Hunting Forum

CLARENVILLE — A hunter has shot what is believed to be one of the biggest coyotes ever recorded in Newfoundland and Labrador. Joe Fleming of Spillars Cove, near Bonavista, shot the animal near Half Way Pond on the Bonavista Peninsula on Monday after tracking it for about a month. The coyote was double the size of regular large coyotes. It weighed in at 37 kilograms. “I’ve been hunting a long time. This is the biggest one I’ve seen, the biggest one I’ve weighed,” Fleming, a crab fisherman, told The Telegram. When he first saw the tracks a couple months ago, Fleming said he thought it was a lynx and hoped it wasn’t trailing him to jump him. But then he realized there was a small coyote travelling with the animal. View the gallery Some people have commented the animal is more like a wolf, than a coyote. But Fleming said wildlife officials are convinced it’s a coyote, adding officials have taken blood and hair samples. More in Thursday’s Telegram. Fleming brought the carcass to wildlife officials in Clarenville and says DNA and blood samples have been taken in an attempt to determine why this particular animal was so large. He says he knew the carcass had to be preserved so he took it to an outdoor supply store in Lewisporte where it will go on display once it is mounted.

The results are in and it looks like that large animal shot on the Bonavista Peninsula is a wolf. In a news release sent out this morning, the Department of Environment and Conservation has confirmed that the large animal shot in March was in fact a Labrador wolf. The DNA testing done by both Memorial University and the University of Idaho confirms this. Minister of Environment and Conservation, Terry French says we can only speculate on how the animal made its way to the island, but he says it most likely travelled from Labrador on sea ice. Tissue samples from the animal were compared to known wolf, coyote and domestic dog DNA and, both institutions confirmed the animal is in fact a Labrador wolf. The Newfoundland wolf became extinct on the island around 1930, but the grey wolf is commonplace in Labrador. The Department says although wolves may occasionally arrive here on the island from Labrador, there is no evidence of a breeding population.

This news is interesting even for someone like me who has never been to N.E. Canada.
Thanks.
JH

Interesting indeed