Points North: Shooting a Unicorn

By Kelly House, Morgan Springer and Daniel Wanschura

Points North is a biweekly podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes.

This episode was shared here with permission from Interlochen Public Radio. 

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Two guys in Michigan are hunting coyotes in the middle of winter. They’re trying to lure them into range with different calls. All of a sudden this huge animal lopes into view. And they shoot and kill it.

“I turn my light onto it, and I’m like, ‘Holy heck, what is this? That’s the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen,’ says one of the hunters. ‘This thing is ginormous!’

It’s ginormous because it isn’t a coyote, it’s a wolf – a federally endangered gray wolf. And it’s a crime to kill them in almost all circumstances.

But the thing is, this wolf is 300 miles from its normal habitat.. So, how did the wolf get there? Did the hunters truly kill it by accident or did they play a role in bringing it south?

Credits:
Reporter: Kelly House, environment reporter for Bridge Michigan
Writer: Morgan Springer
Host / Producer / Editor: Dan Wanschura
Additional Editing: Ellie Katz, Morgan Springer, Kelly House
Special thanks: Colin Jackson
Music: Blue Dot Sessions
Sounds: coyote breeding calls and rifle shot from MFK GameCalls, “Appalachian Snowy Afternoon 1” from lakewoodsound, and “Steps in the snow at night in the forest” by cinetony, via Freesound

Transcript:
DAN WANSCHURA, HOST: This is Points North, a podcast about the land, water and inhabitants of the Great Lakes. I’m Dan Wanschura.

DETECTIVE: Detective number 355.

WANSCHURA: A detective is in the middle of a criminal investigation.

GPS APP: At the next light, turn right.

WANSCHURA: He’s in Michigan driving to interview a hunting guide.

GPS APP: The destination is on your left. Arrived.

WANSCHURA: The detective gets out of the car, and meets the guide.

DETECTIVE: Ah, where do you want to do this at?

GUIDE: Ah, do you want me to sit down?

DETECTIVE: Yeah, we can go sit down. This is a beautiful place you’ve got.

GUIDE: Thank you.

DETECTIVE: Recent build? Or did you remodel?

WANSCHURA: The detective works for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. And this investigation is about an animal that was illegally shot. It happened last winter. The guide is a seasoned coyote hunter. One day he was visiting some property, where he met a hunter with less experience.

GUIDE: And he saw the gear and stuff I had. And, “Man, if I get some other spot, could you take me out?’ I said, ‘Sure.’

WANSCHURA: (The DNR hasn’t released any of these guy’s names. So, we’re following their lead and identifying them by their roles. There’s “the detective,” of course. Then “the guide” – that’s who’s being interviewed here. And then there’s “the hunter,” the man who took the shot.)

So, anyway, the hunter and the guide – they go out one night in January. They’re at this rural spot in Michigan. They set their gear up at the edge of a farm field. They get into position, and then they turn on their game call. It’s like a speaker that plays a recording of coyotes intended to lure them in.

(sounds of coyote breeding call)

DETECTIVE: And so, how long into the call sequence, I guess, was it that it came out?

GUIDE: We were probably 10-15 minutes into it.

DETECTIVE: Ok.

WANSCHURA: And he says this huge coyote comes into view. It’s up on a hill. And then it slowly makes its way down towards them. The guide is nearby watching the animal and watching the hunter.

HUNTING GUIDE: It took him a minute to actually see it … and it just kept coming, and I kind of whooped at it … and it stopped, and I said, ‘Okay, put it right on its chest.’

WANSCHURA: The hunter shoots. And the animal drops.

(sound of rifle firing)

Then the hunter and the guide jump into action.

HUNTING GUIDE: Gave him a fist bump. Said, … ‘You go to the coyote’ … And I can see him out there with his flashlight and stuff and he’s taking a minute, taking a minute. … And he said, ‘Man this thing’s pretty heavy.’

WANSCHURA: A really big coyote can weigh about 40 pounds. It’s heavy, but you can drag it. But this animal is so heavy the guy needs help. So the hunting guide walks over to help him.

HUNTING GUIDE: And I turn my light onto it. And I’m like, ‘Holy heck, what the heck is this? That’s the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen. … This thing is ginormous.’

