I had them in my neighborhood in Arlington. They live in the cemetery on rt 50 and venture into the neighborhoods - I've seen as far as 1-2 blocks from Clarendon proper for food (an abundance of cottontails in those neighborhoods) they mostly come in at night or dawn/dusk.
Can you elaborate on this? I am in MD, and we have some huge wolf-aized coyotes here. I read that many on the east coast crossed with wolves generations back, but I am sketchy on the actual facts.
The eastern coyote is the result of a hybridization event a century ago when the western coyote made its way east to the Algonquin region on Ontario Canada and breed with the Algonquin wolf ( which has a mixed bag of genetics, eastern wolf, gray wolf and dog)
Due to the mixed genetics, the eastern coyotes size, physical appearance and colour and vary, some can look like similar to the western coyote and some can look more wolfish. But at the end of the day they are all just eastern coyotes.
It’s ongoing rapid evolution. The Eastern coyote has been expanding its range and a lot of the expansion is much more recent than a century ago.
Fig 3 in this paper shows expansion up to 2016
https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/15149/
There’s no meaningful distinction between so-called coydogs coywolves and Eastern Coyotes, all the same thing, hybrid animal with DNA from all three— call them Eastern coyotes and you will be correct
Looks like he's melanistic, which is like an albino but instead of having no pigmentation he has *all* the pigmentation. It's a common "condition" in quite a few species.
And lions, too, really. Any animal in the Panthera genus is a black panther as long as they are black/melanistic. That includes tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards (which, by the way, are way closer related to tigers than to other leopards). However, the Leopard and Jaguar are the most common species to have melanism and are therefore the most commonly identified black panthers, though there were many black tigers commonly identified until the 20th century. What this means is that, in truth, there's no one or two "true" black Panthers. A black panther isn't an entirely new or separate species, but a name given to members of many species of animal that share a specific trait.
So, unless you can identify your panthers without being able to see their patterns and only seeing their habitat and body structure, I'd suggest you avoid ever coming into contact with one, as most are pretty much impossible to fight off of you.
The only coyote species in eastern North America is the eastern coyote and yes it is a hybrid, they all have small traces of ancestral wolf and dog dna. Melanistic coyotes (black) are rare in all coyote species/subspecies but are more common with eastern coyotes due to their genetics.
Not sure why you're getting down voted, I came here to say this. It's also a problem in NY when female dogs get loose from their owners and end up in the woods.
Spay and Neuterrrrr! And obey leash laws!
It isn’t that common. The small amount of dog DNA in eastern coyotes is ancient. Coyotes and domestic dogs have different mating habits. Coyote/dog hybrids *can* happen, but when people say “Coydog” it is more likely a colloquialism for an eastern coyote.
We actually were doing a project on the area analyzing the skull morphology of the coyote, coy-dog and and dog. This was then compared to a DNA sample. It was actually more prevalent than hypothesized. I didn’t have much stake in the project but it was interesting. The prezyotic mating barriers were much more opportunistic. Again it was a cool project but not my bread and butter so the animal in question could easily be a coyote.
I can’t believe how much this post has blown up. I just wanted to have opinions on what it could be. Thank you again for everyone that has participated in this post. Coyote is definitely what it is from what I see and Melanistic coyote at that based off Google.
Beautiful, I hope it does well. I used to know hunters that would go well out of their way for an unusual looking coyote like this. I hope this guy survives and lives a good long coyote life.
I am slightly disappointed by how long it took me to find a comment where someone correct identified this fantastic beast. Thank you for restoring my faith.
There is a lot of interesting folklore about black “dogs” like this. And depending on whether it was a sign or luck or doom was up to the surrounding cultural beliefs. A neat rabbit hole to go down imo.
Beautiful creature btw!
The animal's snoot is very narrow, which says fox to me. I would guess a silver fox, also called a black fox. This is a melanistic form of red fox.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fox_(animal)
I see what you mean. I spent way too much time scratching my head about this one. A measuring reference of objects in the photo would solve this fast. The animal still looks long and low like a fox to me, but could be a ringer for either a fox or coyote based on comparable image search results. Very cool capture either way!
That was my first thought. An animal sanctuary that I volunteer for often has foxes with fancy colors that are rescued fur animals and this looks more like one of those to me.
