Answer to the large tracks I found at the farm (pics)

Mark(mo)

Mark(mo)

Active member
For those that may not remember I stumbled on some rather large canine tracks at my farm. After some discussion about if they were domestic or wild the consensus was wild based on path and gait. (not wondering, very deliberate path, tracks one right in front of the other)

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I got a text from the Conservation Agent I talked to and who came to document my tracks this morning. This was shot by a bow hunter on a Conservation Area 12 miles down river from my farm. I think I now know what made the tracks at the farm. I keep thinking I found the first tracks 10 months ago so he’s been hanging out around here all summer. The Conservation Department has the animal for DNA testing and I’ll let you know the results as soon as I hear from them.

HowardCoWolf2.jpg

 
HEHEHEHE, The biologists comment was he'll wait to pass total judgment on the results of DNA but was about 99% sure it was wild. More rare than mountain lion sightings around here for sure.
 
It is amazing how a track like that will get your attention. That is quite the animal. Maybe one that left Minnesota after finding out about a planned hunt and headed south.
Al
 
Coydog?....Saw one in the back yard not 2 weeks ago. Same shape but a little lighter in color and just a little smaller.
 
Mark

Is there an open season on wolves in Missouri? Was it a legal kill or is the hunter looking at fines? I need to look up what would happen in Alabama if a hunter killed a cougar.
 
Mark

Is there an open season on wolves in Missouri? Was it a legal kill or is the hunter looking at fines? I need to look up what would happen in Alabama if a hunter killed a cougar.
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Eric,
Years ago a guy in Illinois shot a cow elk during deer season. Asked why, he said, "I didn't know what it was so I shot it." That is frightening enough. Anyways, the animal ended up escaping a game farm and was on the loose. Illinois Fish and Game did not fine him because there was nothing written in the Illinois game laws about elk.
Al
 
Mark

Is there an open season on wolves in Missouri? Was it a legal kill or is the hunter looking at fines? I need to look up what would happen in Alabama if a hunter killed a cougar.
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Eric,
Years ago a guy in Illinois shot a cow elk during deer season. Asked why, he said, "I didn't know what it was so I shot it." That is frightening enough. Anyways, the animal ended up escaping a game farm and was on the loose. Illinois Fish and Game did not fine him because there was nothing written in the Illinois game laws about elk.
Al

Sorry for the italics--for some reason I cannot get the "quote and reply" formatting to work. We had a similar situation in Maine--someone shot a 350 pound "whitetail" that turned out to be a red deer that had escaped from a meat farm. He took it to the local tagging station thinking he had a state record. Claimed he never saw the ear tags. As I recall, he ended up getting charged, but I can't remember if they wrote him up for a hunting violation or for something related to killing someone else's farm animals.

As for the dog/wolf critter, that looks an awful lot like some of the eastern coyotes we see in New England, which are said to have a fair amount of wolf DNA mixed in. They are surely a different critter than the coyotes you see out west--much larger.
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The "story" goes. The bow hunter was sitting in his tree stand and sees a "coyote" running a deer trail. It winded him in the stand and instead of running it followed the trail to the base of his tree. After several attempts to shoo it away he tried to climb down the stand and run it off. The "coyote" started to growl at him and lunged at him. He then knocked an arrow and shot him. Only when he climbed down out of his stand and walked up to it did he realize it wasn't a coyote. No one believes that story but as long as he sticks to it he is off the hook legally. He can't possess a wolf without a valid tag (same thing happens when someone runs into a mountain lion on the highway) so it becomes the possession of the Conservation Dept. I'm sure they will have it mounted and put in one of their nature centers.

I don't have an official weight from MDC but guesses ran anywhere from 150-175lbs.
 
Al, we had the same ting happen here a few years back. Red deer escaped from a farm and was shot, hunter was charged with shooting livestock though.

BTW... Looks like a wolf to me.
 
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He better stick to that story and not tell anyone a different tale.

In MN two guys were interviewed by a TV reporter the day after shooting a Mt Lion. They said they chased it into a plugged up culvert and while one sat with his truck in front of the hole the other went and got a couple guns. When they backed off it ran out to get away and they shot it a bunch of times to 'save the families' in the area. By the next day they were claiming it charged them but it was too late then. Last I heard they were getting fined and losing hunting rights. They were not very bright.

If the guesses run from 150-175 the real weight will likely be 100-120, unless it was someones pet. Last winter some of those pictures of 200lb wolves from the Rockies were actually well under that. I even saw a guy arguing on the web that a wolf had to weight 200lbs with a guy who took the photos and was there when it was weighted, it was something like 110lbs. They are very lean and lanky, more like a greyhound than a shepherd.

Tim
 
I have seen a lot of yotes wacked here in Mo, that is by far at least twice the size if not three times as big as the largest I have seen dead.

Possibly Schupp is posting the pics he nabbed off the net so people won't hound him to go hunting :)
 
Tom I don't think Mark would do something like that... would he? :)
Heck if I can shoot a charging wolf I may want to go hunting there even more.
 
I have been lucky enough to hold a wolf in my a coyote trap up here a few years ago. It was caught right across the pad and held really nice. Most northern trappers tell me that a wolf will usually destroy a small foot hold like that but this guy never fought the trap much. Since we are not allowed to trap or hunt wolves in Michigan yet I had to release him. That in itself is an interesting story but the point is that obviously I had a fairly good look at the animal. He was a young, lean, male and the picture Mark posted looks like it could be his twin. If the DNR comes back with DNA testing that says anything other then wolf I would be very surprised.

I am not sure if you guys should be happy or sad they are migrating out of the northern great lake states assuming that is where this one came from.
 
Jeff was spot on with his comment about New England coyotes with wolf DNA being much larger than pure coyotes. While coyotes are in season year round in Vt and I don't have any reason to fear shooting one, if I lived anywhere else, and I saw one, its SSS. Shoot, shovel and shutup!

Years ago Dave Diefenderfer and I were raising some domestic birds in my back yard. A hybrid wolf/shepard and a husky got into the pen and killed or wounded most of the birds. I ran out to the pen with my old single shot 20 ga when I heard the commotion. That wolf hybrid was standing over a half eaten duck about 30 feet from me, and when he saw me he put his head down in the most perfect snarl position. You could tell he was getting ready to charge, so I dropped him with a short magnum 4 to the chest. That was 20 years ago and I can still remember the look on that animal's face.....

John Bourbon
 
Mark

If it does turn out to be wolf or wolf/hybrid; my bet is that may be an escaped animal from some one that had it in captivity. You would be amazed at the number of exotic animals that some crazy people own - lions, tigers, bears, etc..... THe laws addressing these things are limited. Quite a sad situation actually! Wild animals are not meant to be pets.
 
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