Hunter thought he harvested 84-pound coyote. It wasn’t what he thought, officials say

Coyotes typically don’t weigh more than 40 pounds, so a Michigan hunter was likely shocked to learn he had harvested one more than twice that size.

But the animal wasn’t what he thought. Instead, it was something much more rare to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

The January harvesting of the large coyote, as the hunter initially believed it to be, has now been confirmed to be an 84-pound gray wolf, The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said in an April 3 news release.

While gray wolves are common in the Upper Peninsula, they are rare in the Lower Peninsula. Even more so in Calhoun County, where the wolf was killed.

It’s been more than 100 years since a gray wolf was spotted as south in Michigan as Calhoun County, WJBK reported. Calhoun County is about a 110-mile drive west of Detroit.

“You have much better luck of getting struck by lightning than seeing one in Calhoun County again,” Brian Roell, large carnivore specialist for the DNR, told WJBK.

Authorities learned the animal was a wolf through “a series of genetic tests,” officials said. The presence of the wolf is being investigated, but officials do not believe it was part “of an established population” in the area.

Roell called the wolf sighting an “unusual case.”

“The DNR is actively delving into the matter to learn more about this particular animal’s origin,” Roell said in the news release. “While rare, instances of wolves traversing vast distances have been documented, including signs of wolves in recent decades in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.”

The last known wolf sighting in the Lower Peninsula was in 2014 by biologists from the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. Little Traverse Bay is about a 265-mile drive north of Calhoun County.

Tracks consistent with wolves were observed in 2011 and 2015 in the Lower Peninsula, the department of natural resources said. And in 2004, a wolf that was collared in the Upper Peninsula was killed by a coyote trapper.

Officials said the public should not worry about the presence of wolves in the Lower Peninsula.

This story was originally published April 3, 2024 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Hunter thought he harvested 84-pound coyote. It wasn’t what he thought, officials say."