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?

Come on down and take your best...

Pray tell your wolf "experiences" in WY and WA?

It would take far longer than your attention span.

... nothing then?

I don't throw pearls before swine...learned that early in life.

Boo!

It ain't hard if you don't 'obey'

Never seen one myself

Seen one run down a cow elk with a calf on the Scab creek feedground, then the rest of the pack joined in. Wolves run elk and deer into areas, that cannot sustain them, no forage. They get weak, while constantly being harassed day and night, until the wolves go in for the kill. Heard the terrible sounds of a bull
moose, saw how a pack of wolves began to take it down, tearing at it while it was still alive. It wounded one of the wolves, but the rest kept at it. About 5 yr ago, I was stalked by 4 young wolves after a rain storm, as I walked a game trail. 4 wolves approx. 4 ft from me. I yelled, and charged them. They scattered, but one ran behind me.
I documented this experience about 5 yrs ago, here on the Fire.
G&F reported they shot a pack 4 fours ago in the area of my experience. This year I watched a big charcoal colored wolf following 5 deer through the woods, where I hunted. I've heard them howl many times. More wolves back in the area. More molestations and beef calf killings. Kill a pack, and more move in. The Eastern Shoshone Tribe recently decreed that wolves shall not be shot nor bothered on the Wind River Reservation. I expect that after their elk and deer herds have been decimated, they will be screaming for assistance from WY G&F.

lol

That is what predators do in the wild.
They prey and check.

What, 400 count or less in the whole state?

Sounds like you might be better off in a high fence for your next wilderness adventure...

or just move to the city.

Shoot all the wolves!

Kill em all quick or they multiply.

well, thank you for posting that, confirmation of my posts of a couple of weeks ago.
I wish my deceased friend was still alive, he was predicting this a few years ago on the north kaibab.

Like I said, my friends in the deer camp heard them on bill williams mt.

The issue is, how did a collared northern wolf get to the grand canyon in Az... collared wolf.

Where do collared wolves come from, how many collared wolves are there total in the US, and is this a sanctioned federal wolf... or a private enterprise wolf.

The most likely scenario is someone or group decided to release wolves in areas they want because the feds aren't moving fast enough or the right direction for them.

That collar is the key.

Kent

I would think tho kent, that if a group were to do that, they would remove the collar to prevent track back or monitoring. It has always amazed me with the mexican grays on the east side of the state that they were expected to stay there, or they would all be collared. How far can a wolf move in a day? Quite far i think.
For the time being anyway, they have a pretty good food source up in that area.

IIRC a couple years ago a Mountain Lion was hit by a car in Connecticut. After examining its DNA, they decided it had roamed in from South Dakota, about 1500 miles. If a lion can do it, I'd think a wuff could as well, being known for their endurance.

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...-walked-from-south-dakota/1#.VHCi3VMvhXE

I'm always surprised when someone questions an animal's ability to travel 500 or even 1000 miles.

Mankind is the weakest of all predators and there are many documented cases of a man (or woman in the Indian's case) walking those distances.

As far as the Wolves go,,,, I kinda like the idea of having a few around to hunt or just listen to in the high country.
What I don't like is the fact that the Gubment was involved in the management of them because, as we all know, Gubment could f-k up a two nagger funeral.
The feds let the whole thing get completely out of control and then dumped it on the states (sound familiar?), but the damage is done at this point. Short of an aggressive trapping/poisoning program (yea right) in the wilderness area's where the Wuff's are living large, they'll continue to increase until they completely deplete the prey and mother nature starts thinning em out for us.
Unfortunately, that day's not too far away for the Selway with others to follow.

The Wuff situation's no different than welfare, affirmative action, or any number of feel good idea's the folks we elect shove up our collective asses regardless of the consequences.

now saying it is a female

Dylan Smith TucsonSentinel.com

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials announced Friday that they've got the straight poop on an animal seen near the Grand Canyon, confirming that a gray wolf from the Northern Rockies is making a home on the North Rim. While biologists were unable to capture the wolf for testing, DNA analysis of the wolf's scat showed that she is a member of the endangered species.

The wolf was first spotted north of Grand Canyon National Park in the North Kaibab National Forest, and is the first gray wolf known to be in the area for over 70 years.

The wolf's "epic journey through at least three western states fits with what scientific studies have shown, namely that wolves could once again roam widely and that the Grand Canyon is one of the best places left for them," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an emergency permit earlier in November to allow researchers to capture and conduct DNA testing on the creature, which observers said resembled a gray wolf.

Officials with Fish and Wildlife, along with those from the Arizona Game and Fish Department and National Park Service, were unable to detect a radio signal from a collar worn by the animal.

