Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pellet gun felled Isabelle the wolf

One of the famous Isle Royale wolves, she had recently crossed the ice to the mainland.

Isabelle, the wolf from Isle Royale who was found dead on the mainland last month, was shot by a low-velocity pellet gun, National Park Service officials said Friday.

Her body was found on tribal lands of the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa. Because she wore a collar, tribal officials were able to track down the researchers on Isle Royale who have been studying wolves and moose on the island for decades.

Isabelle, a lone wolf, was in prime breeding condition. She left the island when a rare ice bridge formed in order to find a mate, said Rolf Peterson, one of the researchers from Michigan Technological University.

Phyllis Green, superintendent of Isle Royale National Park, said the wolf was probably shot by someone who was trying to scare her off, not kill her. The Grand Portage Band does not allow wolf hunting or killing, but does allow their members to protect their pets and property from wolves, she said.

An investigation found that the pellet entered between two ribs and hit an artery. Had it hit her half an inch in either direction, the wolf would have been fine, Green said.

Awwww, poor doggy . . .

I was up in GP yesterday, the word was she wolf might have been chasing dogs, thus the pellet...but who really knows.

That's an ugly one.

A dead wolf is a good wolf

Likely never seen dogs before, perhaps presumed they were wolves or close enough. She might have been in heat I'd guess.

Well..........Bye.

A buddy of mine killed a coyote stone dead with a spring action 25cal last year. One pellet to the back of the head as it was phugging with his dogs and lights out.

BTW - That picture looks like a male.

birdwatcher, that would be dogs in grand portage, lots of them around, often the means to end for a wolf.

They now class dogs as being merely a subspecies of the grey wolf. I dunno if wolves can really tell the difference between dogs and wolves.

Certainly you can keep dogs and wolves in the same enclosure, the dogs already speak the language.

Birdwatcher

I know wolves eat the hell out of dogs.

Must've accidently stepped in front of some youngster who was carefully target practicing with his new Red Ryder! I hear that happens.

I don't see what the problem is, if they issued a collar tracking device to all shooters the shooters could be very diligent in making absolutely certain that the wrong animal was not shot.


Sounds reasonable to me.

That is a great shot. The shooter should be proud.

I expect with your time in Alaska you know that the leading cause of death among wolves is other wolves, and that it ain't too unusual for the losers to get eaten afterwards.

....or at least been up close as in right there.


IIRC it was Wyoming where a ranch lady shot a wolf right off their front porch. Turns out it was a female in heat in an area with as yet few wolves, and the ranchers owned a male rat terrier.

Birdwatcher

For the record, the posted photo was just a random dead wuff I grabbed off the net - not the actual one shot in the story. Just seemed like a visual was needed to "commemorate" the event.

One in a row. It's a start.

heres the pic of mine,just to get the mood right.

another view