Caleb Warnock – Daily Herald
Tests results are in — the scat from the wilderness near Springville that was supposed to prove once and for all whether the area is inhabited by wolves or wolf-dog hybrids is from … coyotes.
But state officials told the Daily Herald on Monday that a state researcher has now spotted the wolves — or hybrids — a second time, and the wolves have responded to recorded calls. The hunt for the animals continues.
“That did not give us the answers we are looking for because we know the animals we spotted from the air were not coyotes,” Mark Hadley of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said.
So far, the animals have eluded all attempts to capture them. In March, a helicopter capture crew followed five sets of tracks through wilderness areas, but because snow conditions on the ground were sporadic, they weren’t able to locate the animals. While following the tracks, crews discovered the carcasses of three big game animals they believed the animals had been feeding on and collected what turned out to be coyote scat for testing.
Kevin Bunnell of the DWR has said if the animals are hybrids, they have likely been released into the wild by people who had them as pets and wanted to get rid of them. Officials have said the animals will be protected if they are purebred wolves and killed if they are hybrids. A wolf-dog hybrid occurring in nature is extremely unlikely.