coydog

{{Short description|Coyote and dog hybrid}}

File:The Clever Coyote (1951) Coydogs.jpg]]A coydog is a canid hybrid resulting from a mating between a male coyote and a female dog. Hybrids of both sexes are fertile and can be successfully bred through four generations. Similarly, a dogote is a hybrid with a dog father and a coyote mother.

Such matings occurred long before the European colonization of the Americas, as melanistic coyotes have been shown to have inherited their black pelts from dogs likely brought to North America through the Bering Land Bridge 12,000 to 14,000 years ago by the ancestors of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.{{Cite journal | last1 = Anderson | first1 = T. M. | last2 = Vonholdt | first2 = B. M. | last3 = Candille | first3 = S. I. | last4 = Musiani | first4 = M. | last5 = Greco | first5 = C. | last6 = Stahler | first6 = D. R. | last7 = Smith | first7 = D. W. | last8 = Padhukasahasram | first8 = B. | last9 = Randi | first9 = E. | doi = 10.1126/science.1165448 | last10 = Leonard | first10 = J. A. | last11 = Bustamante | first11 = C. D. | last12 = Ostrander | first12 = E. A. | last13 = Tang | first13 = H. | last14 = Wayne | first14 = R. K. | last15 = Barsh | first15 = G. S. | title = Molecular and Evolutionary History of Melanism in North American Gray Wolves | journal = Science | volume = 323 | issue = 5919 | pages = 1339–1343 | year = 2009 | pmid = 19197024| pmc =2903542 | bibcode = 2009Sci...323.1339A }}

Coydogs were deliberately bred in Pre-Columbian Mexico, where coyotes were held in high regard. In the city of Teotihuacan, it was common practice to crossbreed coyotes and Mexican wolves with dogs in order to breed resistant, loyal but temperamental, good guardians.{{cite book |last1=Valadez |first1=Raúl |last2=Rodríguez |first2=Bernardo |last3=Manzanilla |first3=Linda |author-link3=Linda Manzanilla |last4=Tejeda |first4=Samuel |chapter=Dog-wolf Hybrid Biotype Reconstruction from the Archaeological City of Teotihuacan in Prehispanic Central Mexico |pages=120–130 |chapter-url=https://colegionacional.org.mx/sacscms/xstatic/colegionacional/docs/espanol/lmza/lmza_icaz_2002.pdf |editor1-last=Snyder |editor1-first=Lynn M. |editor2-last=Moore |editor2-first=Elizabeth A. |title=Dogs and People in Social, Working, Economic Or Symbolic Interaction |date=2006 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-84217-124-0 }} Northern Indigenous peoples in Canada were mating coyotes and wolves to their sled dogs in order to produce more resilient animals as late as the early 20th century.Young, S. P.; Jackson, H. H. T. (1978). The Clever Coyote. University of Nebraska Press. pp. 121–124. {{ISBN|0-8032-5893-3}}.

The term is sometimes mistakenly used for coywolves, which are common in northeastern North America, whereas true coydogs are only occasionally found in the wild.Zimmerman, David. "Eastern Coyotes Are Becoming Coywolves". Caledonian-Record. Retrieved 2010-02-01.

File:The Clever Coyote (1951) Coyote dog mating.jpg

In captivity, F₁ hybrids tend to be more mischievous and less manageable as pups than dogs, and are less trustworthy{{Clarify|date=August 2021}} in maturity than wolfdogs. Hybrids vary in appearance, but generally retain the coyote's adult coat color, dark neonatal coat color, bushy tail with an active supracaudal gland, and white facial mask. F₁ hybrids tend to be intermediate in form between dogs and coyotes, while F₂ hybrids are more varied. Both F₁ and F₂ hybrids resemble their coyote parents in terms of shyness and intrasexual aggression.{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=Michael W. |title=The Dog: Its Domestication and Behavior |date=1978 |publisher=Garland STPM Press |isbn=978-0-8240-9858-2 |page=105 }} Hybrid play behavior includes the coyote "hip-slam".{{cite book |last1=Fox |first1=Michael W. |title=The Dog: Its Domestication and Behavior |date=1978 |publisher=Garland STPM Press |isbn=978-0-8240-9858-2 |page=136 }} A population of non-albino white coyotes in Newfoundland owe their coloration to a MC1R mutation inherited from Golden Retrievers.Zimmer, Carl. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130122152521/http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/21/snow-coyotes-and-spirit-bears/ "Snow Coyotes and Spirit Bears"]. National Geographic Magazine.com (Jan. 21, 2013).

Some 15% of 10,000 coyotes taken annually in Illinois for their coats during the early 1980s may have been coydogs based on cranial measurements. As the coyote population in Illinois at the time was estimated at 20,000–30,000, this would suggest a population of 3,000–4,500 coydogs in the state.{{cite book |last1=Hoffmeister |first1=Donald F. |title=Mammals of Illinois |date=2002 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-07083-9 |pages=271–272 }} Of 379 wild canid skulls taken in Ohio from 1982 to 1988, 10 (2.6%) were found to be coydogs. It was noted that "The incidence of coydog hybrids was high only in areas of expanding, widely dispersed coyote populations".{{cite journal |last1=Weeks |first1=John L. |last2=Tori |first2=Gildo M. |last3=Shieldcastle |first3=Mark C. |title=Coyotes (Canis latrans) in Ohio |journal=The Ohio Journal of Science |date=December 1990 |volume=90 |issue=5 |pages=142–145 |hdl=1811/23411 }} In a study of coyote–dog encounters in the wild, hostile and playful encounters were seen in about equal proportions.{{cite journal |last1=Boydston |first1=Erin E. |last2=Abelson |first2=Eric S. |last3=Kazanjian |first3=Ari |last4=Blumstein |first4=Daniel T. |title=Canid vs. Canid: Insights into Coyote-Dog Encounters from Social Media |journal=Human–Wildlife Interactions |date=2018 |volume=12 |issue=2 |doi=10.26077/ab4z-t030 }}

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