Waya, Saving Our Red Grandfather

[@amandalear4138]

James "Tlugv " posted, I live in KY, I know we have red wolves here where I live. I've seen them on different times while hunting deer and walking the woods. There's about between 12 or more in the Maywoods area of Lincoln and Garrard Co. . This land is owned by EKU and is a nature center for the collage. There's at least 7 in the area where I live about two miles from the KY, river. The game wardens say they aren't here in KY, but I've seen them and neighbors have seen them as well.

[@abc-dj3dx]

Yunwiya naturally seek balance and harmony. Smudges for Waya Gigage from Anitsisqua.

[@douglasreagan5536]

Wonderful and powerful... Waya

[@Bluewaterpinessantarosabeach]

Thank you.

[@lawandadin5021]

giving honor to my nation cherokee chotaw nation ok la wanda miriam pearce az

[@MadelinePhelps-Jaworski]

Can someone tell me how to spell “red grandfather” in the Cherokee language? I have “gigage” and “eduda” but it sounds like there’s a word in the middle?

[@justprivate2333]

Black fox says, "hello."

[@juicecoyote2991]

Why does it look like a coyote? It looks very much like an eastern coyote. I love in a place where there are coyotes but no wolves. I've had coyotes walk close enough to me to spit on.

[@erikm8372]

Red wolves are thought to be genetically closer to coyotes, I believe, than other wolf populations or subspecies. Coyotes and red wolves historically did cross paths, and share habitat, when red wolf populations were larger and stretched further to the west, into Texas and Oklahoma, for example… and there were definitely hybrids happening in the wild, naturally, as modern genetic testing has revealed many red wolves and coyotes have mutual or similar DNA. I’m sure some of these animals even crossbred with Mexican wolves when they were more plentiful, too. There are likely infinite hybrids out there, and if we did genetic testing for every wild canine, we’d be so surprised, I think. I’m sure species within the genus _Canis_ hybridize naturally around the world. The genus of course includes wolves, dogs, coyotes, jackals, Ethiopian wolves, and North African golden wolves… I feel like a lot of the species that live near each other or cross paths with one another inevitably end up hybridizing at some point. Even with feral or domestic dogs, too. Then they somehow end up looking like one another a little bit. And not human-controlled breeding, but wild animals that happen to meet, mate and reproduce, and create offspring! 😂 One example is if you look at the Ethiopian wolf, it’s very slim and "jackal"-like in its appearance. Almost like a red wolf but very skinny and chiseled features. Because it is also a rodent specialist, unlike larger grey wolves elsewhere in the world. There is an abundance of ground squirrels and different burrowing rodents in the Ethiopian Highlands where they’re from, so they’ve evolved to survive on them, something very similar to smaller canids-just like jackals or coyotes. So it makes sense red wolves may look like coyotes, to me. Both from hybrids and from simply evolving similarly. Different niche, ecologically, but if they’re in a similar environment, adaptations may show up in physical form.

[@theolewell7535]

:)

[@tyv5887]

Correction: everything changed when the CHRISTIAN Europeans came