A central Missouri bowhunter who thought he was shooting a coyote below his treestand last week contacted the Department of Conservation after he realized the animal could be a wolf or a wolf-hybrid.
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The agency says it may take several months before DNA testing can conclusively determine the animal's exact genetics and origin.
The bowhunter, who asked the department not to disclose his name to the public, was hunting deer in Howard County on Oct. 30 at the Missouri Department of Conservation's (MDC) Franklin Island Conservation Area, not far from the Missouri River. According to MDC, the hunter thought the animal was a coyote, which are currently in season and for which he had the appropriate license to shoot.
"The reason he shot this animal was that he thought it was an above-average size coyote that would make a good mount," said Cooper County conservation agent Mike Abdon, who was the first to respond to the hunter's call to the agency.
According to a report in the Columbia Tribune newspaper, when Abdon arrived in Boonville - the hunter called to report the kill about 10:30 a.m. - there was already a crowd milling around the hunter's pickup truck.
"I wasn't quite for sure what it was," Abdon told the paper. "It looked like a coyote, but it didn't."
Indeed, the animal in the back of the hunter's pickup truck (pictured here) weighed in excess of 80 pounds, about twice the weight of an average coyote.
"My first thoughts of it was just the sheer size of its feet," said Abdon. "Its overall size was also a determining factor."
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Early tests and observation of the carcass at the Department of Conservation's regional office in Columbia indicated that the animal was not fully mature.
According to MDC Resource Scientist Jeff Beringer, the animal was male and weighed 81 pounds. It did not have ear tags, tattoos, other identification or physical signs that would indicate it was a captive-bred or raised as a pet. Beringer collected tissue samples and the animal's DNA will be used to confirm the species and possible origin of the animal.
In Missouri, a Carroll County landowner killed a confirmed wolf in 2010, and another was shot in 2002 in Grundy County. In neighboring Illinois there have been multiple wolves identified in the past decade in the far northern part of the state-and all were thought to have originated in Wisconsin and were part of the Great Lakes pack. In 2005, a wild wolf was killed by a car in Lake County, north of Chicago, near the Chain O'Lakes State Park. The same year, one was shot by a Pike County coyote hunter. In 2008 a hunter's trail camera captured photos of what appear to be a wolf weighing about 140 pounds near Oregon, Ill.
Missouri wildlife authorities say there is no evidence of a breeding population in the state, and wolves are currently listed as a protected species there. For that reason, if genetic testing confirms the animal killed by the bowhunter on October 30 is a wolf, the carcass will be retained by the state.
"He had the right permits that he needed to hunt coyotes," conservation agent Mike Abdon said of the Howard County incident. "It was certainly legal for him to be doing what he was doing the morning he was out there hunting. If it turns out to be a coyote, he can have it back."
- J.R. Absher
Photos: Missouri Department of Conservation
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