Biologists "attempted to capture the animal to collect blood and replace the radio collar," said FWS spokesman Jeff Humphrey. "Those efforts were unsuccessful and have been suspended due to cold weather, as our primary concern is the welfare of this animal."

Instead, the animal was confirmed to be a female Rocky Mountain gray wolf after testing was done on feces collected Nov. 2.

"Any future capture efforts will be for collar and transmitter replacement, and the wolf will be released on site," Humphrey said.

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"The lab may be able to determine the wolf's individual identification by comparing its DNA profile with that of previously captured and sampled northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf females," he said in a news release. "This analysis will take several weeks to several months."

"The DNA results indicate this wolf traveled at least 450 miles from an area in the northern Rocky Mountains to northern Arizona," said Benjamin Tuggle, southwest regional director for FWS. "Wolves, particularly young wolves, can be quite nomadic dispersing great distances across the landscape. Such behavior is not unusual for juveniles as they travel to find food or another mate."

From the FWS release:

Gray wolves have not been observed in the area for over 70 years when the last of the animals were removed through a decades-long predator eradication campaign. This female gray wolf is not associated with the Mexican wolf population, a subspecies of gray wolves that occurs in Arizona and New Mexico south of Interstate 40.

Humphrey said that the "confirmation clarifies that this gray wolf is fully protected under the Endangered Species Act."

Robinson, with the Tucson-based environmental group, said he is "very worried that if wolves are taken off the endangered species list she will be killed and wolf howls from the North Rim's pine forest will never again echo in the Grand Canyon."

FWS officials proposed removing gray wolves from the endangered species list last year, with the exception of the Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies found in small numbers in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico.

"Where wolves have already been taken off the endangered species list in the northern Rockies and upper Midwest, state-authorized hunting, trapping and snaring, along with federal aerial gunning, are driving wolf numbers downward," said a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

That group has recommended keeping the wolves on the list, and identified 359,000 square miles of additional habitat in the lower 48 states that they said could significantly boost the population of wolves.

"There's so much more room for wolves in the West if only we extend them a bit more tolerance," Robinson said. "The Grand Canyon wolf is a prime example of what wolves can do if only we let them."

It took nearly two months to announce that the canine spotted in Arizona is indeed a wolf.

The animal was photographed during the week of Oct. 5 by a turkey hunter who sent the photo to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Humphrey said earlier this month. The encounter happened near the Grand Canyon�s North Rim.

Fish and Wildlife officials first attempted to identify the animal based on a tracking collar it was wearing, but the signal was too weak, Humphrey said.

Humphrey said earlier in November, before the testing, that the canine could be a gray wolf, a wolf-dog hybrid or a Mexican gray wolf, though he added that the last option was unlikely due to the appearance of its collar.

Mexican gray wolves, a subspecies of the gray wolf that once roamed much of North America, were reintroduced to eastern Arizona and western New Mexico in 1998. At last count, there were 83 Mexican gray wolves in the wild.

Susanne Stone, senior Northwest correspondent for Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit conservation organization, said earlier this month that long journeys aren�t unprecedented for gray wolves.

�They�re known for being a widely dispersive species,� she said. �Young wolves can act a lot like teenagers: They like to leave the nest, fall in love, get in trouble.�

Drew Kerr, carnivore advocate for WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit environmental group, speaking before the animal's species was confirmed, that the most important thing officials can do is raise awareness about its presence if it is a gray wolf.

�When we have these wolves that travel great distances, they often get killed before anyone finds out,� Kerr said. �We�re hoping that this wolf gets an element of celebrity that might protect it.�

Where is the DNA ran on animals. I hear a lot about it, but where is the lab? Who has the DNA profile of all the wolves in the Americas? Who is the expert on wolf DNA?

Lived in Idaho a couple of years and was amazed how few people believed there were wolves around the region .

I took a picture of a track in SW Idaho ,Owyhee desert , a 300 wm /208 amax cartridge laid in a wolf track beside a dead mule deer buck carcass. The cartridge took up 2/3 of the foot print at best -one guy who hunted said "it's just a big dog track" not a wolf. I asked him do big pet dogs kill mule deer and eat them ? he said it could.
A wolf from the Boise pack was killed by a car in central oregon 10 years ago and some folks think there are only a couple of wolves in eastern oregon/washington.
There are wolves in washington oregon nevada california utah colorado arizona new mexico and even further I'm sure .

What endangered species would that be?

That's odd. ^^^^ I guess anything's possible down in Boise, but I don't know a single sole around these parts that isn't dead positive there ARE Wuff's in ID.

