Coyotes are much bigger than they used to be in Kentucky, and at least in central KY are more prevalent. My guess is that there are less farmers, so less farmers shooting them. Also small game hunting like rabbit and quail and squirrel used to be very popular but not many people hunt small game around here now. So my theory is an abundance of food and less farmers has been a boon to yotes here.
Some of them are very big. Between me and my closest two neighbors we have killed yotes anywhere from 40 to 65 lbs, have killed about 9 between the three of us in the last 3 years. Most in the 40ish lb range but some much bigger. A couple, including one that was leading the local pack before we got him, were mostly black. I think they are mixing with feral dogs which is giving them the much larger size than we used to see, though I had never considered the wolf angle.
Would have been interesting to see the DNA in them. My dads neighbor down the road had a dog attacked by yotes right in his backyard, a family friend watched yotes carry away their yorkie. I killed two on two different occasions not 40 yards from the front door of my house.
They are always in packs around here, and are smart. They will attempt to draw prey out like domestic dogs or even calves by allowing a couple of them to be chased while " wingers" come in and attack from the flanks. It looks orchestrated, they are nothing like foxes or other lone hunters.
I have a picture on my cell phone of a 60ish lb male somebody remind me how to post pics here...he looks all coyote to me but sure is much bigger than they ever were when I was a kid around here. I think they have something else in them lending sone size. At any rate, we shoot em and leave them lie, they are way to many around here. Sounds like the dang Yukon around here at night.
