By: News Tribune staff, Duluth News Tribune
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources today said DNA tests confirm that the male gray wolf trapped and killed Aug. 26 in the West Winnie Campground on Lake Winnibigoshish indeed is the wolf that bit a 16-year-old male two days earlier.
The DNR said that tests by forensic scientists at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California-Davis showed identical matches between the wolf’s DNA profile and the profile of samples obtained from a comforter used when the teen was transported for treatment.
Meanwhile, a necropsy conducted by the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory found the 1½-year-old wolf suffered several health issues that contributed to it approaching and biting a human. Attacks by wild wolves on humans are rare. This was Minnesota’s first documented wild wolf attack on a human that resulted in a significant injury.
The wolf suffered from severe facial deformity, dental abnormalities and brain damage caused by infection, according to Anibal G. Armien, the University of Minnesota pathologist and veterinarian who performed the necropsy. It’s likely that the wolf experienced a traumatic injury as a pup and those injuries developed into abnormalities that caused the brain damage, Armien said.
The wolf’s condition probably explains why it was searching for food around the campground, said Dan Stark, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist. In most cases it’s extremely rare for a wolf to be scavenging around an area with frequent human activity and not avoid the presence of people. The wolf’s stomach contained only fish spines and scales.
“It’s surprising that a wolf in this condition survived to this point given its reduced ability to survive in the wild,” Stark said.
The teen, Noah Graham of Solway, Minn., sustained multiple puncture wounds and a laceration to his head when the wolf approached and bit his head from behind. The injuries were not life-threatening. The Minnesota Department of Health confirmed Aug. 28 that the wolf was not rabid.