Study finds eastern wolves are part coyote

A wolf, or a coyote, or both?

Wolves in the Eastern U.S. are hybrids of gray wolves and coyotes, and the region's coyotes actually are wolf-coyote-dog hybrids, with varying degrees of hybridization, according to a new study "that is adding fuel to a longstanding debate over the origins of two endangered species," the red wolf in North Carolina and the eastern Canadian wolf, Mary Esch of The Associated Press reports.

The global study, published online in the scientific journal Genome Research, used information from the dog genome. It followed a study which found that "domestic dogs likely originated in the Middle East and shared more genetic similarity with Middle Eastern gray wolves than any other wolf population," Esch writes.