WANSCHURA: It’s ginormous because it isn’t a coyote, it’s a wolf. A federally endangered gray wolf. It’s illegal to shoot them in almost any circumstance. And if you do, you could go to prison for up to a year and pay a $50,000 fine. Which means these guys could be in serious trouble.

So there’s that. And then there’s this mystery.

You see, by the early 1900s, wolves were nearly wiped off the continental U.S. But after they were listed as federally endangered, they made this remarkable comeback. Their numbers grew, particularly in the Northern Rocky Mountains and in the Upper Great Lakes region – Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

This wolf, though, was not shot in the U.P. It was shot 300 miles south. Calhoun County near the Indiana border – in the state’s Lower Peninsula. Biologists say there’s no wolf population there.

BRIAN ROELL: There is not suitable habitat in the southern Lower Peninsula to even remotely think there would ever be a population of wolves. 

WANSCHURA: That’s Brian Roell, a wolf biologist for the Michigan DNR. He was interviewed by reporter Kelly House.

KELLY HOUSE: The big question on my mind is like, is there any chance that a wolf actually walked from the U.P. or northern Wisconsin, all the way to Calhoun County?

ROELL: There’s a chance, but I can’t– that’s about all I can say on that. I mean, I’m skeptical myself, but you know, that’s why we’re investigating it.

WANSCHURA: So how did the wolf get there? And did these hunters have anything to do with it? Reporter Kelly House of Bridge Michigan picks up the story right after this.

(sponsors)

HOUSE: The wolf was shot in January. But it took months for the criminal investigation to begin in earnest. To figure out what took so long, we have to go back to that moment after the wolf was shot.

HUNTING GUIDE: I said, ‘That’s the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen. … This thing is ginormous.’

HOUSE: The hunter and the guide take the animal back to the guide’s truck. They take some photos. Facetime a buddy to show off the kill. And then they head to a few more spots to hunt.

GUIDE: We didn’t kill anything else the rest of that entire night. I actually wanted to kill another coyote so I could show him, like, how big this thing really is as a comparison type.

HOUSE: They call it quits in the early hours of the morning.

DETECTIVE: And then, uh, dropped him off home, probably? 

GUIDE: I took him back home, yeah. 

DETECTIVE: Did he take the wolf at that point? 

GUIDE: Nope, I kept it. So, one of the things we discussed when we were at the truck again, I said, ‘This thing’s humongous.’ I’m trying to explain to him how big it really is, and I don’t think he’s quite grasping it. Said, ‘If you’re not gonna do anything with this, I’d like to get it mounted.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, you can have it. I don’t care. I was like, ‘Okay.’ 

HOUSE: So when the guide gets home he hangs the wolf carcass up in his barn and he takes a video. He plays it for the detective.

GUIDE: A giant coyote. 84 pounds.

DETECTIVE: Would you send this video to me? 

GUIDE: Yep, I’ll include that.

HOUSE: It’s not exactly clear when the guide realized it might not be a coyote. And it’s not like he’s unfamiliar with coyotes. He’s been hunting them for about 10 years.

DETECTIVE: How many coyotes you average in a year do you think?

GUIDE: Uh between– so there’s two other guys that I do 90% of my hunting with. … Probably between the three of us we probably kill 100 a year.

HOUSE: A hundred a year. Still, he tells the detective he didn’t suspect it was a wolf. He’s never hunted wolves, but he’s seen them in Canada, and he says this animal was not wolf-colored.

Something must have changed his mind, though. Cause later that morning, the guide calls a DNR conservation officer named Jason McCullough. (And this next part is pieced together from multiple reports from the criminal investigation.)

The guide asks if the DNR wants to genetically test the animal. The wildlife division says, ‘Yeah, we want to test it.’ But it’s not clear if that happens immediately.

What does happen is the guide takes the wolf’s body to a taxidermist.

GUIDE: Well, they were in awe when they saw it. I walked over there, and she gave me a trash bag. She’s like, ‘Well, put it in the trash bag, because they got a lot of fleas and stuff on ‘em.’ I’m like, ‘It’s not gonna fit the trash bag.’ She’s like, ‘Here’s two.’ And I was like, ‘It’s not gonna fit in trash bags.’ So, when her husband came out and he’s, ‘Oh my gosh, this thing’s huge.’

