Have You Seen a Coywolf in Town?

Coywolves are being seen more and more in town and one local resident has been capturing lots of images and video of the animals in the area.

Coywolves, a hybrid species of a coyote and wolf, have been captured on video lately in Wilmington, and residents in nearby towns are posting on social media they are seeing more and more of them.

Wilmington resident Mark Holleran has a trail camera in the woods between Boutwell Street and Forest Street that’s been there since January, capturing images of wildlife in Wilmington’s own backyard. Lately, a lot of what he’s capturing are images of coywolves.

While more people are talking about them, coywolves have been in the area a while. Holleran says he’s been using his cameras since last January and the frequency in which he sees coywolves coming to the area has been the same -- he sees one almost every night.

What has changed is over the past few months, he says, is that he’s seeing three or four of them together at a time. He’s seen a female with two puppies back in April and sees the family together from time to time.

“The puppies are getting bigger now and we think we are starting to see them by themselves now, too,” he says. “We see the same ones all the time … we can tell from their markings and just how they look.”

Holleran says last week he caught one on video he had never seen before and hasn’t seen it since. “It was really big and it looked more wolf-like than a coyote,” he says. “I talked to a friend that I consider an expert on coyotes and he said it might be a transient just passing through.”

It’s incredible to see what Holleran catches on camera of the various wildlife in town.

As it gets colder and less is growing on the ground, Holleran says he’s seeing more deer -- couple of times capturing six together. He’s also caught three bucks in the last two weeks, as well as an owl and hawk, all on video. He also occasionally catches a fisher cat.

About a month ago for the first time Holleran captured two grey foxes and two red foxes, but their sightings have dropped off, he says. And a week ago he did catch one of the red foxes again.

The reason Holleran says larger animals are captured on his camera is because the patch of woods where he’s seeing them is like a highway for them to cross over two roads where more woods await them.

Visit the Facebook page Wildlife of Wilmington, MA to view more incredible images and videos of wildlife in your own backyard >>>