No charges filed against Michigan hunter who shot gray wolf

Michigan authorities have decided not to prosecute a hunter who shot and killed an endangered gray wolf in January while legally hunting coyotes with an experienced guide. The incident occurred in Calhoun County in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, where wolves are not common.

“The conduct here appears to have been based on a reasonable and honest belief that they were legally shooting a coyote,” Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert told the Associated Press of his decision not to press charges. A spokesman for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources confirmed that the decision was “consistent with the DNR’s findings” during the investigation into the incident. The incident occurred when an inexperienced hunter was “scoped” for coyotes with his guide, who led him through the shot. “The parties involved appear to have reasonably believed they were shooting a coyote,” DNR spokesman Ed Golder told Bridge Michigan news service. “The investigation did not reveal any information to indicate that they should have expected to encounter a wolf in the part of Michigan where they were hunting.”

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is home to an estimated 762 gray wolves, according to a wolf population survey conducted by the DNR last winter and released last week. That’s an increase of 131 animals from the 2022 estimate, but is consistent with long-term trends that suggest wolf populations have stabilized “at their biological carrying capacity,” according to the report. The Lower Peninsula, on the other hand, has only small, highly fragmented blocks of habitat in its northern ranges that are considered suitable for wolves. Calhoun County, which is part of the second tier of counties on the state’s southern border, is several hundred miles from the UP, and biologists have been unable to explain the wolf’s appearance there. Sightings of the species in the northern Lower Peninsula were last confirmed in 2004 and 2014, but officials say this is the first time a wolf has been seen in southern Michigan in 100 years.

State wildlife authorities began investigating after reading rumors on social media about a hunter shooting a “world record coyote” that weighed 84 pounds. Coyotes typically weigh between 25 and 40 pounds. The state seized the animal, which has since been turned over to a taxidermist for preparation. Authorities used genetic testing to determine it was a gray wolf. The animals are protected under the Endangered Species Act in 45 states, where killing such an animal is a federal offense, except in cases where the animals pose an imminent threat to human life, and can be punished with a year in prison and a $50,000 fine.