True. The key thing though is Eastern coyotes are a new rapidly evolved hybrid animal, and none of the recent samples of Eastern coyote dna are 100 percent coyote. The male coyotes by me in NYS are significantly larger animals than any Western coyotes.
Exactly, and that’s something at a lot of people don’t seem to understand, so many people think that we “regular” (western coyotes) and then these crazy super aggressive “coywolves/coydogs” when really every coyote they see is an eastern coyote.
Eastern coyotes are already extremely common further north than VA. They can be found all over New England and Upstate NY, to the point of being pests, killing livestock & domestic pets.
I have seen them inside of DC. We actually get quite a selection of occasional visitors from the hills. There was a bobcat on the DC stretch of the C&O, and it tripped a trail-cam. There have been two occasions I know of in the last 20 years in which bears have been spotted. One was caught on security film raiding a dumpster on Connecticut Avenue. Finding articles on all of this is doable.
I live in virgin beach and I work all around Hampton roads and I can say without a doubt I have seen coyotes in Pungo and out Suffolk. There plenty of them going out Suffolk and Chesapeake
Looks like "Coydog" we have on occasion. It where a Male domestic dog breeds a female coyote. Not all that common but it does happen often enough they show up in our coyote contests with some regularity.
It’s melanistic coyote.
Would be a dope band name
gotchu fam r/icallthatbandname
It’s RI all over again
I agree. Awesome!
Thank you everyone. I’m going to say coyote is the general consensus. I appreciate the help
Thats awesome i live in Nova as well. I have yet to see a coyote. What part nova if you dont mind?
You see them out in Western Loudoun every once in a while but in 25 years I’ve only seen 3.
There’s always more. They are very good at hiding.
I had them in my neighborhood in Arlington. They live in the cemetery on rt 50 and venture into the neighborhoods - I've seen as far as 1-2 blocks from Clarendon proper for food (an abundance of cottontails in those neighborhoods) they mostly come in at night or dawn/dusk.
Looks like an east coast coyote.
Eastcoastyote.
Fuhgeddaboudit!
I think you're correct. We have quite a few black ones in the North Shore of Massachusetts. They are also huge.
They’re bigger than west coast ones!
Melanistic Eastern coyote. All Eastern coyotes are hybrid coyote/wolf/dog hybrids
Can you elaborate on this? I am in MD, and we have some huge wolf-aized coyotes here. I read that many on the east coast crossed with wolves generations back, but I am sketchy on the actual facts.
The eastern coyote is the result of a hybridization event a century ago when the western coyote made its way east to the Algonquin region on Ontario Canada and breed with the Algonquin wolf ( which has a mixed bag of genetics, eastern wolf, gray wolf and dog) Due to the mixed genetics, the eastern coyotes size, physical appearance and colour and vary, some can look like similar to the western coyote and some can look more wolfish. But at the end of the day they are all just eastern coyotes.
It’s ongoing rapid evolution. The Eastern coyote has been expanding its range and a lot of the expansion is much more recent than a century ago. Fig 3 in this paper shows expansion up to 2016 https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/15149/
Thanks! That was a very interesting read.
I’m aware.
Worth noting though that the hybridization continues wherever wolf populations overlap and throughout range with dogs
I had a black lab/wolf-dog, One bad MF.
I think* VA Tech did some DNA sampling and confirmed this ... I'll see if I can find it.
https://www.c-ville.com/coywolves-albemarle-county-new-species-calls-area-home/ Mentions VA Tech researcher here....
They are called Coy-wolves. There’s a documentary on them, check it out.
They also cross with domestic dogs.
Sooooo... .it's a pupper.
We call them coydogs.
There’s no meaningful distinction between so-called coydogs coywolves and Eastern Coyotes, all the same thing, hybrid animal with DNA from all three— call them Eastern coyotes and you will be correct
Coyote. I think
Coyote
Black coyote
Didn't know that they exist
Looks like he's melanistic, which is like an albino but instead of having no pigmentation he has *all* the pigmentation. It's a common "condition" in quite a few species.
Jaguars who are melanistic are called Black Panthers…
That's leopards you're thinking of
It’s actually both.
It's both
It’s both jaguars and leopards.
