Possible wolf in RMNP ?

News-2 last night reported a wolf sighting in RMNP with an unofficial confirmation from tracks. They hope someone might also be able to get a picture.

So, Erik, I think a wolf portrait would be a nice addition to your gallery.

I don't have the lenses, but I've already sent some folks out to find it. More info can be found here.

WOW!!! What great news this is!!! I'm sooo lookinf forward to getting back out that way in February!! Thanks for sharing.

I saw a wolf in the Park a couple years back. It was at the Moraine Park area along the road near the river, it was walking all along both sides of the road. I was with two friends. Both of them would testify that it was a wolf and not a Coyote or other animal. It had the long lanky legs of a wolf. Alot of people who were driving by were stopping to get a good look at it. The dang thing even growled and bore it's teeth at one of my friends (of course this friend was trying to walk right up to it). It then went across the street to the east and went up the hill.

Amazingly great news! Saw a large Coyote that gave me a few seconds pause in that general area last week, but nothing like a big black Wolf...

Sounds like a good excuse to go for a drive. I'd take even a mediocre shot of a wolf in RMNP right now.

Interesting--if enough wolves make it back there it would take away some of the elk hunt argument.

More importantly, if this wolf survives and stays in the area, the argument against re-introducing wolves into the park becomes moot.

What ever happened to the Elk hunt? Did they have it? I was there in October and noticed (in mt mind anyway) that the Elk numbers were down, and would have bet my last dollar they had the hunt.

The DOW and local RMNP administration want to have an Elk hunt, but the Federal bureaucracy nixed it. Currently it looks like they will be using tax money to hire 'sharpshooters' to thin the herds. I expect that they will be targeting mostly cows and not taking many of the bulls as population control is their goal.

A friend of mine who lives by Grand Lake reports having seen and heard wolves by the west side of RMNP for the last couple of years.

Are there any confirmed images of a wolf in RMNP?

Derek,
In a subsequant article they mentioned that someone did get pictures, but the quality was too poor for an ID.
Probably using a 1DMkIII with a focusing problem.

Bill, any mention of where the second sighting was?

Les, it was in Moraine Park.

A short article in the Denver Post (1/4/2007) said that the Denver Zoo has set up cameras throughout the park to try and document a sighting.

Thanks. Since I'm not the Denver Zoo, I have to focus somewhere. If both the original sighting and the poor photo were in Moraine Park, that's where I think I'd head...