Yotes in North Texas: Coloration?

Hi Guys,

I shot a yote the other night, but didn't kill it immediately, and have questions about it.

Background: We live on acreage up North of DFW and have livestock (sheep). A few weeks back, after dinner and having locked the sheep away for the night (due to predator threats), my son looks out our window towards the pasture and asked why one of our sheep was up near the house (he's young). My wife looks out and says it was a yote. (About 15 yards behind my house, between our home and the pasture.

I immediately grab at the first rifle I could (which I no longer have, since all guns are evil, of course), which was a Ruger 10/22 with hollow points. I opened the back door, sighted the yote, aimed for the left shoulder area, and fired about three shots his way. He yelped/growled and I figured I hit him. After getting field clothes and boots on, grabbing my 30/30 (which I also got rid of for the same reason I got rid of all my other guns that I may, or may not have had), my .45, and my lights, I went out to look for him.

I found where I hit him as there were tracks and a pool of blood. Since it was getting dark and I have a jungle on my property, I wasn't going in the brush after a wounded yote, so I left it for the morning.

I got up in the morning to look for him, but could never find him. It's just too thick and I didn't hear wounded animal noises, so I just gave up on him.

Now...a few weeks later, I start to thinking about that yote and his coloration. I checked with my wife just to make sure I remembered correctly, and we both remember that yote having a lot of yellow coloring on him. He wasn't a typical brownish, skinny yote.

Are there yotes with a lot of yellow coloring?
Are there hybrids in our area?
Can you distinguish from the tracks whether it was a yote or a domestic dog?

All I know is that he was big and too close to my home and livestock.

Thoughts??

I've seen a lot of different colored yotes over the past couple years, some with lots of red, blonde, very dark. The further east you go the more color varieties you'll come across. I've seen some extremely blonde and jet black. Typically your hardwoods deep undergrowth woods types coyotes will be darker in general and your prairie yotes will be lighter

That makes sense.

Thanks!

I've seen yellow, brown and one so white I thought I'd caught a dog at first.

Those aren't typically what a coyote track looks like.

So you think it was a domestic dog?

The tracks in the picture appear to be tracks of a smaller framed domestic or feral k9.
Typically coyotes tracks the toes are much closer together.

Google "coydog".

Interesting… I wish I had had my larger rifle next to me and I dropped it immediately. I would have rather gotten a better idea of the animals from the carcass.

Thanks.

That is what I was thinking, which was that it might be a hybrid.

If it was a hybrid, and I have more around, that worries me for my young kids. That, plus any other larger predators that might be roaming through my area.

There are a few different colors here in the hardwood forests and open pasture between Canton and the Sabine River. Some are almost white, a lot of pale yellow tan ones, and the unusual dark ones. It's the darker ones I've seen that will run with the coydogs and feral dogs. The dark will run with the lighter ones too. The lighter ones don't seem to hang with dogs. If I'd seen that canine stalking my livestock it wouldn't really matter. It looks like there was enough lesson there he shouldn't be back.

Domestic Canine Tracks