Wolf a victim of mistaken identity
POCATELLO - Robert Williams saw the biggest coyote of his life early last Tuesday morning north of Weston, and now he thinks the big dog might have been the wolf shot and killed by a coyote hunter later the same day.
"It was early and just barely light out," Williams says. "At first I thought it was a really big coyote and that's what I told everybody. Now, after seeing its tracks, I bet it was a wolf."
The animal was walking a ridgeline about five mile north of Weston when Williams, a Franklin County farmer, spotted it. He let Joe and Jim Naylor, who run about 60 cows and are in the midst of calving season, know that a big coyote was on their land Tuesday morning, and the Naylors decided to track the canine in the fresh snow.
It crossed Highway 36 just west of their home overlooking the Bear River bottoms in Franklin County. The animal then traversed a winter wheat field and headed up a dirt road into the mountains above Weston.
If it's the same animal shot and killed later that day, that's where it met its demise.
According to Scott Bragonier, an enforcement officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based in Idaho Falls, an animal believed to be a wolf, was shot by a coyote hunter Tuesday morning.
Tissue samples from the animal - a large male, according to Bragonier - are on the way to a government laboratory in Ashland, Ore., where it will be determined if the animal is in fact a wild wolf, and if its DNA matches up with the wolves in the federal reintroduction program in Yellowstone National Park or the animals released in central Idaho.
Both populations were established in 1995, and the total wolf population in the northern Rockies is believed to be between 500 and 600 today.
The hunter, whose name is not being released by the USFWS, called the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and gave a report declaring he believed he was shooting a coyote.
When he realized the animal he killed was not a coyote, he called authorities. Fish and Game, which has no jurisdiction over wolves in Idaho, turned the case over to Bragonier.
"I can tell you that the individual in question has cooperated with my investigation," Bragonier says. "He's been very forthcoming."
Bragonier would not release any specific details involving the shooting, saying instead that he plans to forward the results of his investigation to the U.S. Attorney's Office for further review.
"I'm not sending the results with any recommendations - I want to ensure they (U.S. Attorney's Office) look at this case objectively," he says.
According to Bragonier, killing a protected species - wolves in the Northern Rockies are protected under the Endangered Species Act - can result in a maximum $100,000 fine and a one-year jail term. Such a case can also carry a civil penalty of up to $25,000.
"As of now, it's up to the U.S. Attorney's Office," Bragonier says. "I'm not going to presume what could happen."