HOUSE: News about this large animal doesn’t get to Brian Roell right away. Again, he’s the lead wolf biologist for the Michigan DNR. He hears about it when a colleague shows him a picture of the animal posted on Facebook.

ROELL: Had asked me to take a look at it and see what I thought because he’s not familiar with wolves, either. 

HOUSE: The post says it’s a quote “absolutely huge 84 lb coyote.”

ROELL: When I look at it, I said, ‘No, that looks like a wolf.’ And I said, ‘We’re going to need to get some samples from it.’

HOUSE: Roell tells his bosses and the wildlife division contacts DNR law enforcement and asks them to go confiscate the wolf. But Jason McCullough refuses. (Again, he’s the conservation officer the guide contacted. And they know each other personally.)

Nothing happens for two days. Until, finally, McCullough and another officer go to the taxidermist to get the wolf. But by the time they get there, key evidence has been destroyed or altered. The wolf has already been butchered. The hide is separated from the meat and bones, and is being prepared for mounting. The DNR officers leave behind the hide but take what’s left of the butchered body.

That was January. Two months later, three different genetic tests confirm what Brian Roell already knows: it’s a wolf.

HOUSE: What made me go, ‘What the heck?’ was how does an experienced coyote hunter … and a taxidermist all see an 84 pound animal and not go, ‘That’s not a coyote.’?

ROELL: That’s a good question. I hope the law enforcement officers are asking that.

HOUSE: At the time, I asked them, but they said they couldn’t comment cause it’s an ongoing investigation. So I called the taxidermist to see if I could get some answers from him.

TAXIDERMIST: I’m not allowed to talk about that. 

HOUSE: Oh okay, why not? 

TAXIDERMIST: We’ve been told not to talk about it. There’s too much– no, I can’t, I cannot talk to you about it. I’m sorry. 

HOUSE: Okay, can I ask just one question I’m really curious about is that–

(sound of hanging up or call dropping)

HOUSE: He hung up or maybe the call dropped. Either way, it was another dead end.

There’s a sharp divide in Michigan over whether wolf hunting should still be illegal. In the Upper Peninsula, where there are more than 700 wolves, many residents want the option of killing them.

ERIC WALLIS: If I’ve got a wolf here that’s hassling or in up close and going to hassle shortly. Let me take it down and be done with it and not have an issue with it. That’s what I want.

HOUSE: People like this farmer Eric Wallis being interviewed by MLive, say wolves are killing their livestock. Others say they’re threatening their dogs or competing with hunters during deer season. Popular bumper sticker slogans are “Shoot, shovel and shut up,” and “smoke a pack a day.”

On the flip side, residents are way more opposed to hunting wolves in lower Michigan. The irony is wolves don’t live there. So, some frustrated Yoopers have a proposal.

ED MCBROOM: Perhaps maybe we could trap all the wolves in the U.P., and share some of them with you all down here. Let’s let ‘em run free for the whole state. And we can all enjoy the benefits.

HOUSE: That’s state Senator Ed McBroom speaking to the legislature nearly a decade ago. Last year, his fellow Republican, state representative Greg Markkanen actually introduced legislation to relocate wolves downstate. But that bill hasn’t really gone anywhere since.

Still, someone could have decided to take it into their own hands. And that could be how this wolf got to the southern Michigan town of Marshall. I asked wolf biologist Brian Roell about it.

HOUSE: Is there any reason to believe this wolf wasn’t actually shot in the Marshall area and instead was like shot in the U.P. and brought downstate? Is that–

ROELL: That’s a good question. And I hope law enforcement is investigating that.

HOUSE: They were investigating that. And they’d noticed something. A trap mark on the wolf’s paw.

DETECTIVE: Someone told me that the paws kind of messed up. 

GUIDE: I didn’t actually notice it. So Jason McCullough, when he picked it up from the taxidermist after my taxidermist skinned it and that, I think the taxidermist actually pointed it out to him that the front, it’s the front right. You can actually see it–

DETECTIVE: Yeah, if you get any photos of that too.

HOUSE: The guide pulls up some photos of the wolf to show the detective.

GUIDE: See that front right foot. 

DETECTIVE: Mhmm.

