Are there wolves in nebraska

All three confirmed wolves in modern times were genetically linked to the population in the upper Great Lakes. For more information about wolves, their history and range, visit OutdoorNebraska.

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Pure Nebraska. Pure Nebraska Video. Contact Us. Meet the Team. The hunters notified the Nebraska game department of the animal, and they tested it. The testing determined the wolf originated from a population of animals roaming the upper Midwest in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. All three wolves documented in Nebraska in this century have been genetically linked to the Great Lakes strain of animals. The first was taken in near the town of Spaulding, the second in near the town of Bassett.

The Bassett wolf was an pound male. Is it possible for a wolf pack to establish itself in Nebraska? Only time will tell. Kenny Call of Thedford saw a wolf in early March along the highway between Thedford and Brownlee, according to a report by Heather Johnson in the other North Platte newspaper, the Telegraph.

He said dogs are sometimes crossed with wolves, so dogs would look similar, and a coyote is much smaller, but still similar. Genetic testing showed it came from a Great Lakes wild pack, in the Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin area. But a year ago, a wolf was found dead along U. Highway 18, few miles east of the town of Pine Ridge, just across the Nebraska border.

Trudy Ecoffey, senior wildlife biologist for the Oglala Sioux Parks and Recreation Authority, said the wolf weighed pounds. It looked like it was hit by a vehicle on May 15, , according to a report in the Rapid City Journal. That wolf wore a transmitter collar from the U. Fish and Wildlife Service, which showed that it made a mile journey from Yellowstone National Park to southwest South Dakota in less than two months.

Mike Jimenez of Jackson, Wyo. The wolf was checked and weighed by tribal wildlife specialists in Pine Ridge, who contacted the Fish and Wildlife Service. By contrast, an average male coyote weighs pounds, he said. Although the Nebraska Game and Parks Department is non-committal about wolves in the state, it knows there are dozens of mountain lions in Nebraska. Most confirmed sightings are in the panhandle area, near states that also have resident mountain lions — Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota.

Mountain lions can roam hundreds of miles, especially young males looking for new territory. One mountain lion was once found on the East Coast and was thought to have wandered from a western state — a distance of about 1, miles.

Closer to home, a young male showed up in Kearney two years ago and was shot by police. Paul, Harrison and four times in Scottsbluff. A group of lions took up permanent residence in the panhandle in the early s and were confirmed in