Moose in northern populations grew for approximately 2 more years of life than southern moose. Thus, variation in time (years) and rate of body growth after the juvenile stage were responsible for most of the variation in adult body mass among populations. Juvenile body mass was correlated with neither latitude nor adult body mass. Moose in northern populations had a 15–20% larger adult body mass than moose in the south. In both sexes, adult body mass was significantly positively correlated with latitude. We examined the geographical pattern in growth and adult body size among 14 populations of Swedish moose (Alces alces) using data from 4,294 moose (1.5 years old) killed during the hunting season in 1989–1992. Thus, hybridization is a conduit by which genetic variation from an extirpated species has been reintroduced into northeastern USA, enabling northeastern coyotes to occupy a portion of the niche left vacant by wolves. We suggest that hybridization with wolves in Canada introduced adaptive variation that contributed to larger size, which in turn allowed eastern coyotes to better hunt deer, allowing a more rapid colonization of new areas than coyotes without introgressed wolf genes. This northern front then spread south and west, eventually coming in contact with an expanding front of non-hybrid coyotes in western New York and Pennsylvania. Northeastern haplotype diversity is low, suggesting that this population was founded by very few females moving across the Saint Lawrence River. We find evidence for hybridization with Great Lakes wolves only along the northern front, which is correlated with larger skull size, increased sexual dimorphism and a five times faster colonization rate than the southern front. We present mtDNA sequence data from 686 eastern coyotes and measurements of 196 skulls related to their two-front colonization pattern. The dramatic expansion of the geographical range of coyotes over the last 90 years is partly explained by changes to the landscape and local extinctions of wolves, but hybridization may also have facilitated their movement. We describe how digital archives shared in this manner could aggregate data from isolated specimens and small collections to make these otherwise obscure specimens available to the broader scientific community and the general public. We employed Bland-Altman plots to demonstrate an approach to image-quality control that can be employed to identify and replace images that could lead to erroneous measurements. We have placed our images on a wiki platform without copyright restrictions thus, they are available for use in any manner, and the digital archive can be expanded by others. We employed simple point-and-shoot photography to make all images used. Measurements taken from calibrated digital photographs support conclusions drawn using conventional hands-on measurements from the same specimens. Furthermore, we reject Bergmann's rule by demonstrating that Coyote skulls from Texas are larger than skulls from Alaska and Washington. We used conventional and digital measurements from Canis latrans (Coyote) crania, to show that northeastern Coyote skulls are larger than skulls in our collection from all other areas. We illustrate how an inexpensively created archive of digital photographs can be used to test hypotheses of general interest to evolutionary biologists. Listen at evening, dawn, dusk for characteristic barks, yelps, and yaps, sometimes in chorus.Increasing interest in digital resources for zoological study have resulted in the creation of several online collections of specimens with varying degrees of complexity and sophistication.Scats often contain hair and are often placed in middle of a trail or other prominent place.Also, domestic dogs tend to meander and not travel in a straight line. Medium-sized dogs’ tracks don’t overlap, and they are 6–8 inches apart. Distinguish from similar-sized domestic dogs: coyote tracks overlap (they walk in their own footprints), and the prints are 18–22 inches apart.Tracks can be in a more or less straight line.Stride is 18–22 inches between prints (walking).Look for an X shape in the negative space between the pads.The first and fourth claws rarely show, unless in mud, and these can be close enough to the two middle pads as to be hard to see. The middle two claws usually leave marks.Weight is focused on the middle two toes, which are often slightly pinched inward, with the two middle claw marks very close.Coyote tracks are smaller than most people expect.
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