A rancher shot a wolf near the tiny town of Carpenter, on the plains of far southeastern Wyoming, where wolves are practically unheard of.<\/p>\n
Royce Breeden said he shot the wolf on Jan. 25, about 2 \u00bd miles north of the Wyoming-Colorado state line.<\/p>\n
That means it\u2019s possible the wolf came from Colorado, which started reintroducing wolves in December 2023.<\/p>\n
However, most of the Colorado wolves have tracking collars. Breeden said the animal he shot didn\u2019t have a collar.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u00a0knows\u00a0where it came from? I have no idea,\u201d Breeden told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
Wolves are known to roam great distances. In 2014, a 3-year-old female wolf that was captured and collared near Cody trekked all the way to Arizona\u2019s Grand Canyon region.<\/p>\n
First In The County?<\/p>\n
Breeden\u2019s family\u2019s ranch is in Laramie County. There, as in roughly 85% of Wyoming outside the vicinity of Yellowstone National Park, it\u2019s legal to shoot wolves on sight at any time, with no license required.<\/p>\n
Breeden said he reported the shooting and checked the wolf\u2019s carcass in with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.<\/p>\n
It was a male, roughly 80 pounds and estimated to be about 2 years old, he said.<\/p>\n
Breeden said he was told that it was the first\u00a0recorded\u00a0instance of\u00a0a\u00a0wolf being legally shot in Laramie County.<\/p>\n
Per state statute, Game and Fish can\u2019t release or comment on any details regarding legally taken wolves, agency spokeswoman Amanda Fry stated in an email to Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cGame and Fish is only able to release aggregate numbers of legally taken wolves, and we cannot provide further details,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
Gigantic Tracks<\/p>\n
Breeden said that he and his father occasionally hunt coyotes on their property, to protect their cattle from predators.<\/p>\n
The day before he shot the wolf, they were on a two-track road, when they spotted two sets of tracks, one on either side of the road. One set was gigantic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, \u2018Holy cow, those tracks are really big for a coyote,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a set of coyote tracks on one side of the road and a set of what we now know to be wolf tracks on the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the time, they weren\u2019t sure what to think.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if somebody\u2019s livestock dog had gotten out, or what had happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did have it in the back of our minds that there could be a wolf out running around,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u2018That Ain\u2019t No Coyote\u2019<\/p>\n
The next day, they went coyote hunting. That entailed \u201csetting up and calling\u201d in spots that looked promising for luring in coyotes.<\/p>\n
Breeden said he uses an electronic call that mimics the sounds of a small prey animal in distress, to attract coyotes.<\/p>\n
A few minutes into one set-up, he and his father were scanning in different directions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked in the middle between us, and about 320 yards away, I say a huge animal near a rock,\u201d Breeden said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018That ain\u2019t no coyote, I think that\u2019s the wolf that made the tracks,\u2019\u201d he added. \u201cAt first, my dad thought I was joking with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The animal stood up and stretched, \u201cexactly like a wolf would do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Breeden and his father watched the animal for a while. Once they were reasonably sure it was a wolf, he took the shot.<\/p>\n
He plans to have a taxidermist do a full-body mount of the wolf.<\/p>\n
Prior to finding the tracks, then shooting the wolf the next day, Breeden said he\u2019d never seen any sign of wolves in the area.<\/p>\n
There have been rumors of wolves on neighboring ranches on the Colorado side of the state line, but never any confirmed sightings, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve darn sure never seen a wolf before around here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n