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Crying wolf gains
newfound credibility
Aug. 5, 2003
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources has announced that the
large dead canine found in a soybean field in Randolph County is, or
was, a gray wolf.
How he got there is anyone’s guess.
What we do know is that in August 2002, the wolf, then a 46-pound
pup, was captured in west central Wisconsin and fitted with an ear
transmitter. He was identified as a member of the Wildcat Mound pack,
whose home turf is the Black River State Forest. He was still hanging
close to home in January, when the transmitter failed.
Between then and late May or early June, when he died, the wolf
covered slightly more than 407 miles, measured in a straight line,
from his birthplace to east central Indiana.
But since that line cuts across the southern tip of Lake Michigan
and since it’s unlikely he passed straight through Chicago, he must
have walked, trotted or otherwise traversed a greater distance.
Of course, it’s possible he got a lift in someone’s car, truck
or flying saucer, but for the moment, wildlife specialists think the
wolf’s journey is an extreme example of dispersing, the habit of
young male wolves to leave their packs to find and establish their own
territory.
The carcass was sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensic
Laboratory in Oregon, where a necropsy will be performed to shed light
on the wolf’s recent history and to determine the cause of death.
While wolves were once numerous in Indiana, the last confirmed
sighting, according to the DNR, was in 1908.
Apparently, they don’t give credence to George A. Brennan, author
of “The Wonders of the Dunes.”
In 1923, Brennan wrote, “The forests and deep glens at the Dunes
have been splendid hiding places for the wolves all these years. It is
said there were still a few left between Dune Park and Michigan City
until 1919. Horace Greeley Green, the old hunter and trapper, said
that in 1914, he trapped two big timber wolves in dense woods some
distance off Dune Park near Oak Hill.”
The finding of a wolf carcass in Indiana was not nearly so strange
as the 110-pound male cougar that was hit and killed by a train in
Randolph County, Ill., in July 2000. Necropsy results indicated the
cougar was not an escaped pet but a wild North American cougar.
In 1985, my late compadre Jack Parry took and investigated
sightings of a panther in Michigan City, Ogden Dunes and Lake Eliza,
but he didn’t hook up with the big cat. The tendency is to doubt
reports as Indiana and Illinois long have been free of such predators.
But now, who knows?
And here’s something to think about.
The database maintained by the Bigfoot Field Researchers
Organization says 30 instances of large hominids have been reported in
Indiana.
So keep your eyes open.
The truth is out there, and it may bite.
Contact Jim Gordon at 648-3116 or at jgordon@post-trib.com. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |