© KentuckyHunting.net
The hunter, 31-year-old James Troyer, killed the wolf back in March, but the Department of Agriculture only recently confirmed it was indeed a federally endangered gray wolf, not a German Shepherd like officials originally thought.The first documented free-ranging wolf in Kentucky's modern history was shot and killed by an unsuspecting hunter, state wildlife officials have announced.
Gee, I don't know. How odd that something that looked like a wolf turned out to be a wolf. </Daria voice>"I was like - wow - that thing was big!" [Troyer] recalled. "It looked like a wolf, but who is going to believe I shot a wolf?"
Adds Treehugger helpfully:
Who's to say wolves can't teleport? Although after this incident, they probably won't for a while.Normally, hunters targeting grey wolves would face prosecution for killing an endangered species, but authorities have decided that Troyer had mistakenly thought it was a coyote - an animal which can be hunted under state law.
How the wolf came to reenter Kentucky remains a mystery; the nearest known population of the species is in northern Michigan, about 600 miles away.
© KentuckyHunting.net
That's a big one. I thought it could be a GS dog or a coyote from the first photo, but that second one makes it pretty obvious, it wasn't it. Perhaps children and other hunters might want to put up warnings whenever this guy is out hunting again, lest their children come under the same visual occlusion.