WHO’S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?

Unfortunately I am having to still use the news paper for reference but I am also in direct contact with the reporter who did the original interviews. The next mystery animal is a Cryptid is a canid or – to be more accurate – several canids. According to Donald Hoffmeister in Mammals of Illinois the wolf was extirpated from the state in aboput 1860.

But all over Illinois there have been wolf sightings, and in Febuary of 2008, a wolf was shot by a coyote hunter near Lena Illinois. I have found a recent history of wolfs in Illinois that made the paper. They are very hard to find and there is no such thing as a helpless animal so they take care of themselves and avoid people, However I’m not one of the people that likes to spout nonsense about wolves being harmless.

2001—There’s a good chance another timber wolf wandered through Illinois this year. That radio-tagged animal left Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and journeyed more than 500 miles to northeastern Missouri, where it was shot by a hunter who believed he was killing a coyote.

• 2002—The first confirmed wild wolf in Illinois in modern times was shot by Randy Worker on Dec. 29, 2002 in Marshall County near Henry (also along the Illinois River). Worker was coyote hunting when he shot the wolf, which was thought to have wandered south out of Wisconsin.


• 2003—A wolf was killed in Indiana that was wearing a radio collar placed on it by Wisconsin researchers. Most believe this wolf passed through Illinois, even though nobody reported seeing it.


• 2005—The last wild wolf in the Chicago area was killed by a car in Lake County near the Chain O’Lakes State Park on Feb. 17, 2005. That wolf, too, was thought to have wandered south out of Wisconsin.


• 2005—The last confirmed timber wolf in Illinois was killed in December of 2005 in Pike County by Seth Hall, who was hunting coyotes near New Canton. The wolf was confirmed as wild and part of the Great Lakes pack orginating in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Michigan.


• And in February 2008 a large coyote was shot but it appeared to be wolf like and it was 145 lbs, after much speculation the DNR Finally confirmed the animal as a large wolf. Most of the wolves sighted are small males that I think are driven out from their natural habitat as juveniles and head south looking for new territory and possible mates.

I think it’s possible, and so does Jeff Lampe that there would be a good chance of breeding pairs, and as the great lakes packs get larger thanks to conservation efforts that more young wolves are being driven out and starting new packs. However only single wolves have been seen at one time, and only male wolves have been shot, so the pack theory is still unproven but it’s not a relic population Its more than likely slow population expansion and nature is restoring itself. I am trying to track down more eye witnesses for credible wolf encounters but they are less populous than the mountain lions (which are also supposed not to exist) in Illinois.