No coyotes were ever introduced as far as i know most have migrated but i would consider them native plus some people consider the red wolf as a cross breed between a coyote and gray wolf so that means that the coyotes have had to be here longer. Also they have envolved into much larger subspecies then their western cousins there have even been fatal attacks on humans in the eastern united states. And if the eastern united states means east of the Mississippi River i live in Illinois and I see coyotes in my backyard quite often and the look almost double the size of the Mexican gray wolves at Brookfield Zoo when I saw them up to the glass.
if they migrated to the east of their own accord then they are native.
DavidBrown said:
Is that 73% statistic referring to all mammals, or mammals over a certain body size? Have any bats and rodents gone extinct in the US? I would think that they would account for the bulk of North American mammal diversity, but that may be at the species rather than genera level.
generally speaking, rodents and bats have multiple species in each genus, whereas large animals (e.g. proboscideans, camels, xenarthrans) have few species in each genus, so taking out most of the large-bodied animals in a region as happened in North America after human arrival results in a huge loss at the generic level. I don't know if any bats are known to have become extinct in North America but there have certainly been a number of large-bodied rodents (e.g. capybara and beaver species) to have done so.
TropicWorld54 said:
some people consider the red wolf as a cross breed between a coyote and gray wolf so that means that the coyotes have had to be here longer.
I think that idea has been more or less discounted now. The DNA evidence probably resulted from coyotes interbreeding with red wolves in recent historic times (after the decimation of the red wolf population). Unless there's been another turn-around on the subject.
While Coyotes did migrate to the East, I also read something where more coyotes came because when hunters wanted to import foxes to the East to hunt, they accidentally got Coyote pups.
As for TropicWorld54's statement of larger Coyotes, I've heard that in Eastern Canada, Coyotes breed with Gray Wolves, resulting in huge Coyotes that have killed people.
I was about to ask if the white-tailed deer is the only native hooved animal found in Pennsylvania, but then I thought I may as well google it myself. Here's a list of the mammals of the state (67 species apparently): [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Pennsylvania]List of mammals of Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
generally speaking, rodents and bats have multiple species in each genus, whereas large animals (e.g. proboscideans, camels, xenarthrans) have few species in each genus, so taking out most of the large-bodied animals in a region as happened in North America after human arrival results in a huge loss at the generic level. I don't know if any bats are known to have become extinct in North America but there have certainly been a number of large-bodied rodents (e.g. capybara and beaver species) to have done so.
here's the Wikipedia list of North American animals which became extinct after human arrival. Dhole was a bit of a surprise inclusion for me (apparently known from multiple fossil remains: see this interesting article I found Did the dhole (Cuon alpinus) range into southeastern North America during the Pleistocene? GeorgiaBeforePeople). Unfortunately the Wikipedia list is arranged alphabetically by common name (and includes the Caribbean islands), but in terms of continental rodents I see two giant beavers and two capybara species.
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_animals_of_North_America[/ame]
