I'm talking specifically about coyotes and wolves specially. Where do we draw a line and say "These here on this side are different subspecies, these here on the other, different species"
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Everyone has simplified this answer based upon their "species concept." So using a biological species concept, one would consider anything that interbreeds (interbreeding is a perfectly good scientific term to describe what you are talking about) is a single species. But using a genetic species concept, you would looks at how different the two species DNA is - even if they do hybridize, it doesn't matter, because their DNA is still sufficiently different.
Generally subspecies are a grouping of convenience. In biology, we like to put things into nice little categories. Subspecies are generally used to describe individuals within a species that share a geographic region and might vary slightly in their appearance from others of their species. So if I have a species of rodents that occurs all across the US, there might be a subspcies that occurs in the deserts of the southwestern US and is more sand colored than the darker individuals that live in wetter areas.
Again, what is a species is a question that biologists ask daily. It all comes down to which one of the 26 species concepts they follow.
I'd also like to clear up what some of the other answerers said.
Hybridization is not rare. In plants, 25% of species hybridize with at least one other species. In animals, 1-10% hybridize.
Hybridization is not necessarily maladaptive. While some hybrids may be sterile and thus evolutionary dead ends, many hybrid individuals are fully fertile. Also while some hybrids may have lower fitness (they produce fewer offspring or live shorter lifespans) compared to their pure counterparts, this is not true for all hybrids. There are even cases where hybrids end up becoming a species different from both parental species.
Generally subspecies are a grouping of convenience. In biology, we like to put things into nice little categories. Subspecies are generally used to describe individuals within a species that share a geographic region and might vary slightly in their appearance from others of their species. So if I have a species of rodents that occurs all across the US, there might be a subspcies that occurs in the deserts of the southwestern US and is more sand colored than the darker individuals that live in wetter areas.
Again, what is a species is a question that biologists ask daily. It all comes down to which one of the 26 species concepts they follow.
I'd also like to clear up what some of the other answerers said.
Hybridization is not rare. In plants, 25% of species hybridize with at least one other species. In animals, 1-10% hybridize.
Hybridization is not necessarily maladaptive. While some hybrids may be sterile and thus evolutionary dead ends, many hybrid individuals are fully fertile. Also while some hybrids may have lower fitness (they produce fewer offspring or live shorter lifespans) compared to their pure counterparts, this is not true for all hybrids. There are even cases where hybrids end up becoming a species different from both parental species.