Michigan: He thought he killed a giant coyote … it was a gray wolf that had been missing from the region for 100 years

A year and a half ago, a Montana hunter who bragged about killing a wolf actually shot a husky. This time it was a southern Michigan hunter who thought he had killed a giant coyote when it was actually a gray wolf, a species that disappeared from the region for about a century due to persecution by European settlers and subsequent logging. .

A wolf mistaken for a coyote

The animal was killed during a legal coyote hunt last January in Calhoun County in the southern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Experts have no idea how the wolf got there. So the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) decided to conduct an investigation to understand why this canine found itself so far south.

While there are about 630 gray wolves in the Upper Peninsula, 250 miles away, they have never gone lower than the northern half of the Lower Peninsula, about 120 miles from Calhoun County. The last sighting in lower Michigan was in 2014, 220 miles north of Calhoun County, by camera while biologists were conducting a study of the eagle.

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“Although rare, cases of wolves traveling long distances have been documented, including wolf signs in recent decades in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula”Brian Roell, a biologist and large carnivore specialist with the state DNR, said in a statement.

Ongoing investigation

As for the freshly killed wolf, the hunter explained that he mistook it for a large coyote. The DNR said the animal weighed 80 pounds — four times heavier than a western coyote (Canis latrans) and twice the average weight of the eastern coyote, a hybrid species with coyote and wolf parents.

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According to DNR experts, her presence does not indicate that a new population of wolves has established itself in the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. “This is an unusual case and the DNR is actively investigating this matter to learn more about the origins of this particular animal.”Brian Roell confirmed.