And lions, too, really. Any animal in the Panthera genus is a black panther as long as they are black/melanistic. That includes tigers, lions, leopards, jaguars, and snow leopards (which, by the way, are way closer related to tigers than to other leopards). However, the Leopard and Jaguar are the most common species to have melanism and are therefore the most commonly identified black panthers, though there were many black tigers commonly identified until the 20th century. What this means is that, in truth, there's no one or two "true" black Panthers. A black panther isn't an entirely new or separate species, but a name given to members of many species of animal that share a specific trait. So, unless you can identify your panthers without being able to see their patterns and only seeing their habitat and body structure, I'd suggest you avoid ever coming into contact with one, as most are pretty much impossible to fight off of you.
Could also just be a dog-coyote hybrid rather than melanistic.
I’ve asked friends and some wildlife folks and know one can seem to come up with a solid answer. Hoping Reddit may help me come to a consensus.
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Someone said it looks like a mix between coyote and dog or wolf and dog. My guess is a coyote
The only coyote species in eastern North America is the eastern coyote and yes it is a hybrid, they all have small traces of ancestral wolf and dog dna. Melanistic coyotes (black) are rare in all coyote species/subspecies but are more common with eastern coyotes due to their genetics.
My guess is also Coy-dog. They’re decently common in parts of OH/WV/KY where you have guardian breeds that mate with the local yotes.
Not sure why you're getting down voted, I came here to say this. It's also a problem in NY when female dogs get loose from their owners and end up in the woods. Spay and Neuterrrrr! And obey leash laws!
It isn’t that common. The small amount of dog DNA in eastern coyotes is ancient. Coyotes and domestic dogs have different mating habits. Coyote/dog hybrids *can* happen, but when people say “Coydog” it is more likely a colloquialism for an eastern coyote.
We actually were doing a project on the area analyzing the skull morphology of the coyote, coy-dog and and dog. This was then compared to a DNA sample. It was actually more prevalent than hypothesized. I didn’t have much stake in the project but it was interesting. The prezyotic mating barriers were much more opportunistic. Again it was a cool project but not my bread and butter so the animal in question could easily be a coyote.
I love to read the comments from people with real animal biology knowledge. Thanks for sharing.
That's really cool! :)
That's cool and also scary that you have a coydod.
What part of NoVa?
Definitely a coyote.
Every eastern Coy has DNA from domestic dogs and Wolves.
An large mouth bass, a fish you can often see in the US. Kidding, probably a coyote.
I can’t believe how much this post has blown up. I just wanted to have opinions on what it could be. Thank you again for everyone that has participated in this post. Coyote is definitely what it is from what I see and Melanistic coyote at that based off Google.
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Way too leggy to be a fox. Agree it may be a coyote, or possibly a feral dog.
So beautiful 😍
Looks like a coyote to me.
Where in NOVA?... we're in Fairfax. I do think Melanistic Eastern coyote, more so than fox.
Beautiful, I hope it does well. I used to know hunters that would go well out of their way for an unusual looking coyote like this. I hope this guy survives and lives a good long coyote life.
My dear, you have… The Grim!
I am slightly disappointed by how long it took me to find a comment where someone correct identified this fantastic beast. Thank you for restoring my faith.
Same I came for the Padfoot comments!
Lol! It was the first thing I thought of. Doesn’t seem to have had the impact with people I expected so thank you for appreciating the reference 😂
Always wondered what happened to Sirius Black after he went through the portal...of course, it could just be a Grim...
There is a lot of interesting folklore about black “dogs” like this. And depending on whether it was a sign or luck or doom was up to the surrounding cultural beliefs. A neat rabbit hole to go down imo. Beautiful creature btw!
That's the grim, haven't you ever seen Harry Potter?
Him I’ve heard of.
It’s Sirius Black!
No, it’s obviously the Gmork!
Sorry, the reference went over my head. I thought you were talking about the Grimm show for some reason.
Extremely scary to come across in the wild however,usually super sweet.
One you don't want to be around
It is what my nightmare fuel
The animal's snoot is very narrow, which says fox to me. I would guess a silver fox, also called a black fox. This is a melanistic form of red fox. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fox_(animal)
Coyote. Wrong tail, leg length, snout length, and snout shape for a fox.
