Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993                   TAG: 9305160113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JAY TAYLOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EASTERN COYOTES BIGGER, BOLDER THAN THOSE OUT WEST

By any name, the coyote is a survivor. But how did this animal, native to western North America, end up in Western Virginia?

Researchers believe that the coyote's adaptability - it can thrive on game as well as fruits and berries - helped the species undertake a long migration, east through Canada and then slowly southward on the mountain chains of the Eastern United States.

The coyotes bred with Northern wolves during the transcontinental trek across Canada, biologists say, making the Eastern coyote that arrived in Virginia at least 20 years ago slightly bigger and bolder than its Western cousins - perhaps even an entirely new breed of animal. They have larger skulls, darker coats and bigger ears than Western coyotes.

In the East they grow to 55 pounds, averaging about 30, and standing about 2 feet tall.

There is much more food here: rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, fawns, berries and fruit.

"What few quail are left, I'm sure they will suffer big time from it," said Larry Crane, a biologist with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, based in Bland County.

And when it is easier to kill livestock, some coyotes will do that.

The coyote has flourished as man has steadily eliminated competing predators. After the Western mountain lion, bear and wolf were hunted down and reduced, the coyote moved to the top of the American predator chain, and it is spreading rapidly.

"They are competitive. The coyote will be the dominant animal. He'll either run the red fox out of town or have him for lunch," said Crane. Studying the region from Roanoke to Bristol, Crane has watched the coyote spread through the mountains during the last decade.

"The coyote is probably the only predator that has expanded its range in the face of relentless persecution," says Phil Knight, a co-founder of the Predator Project in Bozeman, Mont., and a critic of government-sponsored killing of coyotes. "What that tells me is that all the efforts to control coyotes haven't worked. We've got quite a number of studies by reputable predator biologists that say flat out that lethal control of coyotes doesn't work."