At some point, we need to accept that we are not talking about the same animal.

The 22 pound coyote that thrives in the California foothills and the southwestern deserts takes nothing bigger than a jack rabbit, which, by the way, is an introduced species.

The 85 pound canine described here as running in packs of 10-20 members and bringing down 200 pound deer is a variant of the wolf, even if we choose to call it something else.

maeve linked to some good articles, but the authors clearly state that there is no definitive record of what was in the New England or Maritimes 200 years ago and no specimens of the wolf populations there from which genetic material can be taken.

Remember that named species were created by Man, not God.