I seen an episode a while back on PBS or something and it was about some big stocky dogs that were part wolf… the dogs were kept with the sheep from the time they were puppies and thus they developed a very protective attitude towards the sheep, and were big enough to stand there ground to wolves..

I think ideas like this would help both sides of the argument…
(Farmers verse Environmentalist)

I grew up in Connecticut near a town that was named after the man who supposedly killed the last breeding wolf in that state. This story gives me hope that just perhaps he might have failed : ) I agree with DWA that it wouldn’t be too difficult for a few small packs of wolves to survive “under the radar” in these states.

I would agree with you that it’s unlikely under any normal circumstances. The wild red wolf’s social structure was pretty much destroyed, it’s fair to guess, by the time interbreeding with coyotes began. The gray wolf, on the other hand, has always had a strong presence in eastern Canada.

But it’s still something to think about.

[sigh] canids.

But gray wolves … not so much. Certainly wolves and coyotes can mate and produce viable, usually fertile pups. But, especially given the very large area where coyote and gray wolf populations overlap, instances of them hybridizing are extremely rare. Instead, where gray wolf populations are healthy, they tend to keep the numbers of coyotes down (compared to areas where there are no gray wolves). Even when gray wolf populations crash, they are more likely to just quietly go extinct in a given area than to hybridize with coyotes. That’s not to say that it never happens, but it is very rare. I’m not sure why that would be; I’ve puzzled over it many times. I think that maybe it has to do with gray wolves being animals that like to live in such structured packs. In the wild, very few gray wolves breed outside of packs. Red wolves, on the other hand, tend not to have such highly structured packs; often they hunt in pairs or small family groups, much as do coyotes themselves. Red wolves’ breeding season may be more compatible with that of coyotes too; I do not know.

Coyotes also tend to grow larger in the East than in the West. There are several reasons for this: there is more cover in the East, and a more reliable year-round food supply. Also, at the present, there is very little competition from other wild predators, although that will change as pumas and wolves gradually rebound.

Coyotes are beautiful, graceful animals. I just wish that they were not such enthusiastic procreators :). They are becoming far too numerous.

As the red wolf pretty durn near drove itself into extinction by doing. And as the easten “coyote” may already, at some point, have done.

[sigh] canids…

Our standard awareness would allow for unknown wolf packs–not super numerous, but some–existing.

This also aids in the argument for large, bipedal humanoid critters in the heavy forests of New England as well. As in a native population, perhaps.

I’ve said it before here: our actual footprint on the ground in North America - to say nothing of our actual surveillance of that area, much less the places we aren’t - is far, far smaller than most people, even a lot of professionals, believe it is.

Every state in New England could be supporting at least one wolf pack right now without science knowing about it. I’d almost be willing to bet on it, what with this incident.

What we think should and should not be in a place is information that is being pretty much continuously outdated.

Said another way: if you’re not looking for it, you might not see it.

And of course this has implications for a species we talk about here that might be a weetad smarter, warier and more asocial than Canis lupus.

Just tossing that in.