Alberta’s Record Size Wolf: Fact or Fiction?
There’s an email currently circulating around that features a wolf shot in the Drayton Valley area in Alberta, Canada. There’s no doubting that if the photograph is real, it could be one of the biggest on record, though an official weight has yet to be documented.
The timber wolf was hunted by a bear hunter, and rumor has it, this was following a recorded attack upon a black bear by the large canine. While accounts of this wolf have varied – with some stating that it weighed as much as 600 lbs, a better rough estimate of its weight by apparent wildlife experts has placed it at around 235 lbs.
Though some are still questioning the true existence of a timber wolf around this size (the increased ability of individuals to manipulate with Photoshop and other software programs leads to reluctance), if in fact the wolf weighs in at this size it would be recording setting. Previously, the biggest wolf on record was 175 lb Alaskan wolf reported in 1944.
Unfortunately, focus upon this wolf issue has begun for the wrong reasons. In addition to the email chain that’s circulating, the wolf is a hot topic amongst hunters on hunting forums online. While there may be others out there like it, it is possible that this wolf, if reports are true, was an anomaly. Rather than being hunted for sport, it could have been studied in a natural setting for research purpose and an increased understanding of the evolution of the species.
Fact or fiction – the hype surrounding Alberta’s enormous timber wolf does make us wonder what other species are living among us that we’ve yet to discover. What do you believe?
Image Via: Flickr User PublicEnergy with a Creative Commons License
Additional source: National Park Services
I work for the Drayton Valley paper, and have been dealing with this since the hoax started.
I found out because some guy (from Minneapolis, Minnesota, no less) called me to ask if it was true. I did some digging around and made some calls to the right people and nobody in the area has heard of this.
If someone shot a wolf that size, they would probably call me, or at least Fish and Wildlife, or someone. The photo also looks heavily edited.
It looks like a remarkable wolf was shot by an unremarkable red neck human… just another case of one of God’s rare and precious creations being murdered by a moron.
God bless America – where else in the world is it enshrined in law that no matter how low your IQ is – you’re entitled to own a gun.
Thanks for the comment Craig. That has been my line of thinking as well – there are no tangible reports in the mainstream media about this (other than speculation that it might be a hoax). If, in fact, this was a real situation, local reporters like you certainly would have been approached about it, and you’d have to think it would make national and even international news as the biggest in North America.
It certainly does make you wonder just what might be out there that just might not have been found yet, even if it is a hoax!
Fair Trade – agreed. Whether in fact, the size of the animal has been exaggerated it’s a beautiful creature, shot for no other purpose than sport
Hey Fair Trade: your last sarcastic comment about God Bless America makes no sense the wolf was shot in Canada…. moron
I don’ have a hard time believing this story at all. Sometime hunters fudge the story because they don’t want people to know where they were really hunting, kinda like your favorite fishing hole. All over the country, larger and larger animals are being shot. I know we had no bears in our part of WI and now they are thick as deer. Since they have a better food supply than they do farther north, the bears keep getting bigger around here since it is rare to receive a bear permit in the southern part of the state. Now we also have Mountain Lions–yeehah!
It’s true Matt, and animals at higher altitudes are also suppossed to be larger.
I’m in Southern Ontario and mountain lions/cougars were once said to be extinct, and now sightings are increasing. The unusual can happen!
I agree the idiot should not have killed such a speciman. But we are quick to kill and slow to preserve. I once read a story about a wolf of this size and believe it or not the story was from this same area. The story was based around 1920 I believe.
The photo is a fake..put it into an imaging program and you will see first of all that the shadow are wrong..one is missing. Next and more significantly the arms are shown in two impossible /simultaneous positions vis a vis the neck and body of the wolf.
i am a moron stupid ass hunter and would have shot it as well. I also know I do more to preserve wild life than the clueless complainers (green beans). Maybe if you people got off the blacktop once in a while instead of your bubbles you live in you would see. I hope you get eaten by these animals that I protect and yes also hunt.
Apparantly this beast turned into a man shortly after this photo was taken.