A #GrayWolf killed in a January #coyote hunt in #Michigan's southern Lower Peninsula; #DNR investigating how it got there.
The harvest was potentially the 1st time a gray wolf has been identified in the Lower Peninsula since the species was wiped out driven to [#extinction] from the state in the early 20th century, MI Dept of #NaturalResources said.
@Nonilex Reminds me though that black bears haven't been seen in southern WI since ~ the early 20th century as well, and I had a teacher who in the 90s was called out to a neighboring farmer's field to assist with a combine that sunk into a hole which turned out to be a bear den. Farmer reported seeing something run towards the woods when it happened. My teacher had sent off fur samples to the university and they confirmed it was a black bear.
How did it get there without anyone seeing it? The woods are not dense; it's mostly farmland. Incredible, really.
"It's possible it naturally got there, but it's also obviously possible it had some help getting there," said Brian Roell, a large carnivore specialist for the #DNR. "Those are things we want to understand better. We want to know when it was actually harvested, where it was harvested…."
The #Michigan#hunter who harvested the #wolf reported harvesting "a large animal," the #DNR said in a Tues press release. Genetic tests confirmed the animal was a #GrayWolf.
The hunter was participating in a legal #CoyoteHunt & was accompanied by a guide. He said he believed the animal to be a large #coyote. The wolf weighed 84 lbs [that’d be a huge coyote], while Eastern coyotes typically weigh 25-40 lbs, the DNR said.
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