#have there been any documented merle coyotes?

[golden-reedwolf]

Anything really will be merled these days. Even golden jackals come in merle now!

In the mottled animal’s case, the phenotype was highly resemblant to agouti or dark sable merle dogs’ look that is caused by a SINE insertion in the SILV gene. Using fragment analysis, we found a peak at 434 basepairs with a wild-type allele of 171 basepairs, which means the animal has a 263-basepair SINE insertion, which categorizes it as Ma +, atypical merle animal.

White and other fur colourations and hybridization in golden jackals (Canis aureus) in the Carpathian basin