Cheryl S. Asa Margaret Callahan Bruce W. Christensen Fran Smith Julie K. Young L. David Mech 2017 <p><span>Following the production of western gray wolf (</span><i>Canis lupus</i><span>) x western coyote (</span><i>Canis latrans</i><span>) hybrids via artificial insemination (AI), the present article documents that the hybrids survived in captivity for at least 4 years and successfully bred with each other. It further reports that backcrossing one of the hybrids to a male gray wolf by AI also resulted in the birth of live pups that have survived for at least 10 months. All male hybrids (F</span>₁<span><span>&nbsp;</span>and F</span>₂<span>) produced sperm by about 10 months of age, and sperm quality of the F</span>₁<span><span>&nbsp;</span>males fell within the fertile range for domestic dogs, but sperm motility and morphology, in particular, were low in F</span>₂<span><span>&nbsp;</span>males at 10 months but improved in samples taken at 22 months of age. These studies are relevant to a long-standing controversy about the identity of the red wolf (</span><i>Canis rufus</i><span>), the existence of a proposed new species (</span><i>Canis lycaon</i><span>) of gray wolf, and to the role of hybridization in mammalian evolution.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1371/journal.pone.0184342 en PLOS ONE Studies of wolf x coyote hybridization via artificial insemination article