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Tests show vexing predator was domestic wolf
Animal killed livestock for about 7 months in Garfield, McCone counties
By MIKE STARK
Of The Gazette Staff
The mystery predator that killed more than 120 sheep in Eastern Montana last year was a "domestic" wolf and not a wild wolf from the Northern Rocky Mountains, state officials said Wednesday.
DNA testing at two labs determined the wolf was the product of "human-manipulated breeding in a domestic, captive situation," according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The animal had genetic material from wolves in the Great Lakes region, the lower 48 states and Alaska, tests showed.
"You just don't see that Heinz 57 hodgepodge in wild wolves," Carolyn Sime, head of the state's wolf program, said Wednesday afternoon. Still unanswered is the question of where the animal came from.
"In the absence of any permanent markings on this animal, we have no way to trace it back to its owner," Sime said. "That part of the mystery will remain unresolved unless somebody comes forward."
The 106-pound male caused a stir for months in Garfield and McCone counties, where it traveled widely and periodically preyed on sheep. Reports of depredations began in December 2005 and lasted until July of last year.
The predator eluded trackers until last fall, when its footprints were spotted in deep snow. Federal agents with Wildlife Services shot and killed it from the air Nov. 2 on a ranch east of Jordan.
Though some assumed that the wolf had wandered from the Yellowstone ecosystem, that explanation didn't quite look right, wildlife officials said at the time.
Samples for DNA analysis were sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., and to a genetics lab at the University of California Los Angeles.
The Ashland lab has the largest collection of DNA samples involving North American wolves, domestic wolves and wolf hybrids. The UCLA lab has been putting together a genetic family tree of Yellowstone's wolves.
Tests at the labs determined that the animal wasn't the product of a free-roaming wild wolf population in the Northern Rockies, the Midwest or Canada.
It didn't have any DNA matching domestic dogs. Its maternal genes came from the Great Lakes, its paternal DNA was from the lower 48, and other DNA came from Alaska, the analysis showed.
The presence of three DNA sources from thousands of miles apart precludes the possibility of it being a wild wolf, state officials said.
"This individual displays classic characteristics of being a domestic wolf," Dyan Straughan, a forensic scientist at the national forensics lab, said in a prepared statement.
Other characteristics, including its long claws and teeth in relatively good condition, also indicated the wolf wasn't from the wild.
Montana law requires that any captive, domestic or hybrid animal that is more than half wolf be permanently tattooed and registered with Fish, Wildlife and Parks and that any escaped animal be reported. Since the law passed in 1985, 332 tattoo registration numbers have been issued and 60 people have registered captive or hybrid wolves, Sime said.
The domestic wolf shot in Garfield County didn't have any tattoos. Tracing its origins might be difficult because the domestic wolf business can be hard to track.
"It's a closeted industry that's hard get a handle on," Sime said.
Animal killed livestock for about 7 months in Garfield, McCone counties
By MIKE STARK
Of The Gazette Staff
The mystery predator that killed more than 120 sheep in Eastern Montana last year was a "domestic" wolf and not a wild wolf from the Northern Rocky Mountains, state officials said Wednesday.
DNA testing at two labs determined the wolf was the product of "human-manipulated breeding in a domestic, captive situation," according to the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The animal had genetic material from wolves in the Great Lakes region, the lower 48 states and Alaska, tests showed.
"You just don't see that Heinz 57 hodgepodge in wild wolves," Carolyn Sime, head of the state's wolf program, said Wednesday afternoon. Still unanswered is the question of where the animal came from.
"In the absence of any permanent markings on this animal, we have no way to trace it back to its owner," Sime said. "That part of the mystery will remain unresolved unless somebody comes forward."
The 106-pound male caused a stir for months in Garfield and McCone counties, where it traveled widely and periodically preyed on sheep. Reports of depredations began in December 2005 and lasted until July of last year.
The predator eluded trackers until last fall, when its footprints were spotted in deep snow. Federal agents with Wildlife Services shot and killed it from the air Nov. 2 on a ranch east of Jordan.
Though some assumed that the wolf had wandered from the Yellowstone ecosystem, that explanation didn't quite look right, wildlife officials said at the time.
Samples for DNA analysis were sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Forensic Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., and to a genetics lab at the University of California Los Angeles.
The Ashland lab has the largest collection of DNA samples involving North American wolves, domestic wolves and wolf hybrids. The UCLA lab has been putting together a genetic family tree of Yellowstone's wolves.
Tests at the labs determined that the animal wasn't the product of a free-roaming wild wolf population in the Northern Rockies, the Midwest or Canada.
It didn't have any DNA matching domestic dogs. Its maternal genes came from the Great Lakes, its paternal DNA was from the lower 48, and other DNA came from Alaska, the analysis showed.
The presence of three DNA sources from thousands of miles apart precludes the possibility of it being a wild wolf, state officials said.
"This individual displays classic characteristics of being a domestic wolf," Dyan Straughan, a forensic scientist at the national forensics lab, said in a prepared statement.
Other characteristics, including its long claws and teeth in relatively good condition, also indicated the wolf wasn't from the wild.
Montana law requires that any captive, domestic or hybrid animal that is more than half wolf be permanently tattooed and registered with Fish, Wildlife and Parks and that any escaped animal be reported. Since the law passed in 1985, 332 tattoo registration numbers have been issued and 60 people have registered captive or hybrid wolves, Sime said.
The domestic wolf shot in Garfield County didn't have any tattoos. Tracing its origins might be difficult because the domestic wolf business can be hard to track.
"It's a closeted industry that's hard get a handle on," Sime said.
