This coyote is gold in color.
It has no sabling, which is very much indicative of the genotype we see in domestic dogs.
One wonders if its coloration came from a dog– perhaps the same source as these white coyotes in Newfoundland.
Coyotes come in lots of different colors that have to have originated in domestic dogs.
But just because an animal has a little dog blood, doesn’t make it a hybrid.
These animals are overwhelmingly coyote in ancestry. It just means they have some dog in there somewhere.
Take another look. The coyote has black tips typical of dogs with Ay phenotypes.
I don’t see them, not even when zoomed.
The under wool is darker. Maybe you see that.
I think it’s even more simple than that. I think the tail is wet, and you’re seeing the skin underneath. Miley’s got black skin, and whenever she gets wet, the fur looks black.
Besides coloration are there any other known dog-derived characteristics that persist in these coyotes?
Beautiful creature
Wow, a dingo-colored coyote! I agree, Dave: this coyote does have the sabling, though; like a sable collie, you can see the shading cause by the teeny black tips throughout its fur. Nowadays when people think of “sable”, they think of “sable” (agouti) GDS, for instance. But this golden sabled color is the color I always associated with the term “sable”.
Unless DNA testing proved otherwise, I would call this a coydog. That being said, I agree that at some point, after several generations of backcrossing to one of the parent species, you have to accept the “other-colored” animals as belonging to that parent species, even though the color may have derived originally through a cross with another species.
I don’t see them. At all.
Let’s not argue over seeing things, because it’s a waste of time.
The only way you can tell for sure is to look at the whiskers. If they are white, it’s an e/e, if black, it’s a clear sable.
Do you know whether this animal has been examined up close, I mean captured & samples taken? It’d be interesting to know how it compares with coyotes in general & those Newfoundland coyotes in particular. Where was this photo shot?
I don’t know where it was photographed.
With an animal of that coat-length, the signs of sabling would be around the ears and face.
Yes, like sable smooth collies. That’s what I thought of when I saw this photo. Its fur is looks like that of a sable smooth collie.
You’re still going to have black hairs on a sable smooth collie. The sable you’re thinking of is what’s on a Finnish spitz. The black hair disappears as they mature.
Whiskers are not reliable. If a dog has a slight unpigmented areas, the whiskers might be white– merling, piebald and irish spotting will cause white whiskers. A more reliable way of seeing of a dog is clear sable or not is looking at the nose.
However, this is not Finland, where clear sable dogs in the form of the native spitz are very common.
The most common dogs that are producing the yellow pigment in North America are Labs, Goldens, and Chows, none of which is a clear sable. I believe virtually all redbone coonhounds are the same color as golden retrievers, though some have black masks.
OOPS should have said “sable” (agouti) GSDs
“Twas the biggerst darn fox I e’er did see!”
Well in Scotland they are over 17 kg now-a-days.
Good grief – that’s nearly the weight of my shar-pei. Our local foxes are not larger than I’d expect a fox to be, but I’ve never weighed one. They are always in good body condition year round and have a litter of cubs annually as they are best of both world foxes. They have access to acres with plenty natural prey. They also have kind hearted but misguided idiots feeding them. Last but not least, their street territory is just about where the drunks from town get bored with their takeaways and drop assorted chinese delicacies, fish and chip fayre, pizzas, kerfunky fried chicken and horse kebabs. They eat better than me – he-he! I expect one day soon the cubs will evolve to be rough collie sized instead of sheltie sized and duff my TM up when he tries to chase them.
Has some hint of black in there, still. It’s got sabling, trust me (although the pattern is more agouti to me, but it still applies). It’s not a recessive red, anyways, which is the no-black, full-red color you find in dogs.
Because of the reddish bits the white coyote has, it makes me think it’s probably a platinum color. Platinum is the lightest shade of phalomelanin (red). Indeed, it seems to have no black to it at all, so yes, the white coyote is probably a recessive red platinum, both genes of which are the least dominant. It’d either need to have bred from half-coyote siblings, or a wild coyote pair that’d carried these genes for generations before expression. Just cause you don’t see a gene doesn’t mean it’s not present in a species. Recessives can hide for very many, many generations before a pairing that both carry a color produces it.
Not the biggest fan of coyotes. They took my neighbor’s Basenji last year and ever since, I’ve been very skittish of them.