2 wolves struck on highways
Proximity to developed areas surprises experts
By KELLY WELLS
Two wolves were hit by vehicles this week in parts of Wisconsin that are
too developed to be considered normal territory for the animals, experts
said Friday.
One wolf died Wednesday after being struck by a semitrailer truck on
I-94 near Johnson Creek in Jefferson County. The other wolf was hit by a
car in Greenville in Outagamie County on Thursday morning and later
euthanized by the state Department of Natural Resources, a department
spokesman said.
The wolf killed on I-94 was a 62-pound female that appeared to be about
2 years old, DNR mammalian ecologist Adrian Wydeven said. It died in
almost the same area another young female wolf was hit by a vehicle in
March 2001.
Wydeven remembers a phone call almost three years ago about a wolf that
had been found dead on the highway. Initially, “I thought, nah, that
can’t be a wolf,” he said.
The wolf killed in 2001 represented the southernmost sighting of the
species since it began rebounding in Wisconsin in the 1970s. A radio
collar on the animal revealed it had traveled from Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula.
That two wolves have been killed in nearly the same spot may indicate
the animals follow river formations as they travel, eventually wandering
along the Rock River, Wydeven said.
The second wolf killed this week was hit by a car Thursday morning on
state Highway 96 in Greenville, according to the Outagamie County
Sheriff’s Department. DNR conservation warden Mike Young tracked the
animal, which was crippled in the accident, and killed it.
“I think it was just the most humane thing to do at the time,” Wydeven
said.
The driver who hit the animal was certain it was a wolf, but authorities
at first were skeptical because the area is somewhat urban.
“I’ve gone on three wolf calls now. One was a collie, one turned out to
be a coyote and the other was a husky. I was expecting another dog,”
Young said. “There aren’t wolves here, as a rule.”
Wydeven said the department knew of at least one wolf that had traveled
through Outagamie County, but that the area where the wolf was hit
Thursday was probably the most urbanized place in the county that a wolf
had been.
It is not unusual for the animals to travel great distances in the quest
to find a mate or start a pack, Wydeven said. For example, a wolf
outfitted with a radio collar made its way from Black River Falls to
eastern Indiana, where it was killed in June, he said.
“I suppose they’re just traveling and in the process they end up going
through some more developed areas,” he said. “It’s like a trajectory.
They just keep going and going.”
Wydeven said 335 wolves lived in Wisconsin last winter, and the
department expects the number to remain the same or increase this year.
The majority live in heavily wooded areas north of Wausau; a small
number live in the central part of the state, north of Tomah between
Wisconsin Rapids and Black River Falls.