My article is about wolves that aren’t really a distinct species. A new genetic study shows that the eastern wolf & the red wolf are really blends of the gray wolf & the coyote. Eastern & red wolves are thought to be different species because they look a little different. Eastern wolves live in the Great Lakes region. Red wolves live in the Southeastern United states, where gray wolves no longer exist. Red wolves have about 75 % coyote genes & only 25 % gray wolf genes. Eastern wolves have 20-50 % coyote genes. The new data shows that red & Eastern wolves have mated with coyotes. Gray wolves also have some coyote genes. But gray wolves are just as closely related. Red & eastern wolves probably appeared when early settlers hunted gray wolves. Killing some gray wolves made room for the coyotes to move east. There they probably mated with the struggling wolves. That is how scientists think the red & eastern wolf evolved.

Source – https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/wolf-species-shake