Wide-ranging wolf ends days nearby
Region’s 3rd confirmed wolf in 3 years proves some are moving south
By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: May 9, 2003
More than 200 miles from its northern home, a gray wolf found dead in Waukesha County in late April adds to the evidence that these wild predators are venturing to the Milwaukee metropolitan area, and reports of their sightings can no longer be dismissed.
The young, 85-pound male wandered into southern Waukesha County before being struck and killed by a vehicle the last week of April on Highway 67 north of I-94, state wildlife officials confirmed this week.
The wolf likely was searching for a mate, with the intent of establishing its own pack territory, said Randy Jurewicz, an endangered resources biologist with the state Department of Natural Resources in Madison.
“This one looks like a rough-and-tumble, living-on-the-road wolf,” and not someone’s pet, Jurewicz said, in reference to the animal’s thinning hair, particularly on its tail.
This is perhaps the closest to the Milwaukee metropolitan area that a wild wolf has roamed, and one of only three confirmed sightings this far south in Wisconsin since gray wolves became re-established in the state in the late 1970s, DNR wildlife officials said Friday.
In March 2001, a female wolf was found dead along I-94 near the Rock River in southern Jefferson County after it was killed by a vehicle. A tag placed on her as a pup indicated that she had roamed from the Upper Peninsula.
Last year, a male wolf was killed by a vehicle near Middleton in Dane County.
Neither the Waukesha County wolf nor the Dane County one had been captured and tagged as a pup.
The three carcasses prove that at least one wolf has traveled to southern Wisconsin in each of the last three years.
Each of the three was young – 1 or 2 years old – and asserting its independence by searching for a forested area where it could begin a family, said Adrian Wydeven, a DNR mammalian ecologist and wolf specialist in Park Falls.
“The population is filling up much of the North Woods, so more young wolves are dispersing,” Wydeven said. “They keep moving until they can find a mate or good habitat. But when they get out of the forested areas, they seem to get somewhat disoriented and they just keep moving.”
The Waukesha County wolf might have traveled from as great a distance as northern Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northern Minnesota or even Ontario, he said.
There are an estimated 335 wolves in the state, Wydeven said. A pack that has established a territory in Adams County at the Colborn Wildlife Area is the southernmost known group of wolves.
Dozens of reports
The three lone wolves do not account for the dozens of reported wolf sightings that have come from residents throughout the southeastern region in the same time period, said Tami Ryan, a DNR wildlife area supervisor in Waukesha.
Most sightings, when they are investigated, turn out to be coyotes, Ryan said. Some are dogs or hybrids of wolves and dogs that might have been bred as pets.
There were no wolf sightings or reported livestock deaths in the two or three weeks before the wolf was found dead on the side of the road at Oconomowoc, according to DNR wardens and the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.
The state warden who picked up the carcass could not determine with certainty whether the animal was a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid, according to Ryan.
Jurewicz drove from Madison to inspect the animal, and he confirmed that it was a wolf Wednesday before taking it to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison. A necropsy to be done there next week will provide more information about this young male, such as its recent diet and whether it was ill on the day of its death.
Ryan said she would not be able to distinguish between a wolf and a hybrid wolf-dog if she was driving by one in a car. Most state residents could not either, she said.
“You’ve got to get close to the animal and inspect the shape of its forehead and muzzle, the size of its chest and the color of its face,” Ryan said.
Gray wolves, also known as timber wolves, are the largest wild members of the dog family. A coyote is only half as big as a wolf.
A wolf has an overall lanky appearance, with long legs and a narrow chest. Its forehead slopes toward a long muzzle, and a wolf’s eyes, yellow or amber in color, are somewhat slanted and almond-shaped.
Grafton report
Bill Raab was certain that he saw a wolf about 300 yards north of the intersection of Port Washington Road and Highway 60 in Grafton on Monday.
“It loped across Port Washington Road toward the west, and I thought it was a big dog at first,” said Raab, a Saukville resident.
“Then it got into an open field and turned and started looking at me,” he said. “I nearly stopped the car. I saw a wolf face.”
Richard Wolff, a DNR conservation warden in Ozaukee County, said he has received regular reports during the last 18 months of a large animal in northern Town of Grafton and southern Town of Port Washington.
“I have looked for tracks, and I have seen big coyotes,” Wolff said. But no wolf.
“I do think we have a larger-than-normal coyote, over 55 pounds, in that area,” he said. Wolff also said that some people might have seen a wolf-dog hybrid that escaped or was released to the wild.
“Hybrids give real wolves a bad name,” said the DNR’s Jurewicz. “They start hanging around people for food. They also can be injurious to the native population if the hybrids breed with real wolves and dilute the gene pool.”
Breeding hybrids is not illegal in Wisconsin, but Jurewicz said he believes they should be closely regulated as inherently dangerous animals not suitable as pets.
Reports of wolves or wolf-dog hybrids near Adell in southern Sheboygan County last week were investigated by DNR conservation warden Mike Clutter. He found two huskies.
“If a wolf would pass through this area, there’s nothing to hold them here,” said warden Wolff. “There are no mates, and we don’t have enough of the right kind of habitat. Wolves are more of a wilderness animal.”
Gray wolves were declared an endangered species in Wisconsin in 1975.
A growing and stable population, however, shows they have stepped back from the brink.
In March of this year, federal protections for gray wolves were relaxed a bit when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service moved this species from “endangered” to “threatened.”
Federal or state wildlife officials can kill wolves that have been proved to prey on pets or livestock under the new status. Hunters and landowners cannot kill problem wolves.
Estimated number of wolves in the state. A pack in Adams County is the southernmost known group of wolves.