The track you describe sounds a tad small though.

that center for biological diversity gives me a first class case of the roids.
they think it is a good idea to reintroduce the grizz into the rocky mt states, including az too.
I hope i am around long enough to see what will for sure happen.
Few years ago i was buried into some brush around a cow tank south of flagstaff, prime lion country, and see this mountain biker type stop to get a drink. He was complete with the little helmet, rear view mirros, velco shorts etc. I got up which shocked the snot out of him, didn't know i was there. I told him he was in prime lion country in case he didn't know it, i had just seen a chewed on elk haunch at my camp. Didn't seem to impress him much he looked kind of like a slow moving deer.
I still think they should reintroduce these high level predators where liberals live, except it would probably make the animals sick.

I believe a sled dog huskie can do 100miles in a day, no problemo for a wolf.

we were having a pretty good discussion in deer camp a couple of weeks ago. Mainly about the forest road restrictions prohibiting us from going where we spent a lifetime going. And, the lack of enforcement of said restrictions. Thought was another great idea by bureaucrats, and totally ignored on a local level. But a lot of this is from that center for biological diversity. Solution is to remove humans from the forest and then the grizz's, wolf's, etc have more room. I happen to like bears, and wolf's, as i am a dog person. And wolf's are canines. But i also understand the problem. As in a guy who posts on here that has a wolf den a couple miles up the hill from his house. And you have grandchildren playing in the front yard.
And I know how i would feel about it if i was running cattle.
I do know they have a number of mt lions living in the city limits of prescott these days, and they have lost their fear of humans, which is not a good thing.

What a bunch of speculation... chit it's a novel.

Only thing that's factually known is the dog was handled by humans, collared and released after.

The enviro's comments are convenient after the 'sightings', who took such close pictures... and now it's disappeared.

I think it should be named, Agenda...

Kent

here's the SL Trib version

No one else was cleaning up after the large canine hanging around the North Kaibab National Forest near the Grand Canyon so Fish and Wildlife Service biologists did.

The result was the confirmation of the first Rocky Mountain gray wolf � fully protected under the Endangered Species Act � in Arizona for more than seven decades.

Many speculated that the animal was a hybrid wolf/dog, but now that it has been confirmed as a female gray wolf some wonder if it is the same wolf that spent time in Utah�s Uinta Mountains in late August to mid-September.

"This is wonderful news. This is probably the same wolf that was seen in the Uinta Mountains several weeks ago. If so, she has traveled from the U.S.- Canada border all the way to the Grand Canyon, passing through Utah on her way, and in doing so has shown that Utah is the natural home of wolves," said Kirk Robinson, executive director of the Western Wildlife Conservancy, based in Salt Lake City. "We should welcome her and future wolves home to Utah and let them live in peace."

Utah biologists say it is possible it could be the same wolf, but that it is unlikely.

Brian Maxfield, a wildlife conservation biologist with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, exchanged howls with the Uintas wolf. He last picked up a radio signal from its collar on Sept. 19. That signal identified the wolf as a male that had the collar placed on it in the summer of 2013 in Idaho near the Canada border.

That male wolf had traveled at least 850 miles from its collaring location to the South Slope of the Uinta Mountains.

The gray wolf near the Grand Canyon was spotted in early October and is a female. Maxfield and Leslie McFarlane, mammals program coordinator for the Utah DWR, have studied the pictures of both animals and say the collars on each animal are also different.

The scat of the Grand Canyon wolf was collected on Nov. 2 and sent to the University of Idaho�s Laboratory for Ecological, Evolutionary and Conservation Genetics.

Biologists attempted to capture the canine to collect blood and replace the collar, but failed. Future capture efforts, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, will be to replace the collar. The wolf would be released if the collar is replaced.

"The DNA results indicate this wolf traveled at least 450 miles from an area in the northern Rocky Mountains to northern Arizona," Benjamin Tuggle, Southwest Regional Director for the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a news release. "Wolves, particularly young wolves, can be quite nomadic dispersing great distances across the landscape. Such behavior is not unusual for juveniles as they travel to find food or another mate."

Officials say further DNA testing may allow the animal to be identified if a match can be made to a previously captured female. That analysis, the release says, could take several weeks to several months.

"This wolf�s epic journey through at least three Western states fits with what scientific studies have shown, namely that wolves could once again roam widely and that the Grand Canyon is one of the best places left for them," Michael Robinson with the Center for Biological Diversity said in a release. "It�s heartening this animal has been confirmed as a wolf but I am very worried that if wolves are taken off the endangered species list she will be killed and wolf howls from the North Rim�s pine forest will never again echo in the Grand Canyon."