Talk:Coywolf

Deletion of Varieties section
I'm going to delete the Coywolf section because the citations aren't working. If you can fix the citations so that we can check them, feel free. If this taxonomy is being used, each one should be citable, but right now, it doesn't link to anything. Chrisrus (talk) 02:40, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Removed species box
Hello, I have removed the "hybridbox" from this article because the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature does not recognise mammal hybrid taxonomy, only binomial (species) designations. The plant nomenclature does recognise hybrids for plants. William Harris (talk) 01:05, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Another name
Coywolves are sometimes known as wolfotes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:18D:4700:2D30:9163:9E78:83D8:B338 (talk) 16:54, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Lead doesn't make sense

 * "A coywolf is a canid hybrid descended from coyotes, eastern wolves, gray wolves, and dogs. All of these species are members of the genus Canis with 78 chromosomes and therefore can interbreed.[1] One genetic study indicates that these two species genetically diverged."

I daresay later editing went on so now the lead doesn't work. It's a mess. Can someone who knows about canids please rewrite the lead to make sense? Many thanks. Anna (talk) 13:17, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

What is a species, and what is hybrid?
In some contexts, if two populations can have viable and fertile offspring, they are all one species. If they can have viable offspring that is not fertile, the two populations are two species, and the offspring is called a hybrid (e.g., a mule). So, arguably, coyotes, dogs, eastern and gray wolves, coywolves and wolfotes are just one species, with some formerly well-defined populations now mixing (and they have probably always to some extent done so, when they got in contact).

According to the article Canid hybrid, this actually applies to a much larger group of potentially interbreeding canines with 78 chromosomes, but also (as is sometimes the case with such groups with large geographical spread), some populations within this "superspecies" cannot interbreed with certain other populations.

There are probably good reasons why what I just wrote is not the way the relationships are perceived or described, but I think this article needs to address this, at least briefly, or clearly wikilink an article that does. Nø (talk) 08:03, 5 March 2024 (UTC)