How much bigger is a wolf than a coyote? Is it just noticeably larger and bulkier or is it a massive size difference?
Also they're normally natural enemies in the wild but sometimes they occasionally hybridize?
depends on the wolf! for this exercise we'll assume a median coyote size of 30 lbs.
while all north american wolves are technically grey wolves (except the mexican red wolf!) there are more than twenty subspecies of the damn things, all of which can differ significantly in size and appearance! (many now displaced with some extinct)
for example, the mexican wolf is only barely bigger than a large coyote, with adults reaching the 50-90 lb range.
whereas the northern rocky mountain wolf has any coyote massively outclassed, ranging between 80-150 lbs!
most other north american wolves range somewhere in between. but this is why we don't say "the size of a wolf" much as a figure of speech, because they come in so many different sizes!
and when wolves and coyotes hybridize, it's generally because there's no other potential partners in the area for either animal, so they start being willing to look a little farther up the family tree, so to speak!