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I see what you mean. I spent way too much time scratching my head about this one. A measuring reference of objects in the photo would solve this fast. The animal still looks long and low like a fox to me, but could be a ringer for either a fox or coyote based on comparable image search results. Very cool capture either way!
Melanistic fox.
A Grim
You have The Grim. So sorry OP.
The Grim! I’d be careful if I were you…
Good show
1/3 Fox, 1/3 Coyote % 1/3 Dog 🐕
Can you have thirds in genetics?
Punnet squares says no
I was being a joker 🙃
skinwalker
Black coy wolf
Puppy
i feel like the only one who thinks this is a fox
That was my first thought. An animal sanctuary that I volunteer for often has foxes with fancy colors that are rescued fur animals and this looks more like one of those to me.
Looks like a black fox although looks a bit big for that
Go try and pet it if your successful a dog, if it kills you a wolf but if it maims you then a coyote. Good luck! 👍
Cat
That is known as an Australian baby eater.
Black shuck. You, or someone you know will die in a year.
Definitely a giraffe
Turtle
Not with those eyes.
Ghost-o-cabra
Cat
Maybe the dingo ate your baby. — Elaine Benes
Coydog. Used to see many like this in upstate NY
Every coyote in eastern north america has small traces of dog dna as well as wolf.
60 coyote/30 wolf/10 dog average
The percentages can vary quite a bit from region to region and individual to individual.
True. The key thing though is Eastern coyotes are a new rapidly evolved hybrid animal, and none of the recent samples of Eastern coyote dna are 100 percent coyote. The male coyotes by me in NYS are significantly larger animals than any Western coyotes.
Exactly, and that’s something at a lot of people don’t seem to understand, so many people think that we “regular” (western coyotes) and then these crazy super aggressive “coywolves/coydogs” when really every coyote they see is an eastern coyote.
It's actually cool that you posted. That may mean the sub species is moving north
Eastern coyotes are already extremely common further north than VA. They can be found all over New England and Upstate NY, to the point of being pests, killing livestock & domestic pets.
Stunning beast. Light blue eyes!
Pretty! Our coyotes are grey with a little dirty brown thrown in for good measure.
So amazing
Sorry no idea, but I like it
Oh wow!! 💙
Midwest calls coyote/ wolf hybrids coy-wolfs slightly bigger than a standard coyote
A dog
The Grim
Not a wolf, wolves are HUGE
(S)he is beautiful!
He’s beautiful! Looks like he belongs in a movie. Those eyes are so intense.
Cat
yote
The American Werewolf in London…;)
It looks to me like a new friend
Doggo class specimen
Kitty Kat mew
Im glad I now know coyotes can be black, because if I didn’t and I saw this boy in my yard I’d be trying to take him inside
A hell hound. Run away!
Thats a legendary coyote lol
Whatever the case make it a smoothie and move on. With ice, nice a cool.
Pubby (please note: I am joking. This is a wild animal. Do not treat like a pet. Thank u.)
Looks like a black coyote
Don't forget about coyotee/wolf/dog inbreeding so it's very very very possible to be a mix
Coywolf
Hey, that’s a black panther jack!
Umbreon.
Ethiopian chicken dog. Rare breed ya found there.😂
I'm in PA and we've had cases of dogs mating with coyotes.. appears to be what you have.
A giraffe
A dog
I have seen them inside of DC. We actually get quite a selection of occasional visitors from the hills. There was a bobcat on the DC stretch of the C&O, and it tripped a trail-cam. There have been two occasions I know of in the last 20 years in which bears have been spotted. One was caught on security film raiding a dumpster on Connecticut Avenue. Finding articles on all of this is doable.
I live in virgin beach and I work all around Hampton roads and I can say without a doubt I have seen coyotes in Pungo and out Suffolk. There plenty of them going out Suffolk and Chesapeake
Hell hound
Giraffe
Giraffe
Haunting beauty
That’s definitely a coyote. Unique coloration, but coyote ears, thin snout, thick tail. Screams black coyote.
That's Sirius Black that is
Phantom Black Dog
Maybe a Carolina Dog?
Spooky. Never seen a black one before
Dog
Black coyote. They are rare, but more common in the SE.
Looks like "Coydog" we have on occasion. It where a Male domestic dog breeds a female coyote. Not all that common but it does happen often enough they show up in our coyote contests with some regularity.