Huge Coyote (Whatever) Killed in MO!

Um, our lovely Department of Conservation, for whom I usually have nothing but good things to say, completely botched this one.

Check out this link. It's a 100+ lb canid killed in MO this season. MDC takes a few hair/tissue samples and tests them. Tests come back "coyote", so it's a coyote. Done deal. Not a hybrid, not a coydog, a coyote.

Considering this thing blows the coyote weight record out of the water by OVER 25% (according to Wikipedia, I know, weak source), and it's much much more black/gray than a coyote, I'd say this is a 100% FAIL on the MDC's part. Check it out.

http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/hunter-shoots-unusually-large-coyote-northwest-missouri

 

Looks like a fail to me, coyotes we have in the south are a helluva lot smaller than that! and dont look anything like that.

 

Maybe it is a coyote with a thyroid problem.

 

FAIL....

As we know MDC has quite a history of failing: they said there was no such thing as mountain lions here too.....till some hunter took a video to the t.v. station and proved it....
Don't lose any sleep over what MDC says......just wait till next week, they will provide us with yet another fail.

Just do what I do, and make your grade school kids come inside the house as soon as the yard light comes on..........

 

Appears to me that it is a Siberian Husky.

 

Phantom,

You're right that they said it looked like a hybrid, but that the DNA analysis said it was a coyote so that's what they were telling people for a week or two, as if the case is closed. I'm annoyed as a biologist that they would even call it a coyote based on one round of DNA analysis. It's obviously not just a coyote.

The test don't show that it's a coyote. Tests show it has some coyote DNA. In my opinion it's a coydog, with a coyote as one parent and either a malamute or some type of wolfdog (relatively common around here) as the other. They've taken such a beating on their facebook page that now they're saying they're looking into "further tests".

And the title of the press release is:
Hunter shoots unusually large coyote in Northwest Missouri