Possible wolf sighting reported

Biologists have not confirmed that any wolves live an Oregon, but one might have been spotted this winter in Eastern Oregon. The sighting occurred five miles southwest of Troy in the Wenaha Wildlife Area.

TROY - Biologists have not confirmed that any wolves live an Oregon, but one might have been spotted this winter in Eastern Oregon.

The sighting occurred five miles southwest of Troy in the Wenaha Wildlife Area.

"We're pretty sure it's a wild wolf by the way it acted. Some of our guys saw it. When they came around a corner, it took off," said Vic Coggins, supervising biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "The tracks were huge."

Tracks were also reported north of Elgin, east of Minam and north of the wildlife area near Troy. Russ Morgan, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf coordinator based in La Grande, said the tracks could be from the same animal.

"Wolves travel long distances, even on a daily basis," he said.

Morgan said there was strong evidence that the reported sighting was of a wolflike animal, and the department was treating the sighting as a wolf. All sighting reports are treated as such until they are confirmed, he said.

But he cautioned that biologists won't know if the gray animal was a wolf or a wolf-dog hybrid until they take tissue samples to identify its origin.

That would be done by trying to match DNA samples with Idaho wolf packs. The samples would also be used to gather baseline DNA information for the future.

To learn if the sighting near Troy was of an actual wolf, remotely activated cameras have been set up at bait and scent sites to try to establish a pattern of the animal using a particular area, Morgan said.

If that is established, an effort will be made to capture the animal, take DNA samples and attach a radio collar to it.

From last summer up until about the first of September, there were sighting reports of a black animal in the area thought by viewers to possibly be a wolf, Coggins said. However, there was no genetic material found, such as hair, to confirm it.

"Some sighted animals have been determined not to be wolves," Coggins said. "One was a Black Angus calf."