Melanistic coyote?

[pens fan]

So a guy shoots this coyote. For reference, that Boykin Spaniel is 34 pounds and two years old.
So what do you think, yote or wolf?

[KFhunter]

Wolf

[lewy]

My ol man had a pack of coyotes go by his deer stand a few years back with one he described to look just like that

[bornhunter]

Shot a ton of coyotes and although it looks small for a wolf, never seen a coyote that looks like that.

[Okanagan]

Coyote.

I shot a 35 lb. coyote near Sumas, weighed on a scale, and have killed bigger ones.  Where was this pic taken?  It looks more eastern or southeastern than most places in WA.  Coyotes get much bigger and heavier in the East, and there are regions in the southeast where black coyotes are more common than in the far west.

I’ve seen two black coyotes in my life, one in B.C and one right along the border near Blaine.

[LDennis24]

Coyote

[HighlandLofts]

Quit being racist, BLACK COYOTES MATTER

[pens fan]

Virginia

[millerwheeler]

100% coyote

[Tracker0721]

White tip on the tail gives it away that it’s coyote, usually if wolves are gonna have tips they’re black tips. Heard rumor that the white tip was from domestic dog genes getting in the bloodline. Dunno if that’s true. Plus the head shape looks like coyote as does the body. Compared to your dog that’s a common size yote too. Plus if you’re in Virginia then it’d be a red wolf and there were no recorded black ones like how the grey wolves have them. I’d definitely keep that fur on the wall!

[nwwanderer]

Have seen similar where a bunch of domestic crossing happens.  Oklahoma for sure.  Have not come across one that dark here

[Cougartail]

It's a coyote in a wolf's clothing. Cross dresser.

[Ironhead]

Coydog...hybrid

[pianoman9701]

As long as it identified as a coyote, you're good.

[boneaddict]

I had one in the Wenas I had two chances at.   First time I missed, shooting prone in my mothers gravel driveway.   I guess the gravel bothered me more than I thought.   Second on, I had him in my crosshairs, but the house behind him wasn’t a kosher deal so I had to let him go.  He was blacker than this guy.   

[LDennis24]

Several years ago it seems like someone on here posted a black fox from way up in the Salmo-Priest Wilderness somewhere. Anyone remember that one?

[Okanagan]

In 1976 I saw a jet black fox near Sequim.  It was playing and mousing with a classic red fox in a pasture beside the house and several of us watched them for half an hour.  Someone said that it was a silver fox released or escaped from a fox farm in the area.  I have never seen any kind of fox on the penninsula since.   

In northern BC red foxes come in many shades of color as well as red, with a lot of charcoal grey and black ones that are classed as cross foxes I presume.  If you stop your vehicle on the highway north of Dease Lake, one may come and panhandle you for a handout.  I also saw an all back one near Kelowna.  It crossed the highway a few feet in front of my vehicle so I pulled off and glassed it as it meandered on a sunny frozen lake. 

I think black foxes are far more common than black coyotes.

[boneaddict]

Black is a fairly common color of the cascade fox.

[LDennis24]

Yeah there was a black fox near Longmire about ten years ago. People were feeding them around there even. I have seen two black coyotes on the North end of the Big Lava Bed and up near the Indian Heaven Wilderness before. In the big dark old growth. This was in about 2003-2005 period. One was playing with a small black bear and they were fighting over a rubber tub used for minerals by the cattle in South Prairie. Probably had some good tasting Kool-aid in it! The other was coming in to the trail near Indian Heaven and Cultus Creek.

[HighlandLofts]

As long as it identified as a coyote, you're good.

These days every thing can be identified as a what ever you want it to be.
I can a black version of a red fox.

[jackelope]

Pretty sure that’s just a color phased coyote.  Not a wolf. Nothing crazy. Just a different coloring. A friend of mine shot one that was almost white a couple weeks ago over by Conconully. I’ll see if I can get his ok to share a pic. It’s super cool. Has blue eyes.

[KFhunter]

I've never seen a black yote, nor one that big.

I know they're out there especially back east, wish we could verify for sure what this is.

Wish we had pics of its feet

[JJB11B]

We’ve shot coyotes in SE wa that were easily pushing 40lbs They get big down here. A couple friends and I shot these a couple years ago, the one on the far left was absolutely massive, I carried him back to the truck on and without a scale, I can’t prove it but I’d wager he was closer to 50lbs than 40

[LDennis24]

Pretty sure that’s just a color phased coyote.  Not a wolf. Nothing crazy. Just a different coloring. A friend of mine shot one that was almost white a couple weeks ago over by Conconully. I’ll see if I can get his ok to share a pic. It’s super cool. Has blue eyes.

I'm gonna need to see pics of this regardless of permission... 

[Okanagan]

Wandering on tangent, IME darker colored coyotes have coarser fur and light colored ones much finer  and so softer hairs.  I assume that is why light colored ones bring a higher price at fur sales.

 A partner and I stalked and he shot a near white coyote southwest of Kamloops, BC.  when it was prime in early winter.  It was a female, cream white all over with baby fine hair so thick it would not lay down.  The thick underfur was even finer and had a trace of pink color.  The back was the same white but the tiniest tip of a few guard hairs were black, which made the pelt look like it had a sparse sprinkling of fine black pepper down the center of the back.

I’ve never handled nor seen another coyote fur like it.   In Alberta I saw a near white one along the highway but couldn’t shoot it.

I’ve always wondered what the pelt would have brought at auction.  It was about the peak of coyote prices decades ago.  A collector who wanted to tan or mount it saw it before it was skinned, and my hunting partner took something like $200 (175?) for the unskinned carcass.  His wife demanded a steak dinner from the proceeds, with our wives at the best steakhouse in Kamloops.  Over the meal we decided that maybe the cost of hunting coyotes wiped out any profit.