How the "black coyote" originated?

Teamroper

Teamroper

New member
A hunting buddy of mine up in PA and I were talking last night and the subject come up about the black color phase of coyotes that are scattered around. A friend down here (in Tn.) just got one last week and he said that there was a pair of them when he shot his. My friend in Pa. said that he showed the pic to some coyote hunters up there and they said that they never knew they existed.
So my question is this. Does anyone know how the "black coyote" originated or what causes the black color factor to come into affect?
 
ive seen 2 black coyotes in Pa. one got trapped the other got shot.....1 got turned in at one of the coyote hunts up here in PA. 2 years ago also..not sure where they came from .....
 
It's a genetic anomoly called melanism (someone please correct my spelling if this is wrong). I beleive melanism occurs statistically more frequently than albinism. I can't recall whether this is a genetic trait rarely expressed or an actual genetic mutation. Hopefully one of the bioligists will jump in here and give a little more thorough explanation.
 
Thats pretty cool. Explains the white markings.
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This season I finally came across the first black coyote I've ever seen. It was here in western Nebraska. He was running with a normal colored coyote. I think they busted us walking into the set because that just out sat out at 800+ yds and looked at us. After a while they started howling. Pretty cool stuff. From a distance, it looked like it had a white patch on it's chest. I'm hoping to make it back out there before I wrap up my season for 1 more crack at it!!!
 
Wow this seems like Dejavue. (sp)

I asked a biologist around here and he said it was just a color phase that they didn't know much about! And that he didn't know how rare it actually is whether one black shows up out every 100 yotes or out of 1000 yotes. I think it's somewhere between that number myself.

I know of three taken in WV in one year, hundreds of miles apart. My neighbor trapped a nice one, one was hit by a vehicle and the other shot by a deer hunter.

Here's the trapped one I would mount him in a minute but the guy just had him tanned. I'd love to get one in my sights!

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~HF~
 
I watched a female (not black) last spring with 3 black pups. As the sumeer progressed I received reports from land owners about seeing the 3 pups. Late that same spring (4/10/09) I shot a big solid black male about 3 miles from where the pups had been seen. Not sure what causes it but thay sure are some wicked looking critters. My buddies kids said it looked like something from a Harry Potter movie. Its in the freezer getting ready to go to the taxidermist for full body mount.
 
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