Hamilton Reef
11-15-2001, 05:42 AM
FYI from Environmental News Service
WANDERING WOLF SHOT IN MISSOURI
TRENTON, Missouri, November 7, 2001 (ENS) - A single wolf from Michigan found its way all the way from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to north-central Missouri - only to fall prey to a hunter.
A Missouri man was returning from a bowhunt on his land on October 23 when he said he saw the 80 pound wolf looking into his sheep pen. He shot the wolf, thinking it was a coyote, but realized his error when he discovered that the animal wore a numbered ear tag and a radio tracking collar.
The hunter took the carcass to the state conservation department, which verified that it was a gray wolf and traced it back to its original capture site near Ironwood, Michigan.
Records of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) show that the wolf killed in Missouri was a juvenile weighing 22 pounds when it was caught in July 1999. It was captured in a single foot hold trap with a litter mate, and designated Wolf No. 18.
Michigan DNR officials followed the movements of Wolf No. 18 for nine months, then lost track of it. They had a hard time believing the news when informed of the animal's death so far away.
"One of our wolves?" asked Michigan DNR photographer Dave Kenyon. "No! How far is that?"
The distance from Wolf No. 18's capture site to Grundy County, Missouri is about 450 miles. By highway, or the way a wolf travels, crossing the Mississippi River and countless highways, it may have been more like 600 miles - among the longest wolf journeys ever documented by the Michigan DNR.
"You have to wonder how many people saw this animal along the way and either kept it to themselves or told people and weren't believed," said Michigan DNR biologist Dean Beyer.
Young wolves are prone to leave their birth places to carve out their own territories.
WANDERING WOLF SHOT IN MISSOURI
TRENTON, Missouri, November 7, 2001 (ENS) - A single wolf from Michigan found its way all the way from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to north-central Missouri - only to fall prey to a hunter.
A Missouri man was returning from a bowhunt on his land on October 23 when he said he saw the 80 pound wolf looking into his sheep pen. He shot the wolf, thinking it was a coyote, but realized his error when he discovered that the animal wore a numbered ear tag and a radio tracking collar.
The hunter took the carcass to the state conservation department, which verified that it was a gray wolf and traced it back to its original capture site near Ironwood, Michigan.
Records of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) show that the wolf killed in Missouri was a juvenile weighing 22 pounds when it was caught in July 1999. It was captured in a single foot hold trap with a litter mate, and designated Wolf No. 18.
Michigan DNR officials followed the movements of Wolf No. 18 for nine months, then lost track of it. They had a hard time believing the news when informed of the animal's death so far away.
"One of our wolves?" asked Michigan DNR photographer Dave Kenyon. "No! How far is that?"
The distance from Wolf No. 18's capture site to Grundy County, Missouri is about 450 miles. By highway, or the way a wolf travels, crossing the Mississippi River and countless highways, it may have been more like 600 miles - among the longest wolf journeys ever documented by the Michigan DNR.
"You have to wonder how many people saw this animal along the way and either kept it to themselves or told people and weren't believed," said Michigan DNR biologist Dean Beyer.
Young wolves are prone to leave their birth places to carve out their own territories.