Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wolf in Arizona!

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/an...13477dc-acd3-551a-b028-d9da24f2af8a.html


A wolf-like animal observed several times roaming the North Kaibab National Forest has been confirmed to be a Rocky Mountain gray wolf.

According to information from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, a collared wolf-like animal has been seen near Grand Canyon National Park since October. Attempts to detect a radio signal from the animal were unsuccessful.

USFWS biologists collected scat for genetic information on Nov. 2. A DNA analysis conducted by the University of Idaho's Laboratory for Ecological, Evolutionary and Conservation Genetics confirmed the animal is a gray wolf from the northern Rocky Mountain population.

Furthermore, the lab might be able to determine the wolf's identity with other previously captured and sampled wolves. The analysis will take several weeks to several months.

In all, the wolf, which is not associated with the Mexican gray wolf population, has traveled at least 450 miles from an area in the northern Rockies to northern Arizona. Gray wolves have not been observed in northern Arizona for more than 70 years.

I heard the collar on it is similar to the yellowstone packs. Rumors aside, this is a weird deal and I'd wager the wolf was 'helped' on it's journey 'down'.

Kent

the picture I saw, it looked pretty healthy, to have made a 450 mile jog! I'll see if I can find the pic.

Sycamore

need more? we have excess.........

IF he is a Yellowstone wolf they would have tracked him the whole way. They know where he came from and how he got there and IF he is from here? I bet he had a ride and they wont tell.

Turns out the longest documented wolf dispersal is 550 miles (886 Km)...

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/mammals/wolves/discuss.htm

Birdwatcher;
Good evening to you sir, I hope this finds you and yours doing well.

The link is interesting in that I have first hand knowledge of a wolf that was shot here in southern BC that had been collared in Yellowstone.

If the 'Net is correct that is 660 miles and from Yellowstone to Kaibab is 871 miles.

The information I was given on the wolf shot locally was that it was shot by a Native hunter - so before we had an actual wolf season here, but because of his Native status he was exempt. He took it to a taxidermist friend of our to get it mounted and if memory serves it might have had some markings from Alberta on it too, so that would have made it one of the original transplants into Yellowstone.

Anyway the collar as far as I know was delivered to the local Ministry of Environment office, but as it was not long after the initial transplant who knows if any records of it still exist.

I recall too that once in a great while they'd be spotted near where we farmed in southern Saskatchewan which should have been near to a couple hundred miles south of their normal range.

Maybe some just like to go walkabout once in awhile like some humans do?

All the best to you folks this weekend sir.

Dwayne

Dwayne,

After bicycling from here to NY this past summer at what seemed a modest pace and observing how miles can add up, I no longer find the concept of travelling long distances nearly as daunting as I used to.

It wouldn't surprise me if that wolf was actively seeking other wolves, tho it might not "know" that. All it would take would be an instinct to keep moving until contact was made.

At a net movement in one direction of just five miles per day, that wolf could have covered the ~450 miles in question in just three months.

Birdwatcher

In '99 I personally saw on an elk hunt a mexican wolf that was collared around forest lakes az, my buddy saw it also, called g&f. He was told they had a female missing from the Blue, on the AZ/NM border. They have to be fairly close to track the collar or lose signal. Never heard if it was the same wolf but it's a couple hundred miles from the relocation site to where we saw it.

Kent

As much as biologists like to think they know, the numbers they give out often prove to be wrong. It wouldn't surprise me that this wolf, and maybe others, made this trip without help.

I bet we, as hunters and general outdoorsman, have seen morebthan they think they know

Nobody shot it?

Hummm

Doubt that very much. Give these wolves a little street cred...
As to numbers, anecdotals from ranchers, locals, hunters, place population much higher than G&F says. Don't believe those beaurocrats.

All good men, run for your lives.

WTH? Lemmie guess, a F&G puke?

Vaginal disorder.

Sooo, worse then.

Liberal who thinks he's a conservative

Aka a 'wolf' in sheeps clothing.

Like OR7, I'm gonna bet that this guy somehow finds a mate there on the North Rim next Spring.

And nobody shot it?