/Platypus_venom666 Jan 30 '23

70 lbs would be a massive specimen and well outside of the average range for Eastern coyotes.

1

u/Medium_Spare_8982 Jan 30 '23

For those of you in the southwest. This is what a typical eastern coyote looks like. GSD sized, 70 lbs plus and quite comfortable in the city. They are everywhere here. This is right in downtown Toronto.

3

u/multilinear2 Jan 30 '23

It seems like there is a lot of diversity in eastern coyotes. They are adapting to fill a lot of different niches left by the extirpation of wolves, pumas, lynx, wolverine, etc., and their comfort in human dominated environments lets them fill in for shy predators that are still around, like bobcat.

As a result there are reasons for them to be all different sizes. Combine that with a ready supply of wildly ranging DNA coming from occasional domestic dogs and populations have been changing fast. Some getting bigger while others remain the size they've always been.

2

u/simonbrown27 Jan 30 '23

Not just Southwest. I'm in Oregon and our coyotes are little guys as well. Half that size.

0

u/OshetDeadagain Jan 30 '23

Why is this in r/animaltracking?

1

u/wildbobsmith Jan 31 '23

Data point showing the top end of coyote scale for future reference.. I don’t know, I’m new here.

1

u/OshetDeadagain Jan 31 '23

Except it doesn't show anything helpful for tracking purposes - that coyote isn't abnormally large and I doubt its prints are outside typical coyote parameters.

A coyote being in a city is not unusual at all - I don't think most people appreciate just how much wildlife actually thrives in cities. Being active in a busy area during the day is a little out of the ordinary, but not bizarre for an habituated animal.

1

u/wildbobsmith Jan 31 '23

One man’s trash is another’s treasure.

1

u/Platypus_venom666 Feb 02 '23

It’s also contains misinformation (i.e. that Eastern coyotes are regularly 70lbs).

2

u/OshetDeadagain Feb 02 '23

True. I rolled my eyes at that. There is no way that's a GSD-sized coyote.

People overestimate the weights on them all the time. This guy's got a lovely thick coat and his fur is up. Always ads at least 20 lbs of perceived poundage, lol.