Robert Themer
An animal found dead on Feb. 13 along a road north of Morris has been confirmed by DNA testing to be a wolf from what is known as the “Great Lakes Population” of gray wolves, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has confirmed.
According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, wolves have been been absent from Illinois for more than 150 years until isolated instances of single animals coming down from the north in recent years.
This apparent road kill is the first to be found in this part of the state, according to Bob Massey, of Herscher, a DNR district wildlife biologist since the early 1990s for the region including Grundy County, where the latest wolf was found.
The female wolf was about four feet long and weighed “in the 90-pound range,” Massey reported earlier.
It was the 11th wolf reported killed in Illinois since 2002, according to a University of Illinois Extension article published last year. Most of those wolves were killed in far northern Illinois.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will release a full report in a few weeks, according to Chris Young, communications director for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.