First Published Jan 05 2015
Wild canines » Even experts acknowledge confusion between the species.
Most of the time, wolf researcher Dan MacNulty can tell the difference between the apex predators and coyotes. In his work at Yellowstone National Park, MacNulty routinely has to correct bystanders confused by the wild canines. "I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had
people point and tell me to look at the wolf," said MacNulty, an
assistant professor of wildlife ecology at Utah State University. "I
hate to rain on their parade and tell them it is a coyote. It is such a
buzz kill."
Telling the two animals apart — one protected
by federal law, the other considered a varmint ripe for culling — can be
difficult to the untrained eye, MacNulty says. A coyote hunter who killed a 3-year-old female gray wolf Dec. 28 outside Beaver has said he couldn’t tell the difference.
But with Utah residents increasingly reporting
sightings of gray wolves traversing wild lands from the high Uintas in
the north to the Grand Canyon in the south, and a state-sponsored bounty
on coyotes — with more than 14,000 killed in the first two years of the
program — the confusion may soon come to a head.
Some wonder if Utah’s coyote bounty program might actually encourage more incidents like last week’s killing. The yet-to-be-named shooter faces possible
charges for killing the wolf. The female was wearing a VHF radio
frequency collar placed by Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologists
near Cody, Wyoming last year.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Utah
Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) law officials are investigating the
incident and reports are expected later this week. Wolf watchers still are wondering if the Utah
canine is the same wolf that had been hanging around the north rim of
the Grand Canyon late last year. Biologists say the Grand Canyon and
Utah wolves were wearing different collars.
After studying wolves for two decades in
Yellowstone, Minnesota and the Canadian Arctic, MacNulty understands how
people can mistake coyotes for wolves and vice versa. "Depending on the conditions, it can be
difficult to tell the difference between the two," MacNulty said. "There
have certainly been times when I have seen an animal from a distance in
low light conditions and in heavy vegetation. I wasn’t 100 percent sure
of what the animal was until I watched it for a while. There is a big
difference between seeing an animal at 20 yards or 200 yards."
The wolf was reported to be 70 pounds — on the
small side for adult gray wolves, but still substantially larger than a
big coyote. According to Montana wildlife officials, gray
wolves weigh 70 to 120 pounds, while coyotes weigh between 25 and 40
pounds. That state has posted online drawings and listed the distinctive
characteristics of the two canines to help hunters distinguish between
them.
Utah offers a $50 bounty for properly documented coyotes killed under the "Mule Deer Preservation Act," adopted in 2012. Coyotes are not protected in Utah. And the
state does not require any training or hunting licenses for those who
want to kill coyotes. To register for the program, would-be hunters
simply must take an online test with 10 true-or-false questions.
In the second year of the program, which ended June 30, 2014, more than 7,000 coyotes were turned in for the cash. Kirk Robinson, executive director of the Salt
Lake City-based Western Wildlife Conservancy, previously told the Salt
Lake Tribune the bounty program is "ineffective" and a "waste of money"
as well as "a threat to wolf recovery."
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