"Wolf-like" creature shot in Montana.

[Idaho45guy]

https://www.greatfallstribune.com/st...ers/634379002/

Was it a wolf, some type of hybrid, or a creature that hasn't been seen in Montana since the Ice Age?

On May 16 a lone wolf-like animal was shot and killed on a ranch outside Denton. With long grayish fur, a large head and an extended snout, the animal shared many of the same characteristics as a wolf; but its ears were too large, it's legs and body too short, its fur uncharacteristic of that common to a wolf.

So far, the exact species is a mystery

So what was it? At this point, no one is 100 percent sure.

More: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' official response

"We have no idea what this was until we get a DNA report back," said Bruce Auchly, information manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "It was near a rancher's place, it was shot, and our game wardens went to investigate. The whole animal was sent to our lab in Bozeman. That's the last I ever heard of it."

Social media from around the Lewistown area was buzzing last week; with many people chiming in on what they believed the creature to be.

"Maybe a dire wolf," wrote another, "because I don't believe they are all gone."

Speculation roamed as far as identifying that animal as a crypto-canid species said to roam the forests of North America.

"That could very well be what’s being called Dogman," one poster suggested. "They’re spotted each day and the government quells any and all reports. Several people report being strong armed into keeping quiet about their reports by men wearing black suits. These are just facts. Look into if if you don’t believe it."

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[375supermag]

I suspect a wolf/coyote or wolf/dog or coyote/dog hybrid.

[birch]

I live about 7 miles from where the "Legend of the Dogman" song was inspired--Luther, Michigan. I remember being a little peeler (7 or 8 years old) when the old timers would tell the tale around campfires everywhere. It used to spook the hell out of me.

[Gewehr-Guy]

I don't expect to see much demand for that poor quality fur if they become a trappable subspiecie

[Driver man]

Looks like it has a scent gland spot on its tail which pretty much makes it a wolf.

[nagantguy]

I live about 7 miles from where the "Legend of the Dogman" song was inspired--Luther, Michigan. I remember being a little peeler (7 or 8 years old) when the old timers would tell the tale around campfires everywhere. It used to spook the hell out of me.

I grew up on those tales as well and in 2011 had my own encounter with “dog man”.in Kalkaska MI Don’t care what anyone else chooses to believe I know what I saw and what happened! Anyhow my father who was a Upper Peninsula lumber jack when I was born, the old Finnish wood cutters still
Talked about the “dire wolf” or “dog man” around Gaylord MI and even for double wages and with armed guards they would not go into the woods to cut ,they were replaced by a crew
Of Polish Jacks and after one day they refused to go into the woods as well even for triple
Wages .

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Wolfdogs aren't uncommon, and although they can be as civilised as any other dog, are liable to be dumped in the wild by an owner who doesn't know how to deal with them, and hasn't complied with legal requirements. Wolves around the world vary a lot in size, conformation and colouring, and even human families can have an unusual line in ears.

I used to see Arabian wolves from time to time, and they were scrawny little beasts with ears on the big side, possibly evolved for the same reason as the fennec fox's, which are like Dumbo's in order to act as a cooling radiator. They have to live on small rodents and insects sometimes, not pull down moose. They would stand 300 yards off and watch me wake up in the morning, and I never felt at all unsafe in the way I did with panhandling baboons.

The article seems to have collected various opinions in a feat of amateur authorship. Wolves can be very exclusive about their group, but I don't think it is anywhere near as much a matter of territory as it is with domestic dogs. Dogs and wolves are nowhere near unique in being able to produce dependably fertile "hybrids". That is the most authoritative definition of a species, making them different races of the same species, and no more different (please excuse me if I give you mental pictures you do not want to have) than a blonde Swede and a blowpipe-wielding Andaman Island pygmy. Mules are almost invariably infertile (not quite always), and human-Neanderthal hybrids possibly part-way between those extremes.

Those certainly look like canid feet. Pursuit predators almost invariably have toes long relative to the pads, and ambush or stalking predators, like cats, the reverse. Nothing definite was said about size, but any complex hybrid might conceivably uncover genes like those of lion-tiger hybrids. The tigon (male tiger and female lion) isn't bigger than either species. But the opposite, the liger, lacks a growth-limiting gene found in the lioness. and can reach around double their weight, with obese zoo specimens considerably larger still.

