Dead animal found in county most likely a wolf
By AMANDA LUTEY, Staff Reporter
Some people are crying wolf, and it’s no lie!
At least that’s what most local experts are saying, which makes the discovery of “Canis lupis” all the more amazing.
Jana Roberts and Rita Hookstead were on the way back to Randolph from Beaver Dam on Tuesday afternoon when they spotted an animal in the ditch near the junction of County Road G and Hawk Road.
“I said to Rita that it was either a coyote or a wolf,” Roberts said. “It was huge.”
Rita Hookstead said the coloring of the animal was similar to a German shepherd.
They turned around and went back for a closer look.
“It was creepy weird,” said Roberts.
Hookstead called her husband, Jeff, a veterinarian. He was in the area and drove over to have a look. The Hooksteads own Marsh View Veterinary Clinic in Randolph.
“I can tell you one thing,” Jeff Hookstead said. “It was not a coyote and it was not a dog.”
Jeff Hookstead examined the animal and found it to be a young male that weighed about 60 pounds. He said there a hub cap lying nearby that suggested the animal had been struck by a car. Hookstead said he determined the animal to be young, based on its teeth.
“What made it very wolf-like,” Jeff Hookstead said, “was its feet and its size. It had huge paws.”
Hookstead contacted the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR retrieved the animal and, according to DNR wildlife educator Bill Volkert, the carcass was sent to Madison, where officials there seemed to concur that it was a wolf.
“I’m pretty well certain that it is 100 percent wolf,” said Adrian Wydeven, a conservation specialist with the DNR.
Wydeven, who is a wolf specialist and a member of the Wisconsin Wolf Recovery Team, said that wolves are not common in this area, and that the animal found in Dodge County is probably a dispersed wolf from Northern Wisconsin or the Upper Peninsula. He cited two cases where wolves from Wisconsin were found out of state. In 2001, a wolf tagged in Northern Wisconsin was found in central Missouri, and in 2003, a wolf tagged in central Wisconsin was found in Eastern Indiana. Wydeven said those cases are unique because most wolves are not tagged.
“The nearest pack (of wolves) that we know of is in Adams County,” Wydeven said.
Wydeven said the animal will be physically assessed, a necropsy will be performed and the DNR may do some genetic testing.
Wydeven shared two links to the DNR Web site. The first offers more information on wolves, and the second allows people to report sightings of rare animals in the state. The sites are http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/mammals/wolf/, and http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/er/forms/rare_mammal.asp
According to the Wisconsin DNR Web site, there are more than 500 wolves in Wisconsin. Their range is primarly northern and western Wisconsin.