This article originally appeared in the New York State Education Department press release.
The New York State Museum (NYSM) announced today the debut of its latest exhibition, Canine Contrasts: Unraveling Wolves and Coyotes in New York. The exhibit will feature Taxidermy mounts and skulls of wolves and coyotes, both species from the Museum’s mammalogy collection. It will also tell the story of a wolf that was recently mistaken for a coyote and killed by a licensed hunter near Cherry Valley, New York.
NYSM Curator of Birds and Mammals Dr. Jeremy Kirchman said, “We are excited to display the Cherry Valley wolf specimen and use it to anchor an exhibit about the complex interactions between coyotes and wolves in eastern North America. The colonization of New York by coyotes that have hybridized with wolves and the occasional dispersal of individual wolves back into our area is a fascinating story that we are happy to share with the public. Specimen collections like ours are the basis of ongoing DNA research on wild canids here at NYSM and other museums and universities.” Read more...