[Idaho45guy]

I grew up on those tales as well and in 2011 had my own encounter with “dog man”.in Kalkaska MI Don’t care what anyone else chooses to believe I know what I saw and what happened! Anyhow my father who was a Upper Peninsula lumber jack when I was born, the old Finnish wood cutters still
Talked about the “dire wolf” or “dog man” around Gaylord MI and even for double wages and with armed guards they would not go into the woods to cut ,they were replaced by a crew
Of Polish Jacks and after one day they refused to go into the woods as well even for triple
Wages .

I love those types of stories!

There was a single girl in my Bible study last year that is Finnish and from the UP. Beautiful woman and has 8 siblings. Won't give me the time of day, though.

[bikerbeans]

Guys,

I know what it is, my ex-wife.

BB

[MaryB]

MN DNR claims coydogs don't exist... but there are several packs of them near me. Destructive, they kill for the hunt not to eat. Local ranchers and hog farmers let people hunt their land if they are after them.

[popper]

Does anybody besides the paid pros care? Like the meals I got in Germany - 'animal that runs in the woods' - I ate it and didn't grow a tail. Or GMO grain - From what the Mexicans tell us, corn was 'naturally' modified to be what we now eat - but was known in Israel? What is the difference between 'natural' selection and GMO? Other than the patent and price?

[trapper9260]

MN DNR claims coydogs don't exist... but there are several packs of them near me. Destructive, they kill for the hunt not to eat. Local ranchers and hog farmers let people hunt their land if they are after them.

There is coydogs here in Iowa and had got 2 puppies from the wild as pets and one live to be just short of 12 years old and the last one of 16 years old that i had to put to sleep the is past Nov. They where my kids. I got one now that is form a lady from Canada he is now 4 years old.They are there.

[Idaho45guy]

Looked up photos of Dire wolves based on skeletal remains and it does look quite similar...

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Would be amazing if a few had survived somehow undetected in the wild. However, I'm leaning more towards a wolf/large breed dog mix.

[MT Gianni]

In general the GF Tribune is well respected and accurate in its reporting.

[MaryB]

There is coydogs here in Iowa and had got 2 puppies from the wild as pets and one live to be just short of 12 years old and the last one of 16 years old that i had to put to sleep the is past Nov. They where my kids. I got one now that is form a lady from Canada he is now 4 years old.They are there.

I had a coydog pup. He was to protective and had a bad tendency to bite people on the rear no matter what I did to try and break him. I see him weekly on a friends farm, he is still my dog but they take care of him out where he isn't going to bite a kid walking in the street.

[Greg S]

What they have there is a true werewolf.

[smokeywolf]

There absolutely are coydogs. Mom and Dad had a male collie when they lived in the woods in Angeles National Forest, back in the early '50s. Their collie would sometimes take off into the mountains for 2 or 3 days at a time, but would always come back. One of Dad's friends who worked at the saw mill, commented that he had seen a coyote ***** with collie/coyote pups. There was no mistake about what he saw.

Most people know less about wolves than they think they know. First of all, there hasn't been any such critter as a "wolf hybrid" since 1992 when the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) was reclassified as a subspecies of the wolf (Canis lupus). Technically, the term has been obsolete since then. Wolf and dog cross, is just plain a "wolfdog".

With regard to the critter in the article; from what I can see from the pics, he's at least part wolf. Pretty substantial difference in length of K9s between dogs and wolves.
Most reliable and obvious difference between wolves and domestic dogs is the slope of what might be called the forehead. Dogs nearly always have a noticeable upward angle from the top of the muzzle to the top of the head. Wolves on the other hand, have a taller muzzle to accommodate larger teeth, resulting in the top line of the muzzle continuing in an almost straight line to the top of the head.
Ears are too tall for a pure wolf. Also, the chest doesn't look to be as deep as what I've typically seen on wolves.

The "Dire Wolf" (Canis dirus) was the predecessor to the wolves we know today as, the "Grey Wolf" (Canis lupus) There are some folks out there who have been trying to breed several different domestic dog breeds together to create a wolf looking dog. One of these people is calling their effort "The Dire Wolf Project". I think what they started with was an "American Alsatian". It would be silly however, to assume some Canis lupus has not been snuck in somewhere along the way.

If you're in the company of a dog that has been purported to be wolf or have wolf in him or her. Watch how they trot. When wolves trot (their favorite gate when traveling) their rear paws plant almost perfectly in the the prints that their front paws just made. This is called, "single-tracking".

[lightman]

It will be interesting to see what the DNA test prove. I hope they publish it.

[gnostic]

It sort of looks like Hillary Clinton without her makeup...

[smokeywolf]

It sort of looks like Hillary Clinton without her makeup...

Terrible thing to say about that poor wolfdog.