GUIDE: Kind of see that line right there. 

DETECTIVE: Yep.

GUIDE: I didn’t notice this at all … But they seem to think that the trap wound is what they’re calling it was fairly fresh, and he said within the last 12 weeks, was the actual what he said. So, one theory was, is somebody trapped it from there, brought it down here, right? Cut it loose or not with him, whatever. 

DETECTIVE: Yeah.

DETECTIVE: You a trapper at all? 

GUIDE: I don’t trap. No.

DETECTIVE: Have you traveled to the U.P. at all? 

GUIDE: Oh, yeah. 

DETECTIVE: When was the last time you were in the U.P.?

GUIDE: Did we go last summer at all?

WOMAN: No. Just traveled there?

DETECTIVE: When was the last time you were up in the U.P.

WOMAN: Several years, two years ago, two summers ago.

GUIDE: And I went through there bear hunting. So that was about the last time I was there.

WOMAN: But you didn’t stop. 

GUIDE: No.

DETECTIVE: When you go through for bear hunting? 

GUIDE: It was two years ago in September.

DETECTIVE: So, the last time you were in the U.P. was two years about two years ago?

GUIDE: About two years ago, yes.

DETECTIVE: Ok. You weren’t keeping a wolf in the garage for two years?

GUIDE: Definitely was not keeping a wolf in the garage for two years. 

HOUSE: I asked DNR law enforcement if they were confirming this – checking phone records and credit card statements to see if there were any hits in the U.P. They wouldn’t comment. But as far as we can tell from investigative reports and interviews, the DNR kind of ran out of clues.

Another alternative besides trapping, of course, is that a lone wolf roamed south on its own. It’s happened before. Once a collared wolf from the U.P. ended up as far south as Missouri. They’ve also gone to Ontario and Minnesota. And they have traveled into the Lower Peninsula.

Brian Roell says when the Straits of Mackinac freeze over, wolves can cross the ice bridge from the Upper Peninsula. The problem is that’s been highly unlikely in the past few years.

ROELL: Now the Straits area really hasn’t been getting much of an ice bridge in the last few years, particularly this year. Just because of the mild winter. And I do have those same questions of how did a wolf get across and then not get seen on a trail camera or hit by a car. … It’s possible. I want to be very clear that I’m not saying that it’s not possible, … but it does leave me wondering.

HOUSE: It leaves him wondering.

After genetic tests confirm it’s a wolf the DNR conservation officer, McCullough, goes back to the taxidermists to get the rest of the carcass. Remember, he’d left the hide behind.

But when McCullough and his colleague get there, the wolf’s hide has been transformed. It’s been taxidermied, stuffed and mounted in a walking position, with tufts of grass at its feet. The officers take it away, and bring it to the local DNR office.

Then McCullough tells the guide he can’t keep the trophy mount, but says he can come take a photo with it if he wants.

NANCY WARREN: Oh my gosh. That goes beyond the pale.

HOUSE: That’s Nancy Warren, one of the most vocal wolf advocates in Michigan. She says once it was clear the animal was an endangered wolf that was illegally shot, it should have been treated like criminal evidence – not a trophy. DNR law enforcement said they were looking into that photo opp internally.

In early June, the DNR finished its investigation and referred the case to the county prosecutor. By mid-June, Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert made his decision. He announced he would not charge the hunter or guide for the wolf kill. (And you’ll have to excuse the audio quality of this interview.)

DAVID GILBERT: But basically, it appeared that it was unintentional shooting. They didn’t intend to kill a wolf.

HOUSE: The prosecutor said it was understandable given that this wolf was hundreds of miles south of its known habitat.

GILBERT: And it’s like shooting a unicorn.

HOUSE: It’s like shooting a unicorn, he says. It’s not supposed to be there, right? The DNR says it wasn’t able to figure out how the wolf got to southern Michigan. That mystery may never be solved.

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Catch more news at Great Lakes Now: 

Points North: Pedaling to the Beat of His Own Drum

Points North: Copper Country’s Conundrum

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Featured image: In January, a hunter in southern Michigan shot and killed a federally endangered gray wolf. He said it was an accident – that he thought it was a coyote. This picture has been partially redacted to protect his identity. (Photo Credit: Michigan Department of Natural Resources)