what kind of animal is this?

[the funny farm6615]

ok, this will take a bit to explain, but in febuary, my daughter and i were sitting in the living room and she looked out the window and said "whos big black dog is that?" and when i looked out and across the road there was what i first thought was a dark dog or cyotey. after watching it for a bit i realized that it was very large, and got the camera. it was in a 50 acre field across the road so the pics are not the best but...

when we took the pic to the dnr and showed him the pic and his eyes got real big then he looked me in the eye and said " i am going to say this is a very large cyotey" so my husband said "ok cyote is open season right?" and he said yes. and hubby said "so i can shoot it right? " and he said yea you can shoot a cyote. hubby said yea i can shoot THAT cyote right? and they went around like that for about 15 min but he would NOT say we could shoot THAT cyote.

and we are in se iowa and he then told us that it wasnt a wolf becouse wolves cant servive here!!

also my daughter is 5 foot 5 inches tall and she went out and stood in the tracks where it was and its back came to her waist. that made its back @ 3 -3 1/2 feet tall!!
so what do you think?

 

[jhm47]

This is either a coyote or a coy-dog cross. Could very well be a coyote/German Shepherd cross. I doubt that it's a wolf.

 

[glenolam]

I doubt it's a wolf, too. Looks like a very large coyote to me!

Sounds like your husband has the right idea....only one way to find out what it is!

 

[GeeseRCool]

that is a coyote! I believe!

 

[Mea]

Just out of curiousity....Why couldn't a wolf survive in SE Iowa ?? They are rather resourseful animals after all.....

What ever it is...it IS a beautiful animal. But... one would not like to have That preying on their stock !

 

[jodief100]

If it was a wolf, the prints would have been HUGE compared to a coyote. did you get a look at what kind of prints it was leaving behind? Wolf's are longer more spread out and HUGE as compared to a coyotes, which look more like a dogs.

My best guess would be coy-dog. If so you have problems, they are very aggressive and do not fear humans. Be careful though, he looks a lot like my dog, who is 100 lb Malamute/Husky/Sheppard/Wolf. Gentle as a lamb and scared of everything.

 

[the funny farm6615]

the prints were 3 inch across. and when i had my daughter stand where it was its back came to her waist @ 3 feet tall or slightly over. the neighbors @ 1 1/2 down the road reported seeing it a week before us.

and the dnr officer said the winters are too harsh here for a wolf.

also when it came to saying that "we could shoot THIS coyote" he refused to say the words, only "that we could shoot A coyote".

 

[Mea]

and the dnr officer said the winters are too harsh here for a wolf.
".

uuummmmmm....does he know that wolves live ...And...thrive in Northern Canada and Alaska ??

 

[michickenwrangler]

Looks like a wolf to me.

We have coyotes wander onto our property once in awhile and that's a good foot taller at the shoulder than a coyote, darker and grayer too.

Gray wolves are expanding in MN, WI and MI. We even have them in the lower Peninsula now ... there have even been unconfirmed sightings in our county and confirmed sightings further north.

It's entirely possible a lone wolf looking for territory could have wandered down from Minnesota.

What's your deer population like? Robust? Numerous? Healthy?

Here's some more info

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/

 

[goodhors]

I would also say wolf, very solid boned, to go with the body. Coyotes I have seen are very light boned in the legs, also have totally straight tails, carried flat behind. Wolves seem to have more flex, bend in the tails, not just straight looking.

Put away your cats, only let small dogs out when you can go with them. Small dogs get snatched even by coyotes, and cats make good snacks.

Hope it turns out to be a coyote and not a wolf.