It's a coyote! It's a wolf! It's a... canid?

Canids are creatures you may of have never heard of before. That's ok because not many people would be able to look at a canid and identify it as one. Canids are similar to coyotes and wolves. That's where the confusion generates as people may mistakenly take a canid as a wolf or coyote. However, canids are smaller than wolves, but larger than coyotes. Some speculated that this was an entirely new species or a hybrid of the wolf and coyote. Canids are sometimes nicknamed, "coywolves".

Research and DNA testing has shown that canids aren't a new species. Canids are indeed a hybrid between canids and wolves. But they are much closer related to coyotes. In a way, canids benefit from having blood from both. They receive the street smarts of the coyote and the hunting ability of the wolves. Coyotes also have small jaws and skulls. The wolf genes give canids larger skulls and wider jaws, making them capable of taking down larder prey such as deer. Coyotes are unable to hunt deer. Roland Kays of New York State Museum has one possible explanation for the rise of canids. He says that coyotes from the west, mainly around the states surrounding the Great Lakes and Southern Canada that borders the Great Lakes, migrated over to New England and south-east Canada in the 1920s. There, they mated with wolves who had come from the east. To this day, researchers are unsure on how many canids there are.

Canids are found in New England as well as south-easten Canada. This puts us at risk if we ever run into one. Last year during the fall, a young woman was attacked and killed by two canids while hiking in Nova Scotia. When people see canids, it is easy to become confused on what you are seeing and dthere for it is important to remain calm. Doing methods that might scare away wolves might not work on canids. Likewise, techniques that worked on coyotes might not work on canids either. Although canids generally avoid humans, it is best to be cautious around them because although the canids might not kill you, they certianly can bite.

National Geographic Volume 218, Number 2. 2010