Rare Black Color-Phase Coyote Taken in Pennsylvania

Johnny Cash probably would have liked the pelt on this song dog.

While hunting in a Pennsylvania Game Commission public-hunting area in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Doug Miller of Bethlehem arrowed this fantastic black color-phase eastern coyote with his Hoyt compound bow.

It's believed that past inbreeding between coyotes and gray wolves has resulted in the eastern coyote being generally larger and featuring color phases -- a trait that doesn't exist in the western coyote.