By brandon loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune
Utah wildlife biologists still hope to learn
whether four animals spotted two months ago in the Wasatch Mountains
east of Springville might be the state’s first modern-day resident
wolves.
But the canine feces they collected and sent to
a California laboratory for genetic testing turned out to be a dud: It
came from coyotes.
It doesn’t mean the animals that a
coyote-control team saw from a helicopter are coyotes, Division of
Wildlife Resources spokesman Mark Hadley said Monday. Biologists say
they’re definitely not coyotes — but rather wolves or wolf-dog hybrids.
The false test just means crews that later found a scavenged moose
carcass in the area collected and submitted scat from the wrong
suspects.
The search continues, Hadley said, and
officials hope to trap a live canine so they can draw blood for testing
and affix a tracking collar.
A biologist is visiting the area every week to
either howl or play recorded wolf howls and get a response. The animals
are still there, he said, and respond to the biologist’s calls.
"She knows that it’s not a coyote that’s howling back," Hadley said.
The continued calls indicate that, whatever
they are, these animals aren’t just passing through like rogue traveling
wolves seen in the state before. They could start Utah’s first pack in a
recovering wolf population.
The effort should help biologists map the
animals’ movements to zero in on the best place to put a trap. The state
will enlist federal wildlife trappers’ help when the time comes, and
Hadley said they already have permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to catch what may be federally protected animals.
If they prove to be wolves, the animals would
enjoy full protection of the Endangered Species Act and would be subject
to management by the Fish and Wildlife Service. If they’re hybrids, the
state could kill them to prevent them from preying on wildlife or
livestock.
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