https://www.msn.com/en-us/news...ba0H?ocid=spartandhp

"Overall, it's incredibly rare to rediscover animals in a region where they were thought to be extinct and it's even more exciting to show that a piece of an endangered genome has been preserved in the wild," said Elizabeth Heppenheimer, a Princeton University biologist involved in the research on the pack found on Galveston Island in Texas. The work of the Princeton team was published in the scientific journal Genes.

The genetic analysis found that the Galveston canines appear to be a hybrid of red wolf and coyote, but Heppenheimer cautions that without additional testing, it's difficult to label the animal.

That's very interesting news. Handsome toots, too, but then I have a genetic soft spot for all the members of the Canidae family.
May they live long and prosper!

I used to shoot them in the 60s. I sometimes hunted on a family friends ranch who ran registered Beefmasters. The red wolves ran in packs and he would lose several calves every year, resulting in thousands of dollars in loses. This was back when that was real money.

I could hunt any time I wanted on his 1600 acres, all he asked was that I shoot any wolf I could. As an added bonus, the county had a $5 bounty for every set of ears. Over the ensuing decades I watched the wolves interbreed with the encroaching coyotes, gradually disappearing.

I've seen the so-called eastern coyote here, and it seems to only resemble the coyote to me.

They are very elusive and smart, so to see one is unusual. And they don't hang but for seconds.

The look larger than a coyote, and have more red in their coats, and bushy tails.

Anyway, just saying - I think they are crossed with coyote and something else.